[eIFLoa] A Dialogue on ICTs, Human Development, Growth, and Poverty Reduction

[Iryna Kuchma]

Essays posted in conjunction with the Communication and Human Development:
The Freedom Connection? event taking place on 9/23/09, hosted by the Berkman
Center and sponsored by Canada's International Development Research Centre:
http://publius.cc/dialogue_icts_human_development_growth_and_poverty_reduction/091109

>From A Dialogue on ICTs, Human Development, Growth, and Poverty Reduction
Essay by Randy Spence and Matthew Smith, September 21, 2009:

"Openness and open access

The third story is one that started before ‘open software’ and ‘access to
knowledge,’ and has become a movement that pushes for openness in all the
‘layers’ of society: social, economic, legal, and technological
(infrastructure, software/logic, content). In some areas and countries,
openness is increasing through activities such as open source software, open
government, open education, open hardware, and open access to academic
journals. In other countries, it appears to be advancing more slowly and in
terms of intellectual property protection, progress is highly contested and
too often backwards in the case of developing countries. Open IP, open
business models, open capital and open society concepts are expanding, and
ICTs have been a major factor in all these developments, making it possible
to communicate, organize, produce and consume more widely and
collaboratively, and making ‘closedness’ increasingly more difficult to
sustain."