The February issue of the European Journal of Higher Arts Education is devoted to Economies of Knowledge: Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the Network Society. From Joasia Krysa's editorial introducing the issue: 'The first section 'Economising Knowledge' provides critical responses to the process of the economisation of knowledge in relation to recent neo-liberal policies, often described in this context under the term 'cognitive capitalism'; it discusses the apparent 'dilemma of knowledge-based economy' - knowledge as common property versus copyrighting and monopolisation of knowledge (Marion von Osten); privatisation and standardisation of education (Nick Dyer-Witheford, William Bowles); and contests its corporatisation, the so-called enterprise agendas and third leg funding (Marion von Osten, Lucy Kimbell). Contributions to 'Information Commons' section discuss issues around the economisation and copyrighting of information and its resistance; the monopolisation and tightening of Intellectual Property copyrighting in relation to State and corporate control of access on the one hand (Alan Toner, Jamie King, WIPO, WSIS) and ideas around the Free Information Movement, Free Networks, Information as Common Property and democracy based on free exchange on the other hand (Armin Medosch, Brian Holmes, C.U.K.T). The third section 'Knowledge Transfer' considers mechanisms of knowledge transfer in cognitive capitalism and presents new models that resist economisation and monopolisation of knowledge and information in general. This is best exemplified by the recent appearance of self-instituted educational projects such as kuda.org or University of Openness; emergence of open source and free software based tools for knowledge gathering and dissemination (semantic web, wikipedia and distributed library project); and finally experimental ideas in teaching at mainstream educational institutions that incorporate the latest digital technologies (Mark Amerika, Julian Malins & Ian Pirie, Gianni Corino et al).' (Thanks to Zapopan Martin Muela-Meza.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/23/2005 12:27:00 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.
