There is a growing need to ensure global equity in knowledge production and knowledge sharing, including the identification of best practices in contested areas and the development of consensus principles for data access and sharing....Universal and equitable access to scientific knowledge is crucial in bridging the socio-economic divide between the North and the South....The development of the Internet and growth of cyberspace have increased the potential for access to and free flow of information but have also raised new concerns about information quality, privacy and encryption. On the side of greater openness is the emergence of an open source movement providing access to source code for software. There are various initiatives to provide ‘open access’ to the scientific literature and some commercial publishers are taking steps to improve access to information in poorer countries. On the side of constraints on information flow are uncertain legal rules and inconsistent national standards that affect both the quality and accessibility of science communicated on the Internet.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/29/2005 09:41:00 AM.
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.
