COMMUNIA Workshop, Vilnius, March 31, 2008: Debate of Questionable Practices
Maria Agnese Giraudo: Education and scientific research in developing countries
My reflections come from my experience in Tanzania with projects in support of Primary schools and as librarian in a scientific research institute about food and nutrition (INRAN) in Rome, Italy.
Education in Developing Countries
In Tanzanian Primary schools the rate of provision of textbooks for children is about 1/6-8 and in Secondary school parents have to buy books that are quite expensive, while schools haven’t any library there are and only few public libraries around. Considering the unacceptable inequality between north and south also regarding information/knowledge provision and the availability of contents and learning opportunities by digital and internet technologies, it seems no more avoidable taking measures to rethink the whole copyright system.
I don’t have the competence to enter into the technical aspects of the copyright but the possibility of rethinking and redesigning Copyright system and of inverting the system and the role of “Exceptions and Limitations” into a hypothetical new frame of general Human Rights recognition (1) seems a revolution of the trend mainly conceived to defend author and publisher/distributor economic interests.
The Digital Divide is inequality of access to the Internet as well as to the content, while there is in digital contents and Internet a “potential for explosive distribution, especially in tertiary institutions and libraries in developing countries”.(2) In a globalized world the less restrictions are in developed countries digital content the more developing countries benefit of it.
Indigenous Content. Developing Countries are more and more aware of their heritage: of their socio-cultural traditions and of peculiarity of their natural environment. They are creating contents as well as collecting written and oral documents. The reconsideration of their culture is progressing in proposing original approaches of research at the university level in international collaboration.
The OA impact to Scientific Research dissemination
The development of Open Access Movement has offered to all scientists all over the world the possibility of publishing in Open Archives, whether institutional or tematic or in open access journals to disseminate their works without bottleneck restrictions of commercial publishers. The controversial tool of Impact Factor has been challenged by Open Access and its mechanism of citations has been treated by the increasing amount of on-line OA publications. Although IF has been the main means of selection of scientists in their career progression, now it appears to be totally inadequate to evaluate such amount of publications not only in English while scientists of developing countries, before excluded by “ the scientific world” can take part in the scientific community.
(1) P. Bernt Hugenholtz & Ruth L. Okediji (Institute for Information Law University of Minnesota /University of Amsterdam Law School) Conceiving an International Insrument on Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright. Final Report March 06, 2008
(2) The first thing to realize is such access techniques are hybrids of digital and analog technologies, therefore requiring that only one person in a sharing community have a computer and access to the internet. Coupled with analog copying and reprographic technologies such as photocopiers, as well as public communication devices such as radio, televisions and mobile phones, this makes information potentially widely accessible and easily distributable. For example, where individuals have computers but few can access the internet, one person or
institution with a CD-burner can distribute many copies of the same document by burning a CD. (Shabalala, 2007, p.41).
Education in Developing Countries
In Tanzanian Primary schools the rate of provision of textbooks for children is about 1/6-8 and in Secondary school parents have to buy books that are quite expensive, while schools haven’t any library there are and only few public libraries around. Considering the unacceptable inequality between north and south also regarding information/knowledge provision and the availability of contents and learning opportunities by digital and internet technologies, it seems no more avoidable taking measures to rethink the whole copyright system.
I don’t have the competence to enter into the technical aspects of the copyright but the possibility of rethinking and redesigning Copyright system and of inverting the system and the role of “Exceptions and Limitations” into a hypothetical new frame of general Human Rights recognition (1) seems a revolution of the trend mainly conceived to defend author and publisher/distributor economic interests.
The Digital Divide is inequality of access to the Internet as well as to the content, while there is in digital contents and Internet a “potential for explosive distribution, especially in tertiary institutions and libraries in developing countries”.(2) In a globalized world the less restrictions are in developed countries digital content the more developing countries benefit of it.
Indigenous Content. Developing Countries are more and more aware of their heritage: of their socio-cultural traditions and of peculiarity of their natural environment. They are creating contents as well as collecting written and oral documents. The reconsideration of their culture is progressing in proposing original approaches of research at the university level in international collaboration.
The OA impact to Scientific Research dissemination
The development of Open Access Movement has offered to all scientists all over the world the possibility of publishing in Open Archives, whether institutional or tematic or in open access journals to disseminate their works without bottleneck restrictions of commercial publishers. The controversial tool of Impact Factor has been challenged by Open Access and its mechanism of citations has been treated by the increasing amount of on-line OA publications. Although IF has been the main means of selection of scientists in their career progression, now it appears to be totally inadequate to evaluate such amount of publications not only in English while scientists of developing countries, before excluded by “ the scientific world” can take part in the scientific community.
(1) P. Bernt Hugenholtz & Ruth L. Okediji (Institute for Information Law University of Minnesota /University of Amsterdam Law School) Conceiving an International Insrument on Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright. Final Report March 06, 2008
(2) The first thing to realize is such access techniques are hybrids of digital and analog technologies, therefore requiring that only one person in a sharing community have a computer and access to the internet. Coupled with analog copying and reprographic technologies such as photocopiers, as well as public communication devices such as radio, televisions and mobile phones, this makes information potentially widely accessible and easily distributable. For example, where individuals have computers but few can access the internet, one person or
institution with a CD-burner can distribute many copies of the same document by burning a CD. (Shabalala, 2007, p.41).
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