Open knowledge – open innovation Rainer Kuhlen – Open knowledge – open onnovation - UNESCO...

Open knowledge – open innovation

Rainer Kuhlen – Open knowledge – open onnovation - UNESCO Round Table – Role of UNESCO Chairs

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Round Table on the Role of UNESCO in the Construction of Knowledge Societies through the UNITWINUNESCO

Chairs Programme

18 November 2005

Salle Saint-Augustin - Kram Exhibition

Open knowledge – open innovation - A challenge to the commercialization of knowledge and information and to

the ethical foundation of the information society

Rainer Kuhlen UNESCO Chair in Communications

University of Konstanz, Germany Department of Computer and Information Science

URL: www.kuhlen.name; email: [email protected]




UNESCO Chairs in Communication in the West

Europe and North America region

Jan Annerstedt - Professor in the Copenhagen Business School

Rosental Calmon Alves - both Knight Chair in Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication

Jean-Paul Lafrance - “Chaire UNESCO-Bell en communication et développement international” of the University of Québec at Montréal (UQAM)

Antonio Sànchez-Bravo - Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Claudine Carluer - University Stendhal-Grenoble

Manuel Parés I Maicas - professor at the Institute for Communication of the Autonomous University of Barcelona

Rainer Kuhlen – Professor for Information at the University Konstanz




Creative Commons – Science Commons




Who owns knowledge?




Who owns knowledge?

10. We recognise that access to information and sharing and creation of knowledge

contributes significantly to strengthening economic, social and cultural

development, thus helping all countries to reach the internationally-agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium

Development Goals.

Tunis Commitment Document WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/7 -E 15.11.2005




Potentials and opportunities for

development




balances

economic social political individual cultural

Knowledge and information are potentials for development




98. To strengthen the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, additional approaches should be examined, such as a system of

indicators to measure progress in the realization of the rights set forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. There

must be a concerted effort to ensure recognition of economic, social and cultural rights at the national, regional and international levels.

VIENNA DECLARATION AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION

WORLD CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTSVienna, 14-25 June 1993

Knowledge and information are potentials for development


balances




balances for development have been drastically shifted towards the economic interest in exploitation





balances for development have been drastically shifted towards the economic interest in exploitation

Tunis commitment

econom* 10 times

cultural 7 times

social 5 times

individual 2 times

polit 0 (government 11 times – civil society 4 times)




Some alarming tendencies/deficits in higher

education with respect to information and

communication competence




Googlerization of higher

education




some alarming tendencies/deficits in higher education with respect to

information and communication competence

Googlerization of higher education and deficits in information and communication competence

Most students in higher education increasingly rely on search results which they obtain from international commercial search engines (mainly Google) without being able to evaluate the quality of these search engines or of their ranking algorithms

and without having the competence to evaluate the results of the search presented to them according to criteria such as

correctness/truthworthiness and relevance.




some alarming tendencies/deficits in higher education with respect to information and communication

competence

Students (and university teachers/researchers increasingly as well)

tend to neglect

(be it due to convenience or ignorance or incompetence or

lack of financial resources)

traditional (reliable, peer-reviewed) resources of knowledge and

information which are provided by professional information

services, such as global domain-specific online-data bases,

virtual libraries, e-science portals





competence

Consequences

UNESCO Chairs in communication, in their field of competence, need to

strengthen information and communication competence (information

literacy) by developing and offering pertinent courses in their environment

by raising public and political awareness for the importance of information

literacy in addition to general computer literacy.

Information and communication literacy is more than

computer literacy.





competence

Consequences

training programs for information and communication

competence should be developed cooperatively by UNESCO

Chairs in Communications and exchanged electronically –

supported by ORBICOM




Commercialization of knowledge and information





The increasing commercialization of knowledge and

information in education and science has a negative

effect on access to information and on the

availability of knowledge, which is indispensable for

education and growth of science and, consequently, for

innovation in economy.





In addition, the enforcement of copyright

regulations (in Europe and North America in the last 20

years),

which heavily supports the commercial exploitation of

knowledge and information (not necessarliy creators´ rights),

makes it more and more difficult to freely access the

world-wide information resources in principle available on

the world-wide information markets.





IPR no longer a means of innovation or of protection

of individal rights, but a means of exploitation and

of impediment for development





Consequences

UNESCO Chairs in Communication,

although well aware that modern societies are highly dependent

on an innovative and productive information and knowledge

industry,

should strongly support all efforts which aim at strengthening free

access to knowledge and information in education and science

(and with “free” I really mean “cost free”

as in “free beer”).





Consequences

In particular the UNESCO Chairs in Communciation should

support activities in the broader paradigm of open access.

Open access – access to (scientific) information in this

paradigm is actually free (again - free of any costs for

users) – is an innovative counter model to the existing

and increasing monopoly of commercial exploitation of

knowledge and information.




Open access is a prerequisite for communication





Consequences

Open access is a prerequisite for communication

and the right to communicate is the basic right in science and

education

as well as a

prerequisite for individual social, cultural, political develoment

Open access –an innovative counter model

Communication (let alone right to communicate) does not occur in the Tunis Commitment nor in the Tunis Agenda (only 2 times in connection with

technology or infrastructure)

In this respect – Tunis has not been a

communication-friendly

environment





Consequences

Therefore

the communication and open access concept and

free licensing models (such as CC)

need to be supported world-wide by UNESCO Chairs in

Communication.

Open access is the prerequisite for communication

and the right to communcate is the basic right in science and

education





Consequences

Supporting all means of free access does not mean a “war” against

commercial information markets.

In knowledge societies, free and open access cannot be in opposition

to commercial interests in the exploitation of knowledge and information.

In the contrary:





Consequences

the more open and free access to knowledge and information in

education and science is, the higher the chances for innovation in

industry and commerce.




Conclusion




conclusion

Main contradiction in contemporary societies

Knowledge and Information as public

goods (as commons) could be totally

freely accessible and usable for

everyone as it never has been in the

history of mankind

In reality access to knowledge and information

(as private goods) has been so complicated

and restricted, has never been subject to

filtering, blocking and control and has never

been distributed unequally as




conclusion

Paradigm shift need

As long as free access and free use are

considered annoying exceptions from

the exclusive right to exploit knowledge

and information, there will be no free and

open knowledge societies

By the way, intellectual property rights, no to

mention the challenge to reformulate the

property concepts for k & i is neither mentioned

in the Tunis Commitment nor in the

Tunis Agenda – forgotten or on

purpose?




conclusion

Paradigm shift need

Knowledge societies should

reformulate the old three-step-

test – the iron rule of

commercialized information

societies

free use of k& i only as an exception

free use of k & i must not hamper normal commercial exploitation

free use of k & i must not hamper unreasonably creators´rights

Commercially exploiting use of k & i

only as an exceptionCommercially exploiting use of k & i

must not hamper free use of k & i Free use of k & i must not hamper

unreasonably creators´rights




conclusion

There is still a lot to do for UNESCO Chairs in

Communications to accelerate the progress towards

knowledge societies




Thank you for your attention

Slides (under CC licence): http://www.kuhlen/name

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