Peter Dain Suber (born November 8, 1951) is a philosopher specializing in the philosophy of law and open access to knowledge. He is a Senior Researcher at the

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

, Director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication, and Director of the Harvard

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

Project (HOAP). Suber is known as a leading voice in the

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

movement, and as the creator of the game ''

Nomic Nomic is a game created in 1982 by philosopher Peter Suber, the of which include mechanisms for changing those rules, usually beginning by way of democratic voting. The game demonstrates that in any system where rule changes are possible, a si ...

''. He shifted to half-time in July 2022.

Education

Suber graduated from

Earlham College Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...

in 1973, received a PhD degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

in 1978, writing a dissertation on

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , , ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on ...

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree in 1982, both from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Career

Previously, Suber was senior

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

, the open access project director at

Public Knowledge Public Knowledge is a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based public interest group. Founded in 2001 by David Bollier and Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge is primarily involved in the fields of intellectual property law, competition and choice in the digita ...

, a senior

researcher Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

at Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC),. He is a member of the Board of ''Enabling Open Scholarship'', the Advisory Boards at the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

, the

Open Knowledge Foundation Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global, non-profit network that promotes and shares information at no charge, including both content and data. It was founded by Rufus Pollock on 20 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK. It is incorporated in England an ...

, and the advisory boards of other organizations devoted to

and an information commons. Suber worked as a

stand-up comic Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

from 1976 to 1981, including an appearance on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

'' in 1976. Suber returned to Earlham College as a professor from 1982 to 2003 where he taught classes on philosophy,

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

, and

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...

's '' Critique of Pure Reason'', among other topics. Suber participated in the 2001 meeting that led to the world's first major international open access initiative, the

Budapest Open Access Initiative The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) is a public statement of principles relating to open access to the research literature, which was released to the public on February 14, 2002. It arose from a conference convened in Budapest by the Open S ...

. He wrote Open Access News and the SPARC Open Access Newsletter, considered the most authoritative

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

and

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...

on open access. He is also the founder of the

Open Access Tracking Project Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

, and co-founder, with Robin Peek, of the

Open Access Directory Simmons University (previously Simmons College) is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 1899 by clothing manufacturer John Simmons. In 2018, it reorganized its structure and changed its name to a university. Its ...

. In philosophy, Suber is the author of '' The Paradox of Self-Amendment'', the first book-length study of

self-referential Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philoso ...

paradoxes in law, and ''The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions'', the first book-length "rehearing" of Lon Fuller's classic, fictional case. He has also written many articles on self-reference, ethics, formal and informal logic, the philosophy of law, and the history of philosophy. He has written many articles on

to science and scholarship. His 2012 book, ''Open Access'', was published by

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

and released under a

Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

. His latest book is a collection of 44 of his most influential articles about open access, ''Knowledge Unbound: Selected Writings on Open Access, 2002–2010'', also published by

under a

. Suber has directed the development of TagTeam since its start in 2011. TagTeam is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

, social-tagging platform developed for the Harvard Open Access Project at the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Honours and awards

Lingua Franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

'' magazine named Suber one of Academia's 20 Most Wired Faculty in 1999. Readers of ''

The Charleston Advisor ''The Charleston Advisor'' is a peer-reviewed publication that reviews proprietary and free Internet resources that libraries license and make available to their patrons. The journal's tag line is "Critical reviews of web products for informationa ...

'' gave him a special Readers' Choice Award in October 2006, "Non-Librarian Working for Our Cause." The

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

named him the winner of the

Lyman Ray Patterson Lyman Ray Patterson (18 February 1929 – 5 November 2003) was an American law professor and an influential copyright scholar and historian. Biography Patterson was born in Macon, Georgia. He graduated from Mercer University, and obtained a ...

Choice A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a giv ...

named his book on Open Access "an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013."

Personal life

Suber is married to Liffey Thorpe, professor emerita of

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

at Earlham College, with whom he has two daughters. Since 2003, he and Thorpe have resided in Brooksville, Maine. His mother was

Grace Mary Stern Grace Mary Stern (née Dain; July 10, 1925 – May 17, 1998) was an American Democratic politician who served in both houses of the Illinois legislature, but was unsuccessful in her 1982 run for Lieutenant Governor, which would have made her ...

, who served in both houses of the Illinois state legislature.

Selected publications

* ''Knowledge Unbound'' (MIT Press, 2016) *
Updates and supplements
* ''The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions'' (Routledge, 1998) * ''The Paradox of Self-Amendment: A Study of Logic, Law, Omnipotence, and Change'' (Peter Lang Publishing, 1990) * ''Self-Reference: Reflections on Reflexivity'', co-edited with Steven J. Bartlett (Martinus Nijhoff, 1987)

Notes

References

External links

Suber's home page
(Suber's former blog, May 2002 - April 2010)

(Suber's former newsletter, March 2001 - June 2013)
Peter Suber's Writings on Open AccessPeter Suber's writings on philosophy and other subjectsHarvard Open Access Project (HOAP)Open Access Directory (OAD)Open Access Tracking Project (OATP)
() * {{DEFAULTSORT:Suber, Peter 1951 births Access to Knowledge activists American bloggers American philosophers American stand-up comedians Berkman Fellows Living people Open access activists Copyright activists Copyright scholars People from Highland Park, Illinois People from Brooksville, Maine Earlham College alumni Earlham College faculty Northwestern University alumni Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board members Articles containing video clips Comedians from Illinois Scholarly communication 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American comedians