Responding to the current data monopoly by Big Tech firms, there is increasing interest in the potential for collective ownership of data in a ‘data commons’. This article aims to introduce the topic to non-specialists, highlight the broader social significance of data ownership, and reframe the data commons as a problem of social interaction rather than regulatory design. It critically engages with existing work on the data commons to suggest alternative directions for research which draw on humanities and interpretive social science approaches. It recommends the addition of research that (1) includes knowledge from non-Western legal traditions to overcome objections to the possibility of data ownership, (2) studies existing social relations of data governance rather than seeks to design ideal regulations, (3) prioritises a focus on the social and communicative practices involved in a data commons rather than seeing it as a solution to a specific problem, and (4) analyses the meaning-making practices of people as they engage in their own data governance, and the evolving narrative around what constitutes a data commons. The purpose of this alternative research agenda is to provide discursive scaffolding for the ongoing regulatory work on the data commons, while ensuring that its full potential remains imaginatively open.

中文翻译：

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数据所有权的未来：一个不寻常的研究议程

为应对大型科技公司当前的数据垄断，人们对“数据共享”中数据集体所有权的潜力越来越感兴趣。本文旨在向非专业人士介绍该主题，强调数据所有权更广泛的社会意义，并将数据公地重新定义为社会互动问题而不是监管设计问题。它批判性地与现有的数据共享工作相结合，为利用人文学科和解释性社会科学方法的研究提出替代方向。它建议增加以下研究：（1）包括来自非西方法律传统的知识，以克服对数据所有权可能性的反对意见，（2）研究现有的数据治理社会关系，而不是寻求设计理想的法规，(3) 优先关注数据共享中涉及的社会和交流实践，而不是将其视为特定问题的解决方案，以及 (4) 分析人们在参与自己的数据治理时的意义创造实践，以及围绕什么构成数据共享的不断发展的叙述。这一替代研究议程的目的是为正在进行的数据共享监管工作提供话语支架，同时确保其全部潜力保持想象性开放。