Access to knowledge is a future challenge and a key factor for social and economic development but a balance needs to be found between the interests of rights holders and those of the public, said speakers at a high panel on access to knowledge during the World Summit on the Information Society Forum on Monday.
The 2009 WSIS Forum, being held from 18-22 May, is organised by the UN International Telecommunication Union, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the UN Development Programme. ...
Access to knowledge is key to development but infrastructure is still a substantial challenge for developing countries, said Hoda Baraka, first deputy to the Egyptian minister of communication and information technology. ...
Public data from publicly funded research should be shared, she said, but in the case of public-private partnerships, questions remain regarding ownership of intellectual property rights. Egypt does not have a framework on IP rights related to such partnerships. ...
The value of knowledge increases with its use, said Hans Hoffmann, honorary member of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), adding that fundamental scientific results must be available freely. ...
Scientific articles were first published in paper, back to Gutenberg, the inventor of the mechanical printing press, said Hoffmann, but today we have better means and can store all kinds of digital objects, such as data, pictures, writing and drawings.
“We have to develop this, and we have to do it all together,” he said, “to go from the Gutenberg age to the digital age.”
The World Wide Web was open access, said Hoffmann, but it did not prevent business from growing, as “a lot of people have made business out of it,” he said. He advised not to be afraid of open source, urging listeners to “dare to be open.” ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 5/20/2009 05:34:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
