Open Access, Open Data: Paradigm Shifts in the Changing Scholarly Communication Scenario

Abstract

The expert conference Open Access Open Data, held in Cologne (D) on December 13 th and 14 th 2010, represented a two-day intensive debate and exchange occasion. Excellent contributions by the invited speakers alternated with sharp and stimulating participants' interventions, in order to create an inspiring atmosphere. The common scenario being the changing scholarly communication system, we can try to follow some key insights emerging from the debate. Scholarly communication, digital age and the commonsDieter Stein (Düsseldorf University, D) highlighted the free nature of scholarly communication, and the yet unexploited potentiality of the Net: the concepts of access, visibility, impact, should have to be revisited in the perspective of an Open Science, where the "User Generated Content" calls for more "liquid" and "current" publications. Open Science stands for transparency and efficiency, made possible by the new ways of producing science, in which one can discuss and debate in the meanwhile science is processed, and not only at the end of the work, in front of a final "product". This new attitude should claim also for a revisited concept of copyright, because in the digital age there are no more paper objects to be possessed by anyone.On this path, Rainer Kuhlen (Konstanz University, D) developed a fascinating theory moving from the concept of knowledge as commons and coming to a "knowledge ecology", where sustainability of immaterial goods can only be achieved by open and free access and unrestricted use -on the opposite, natural resources are to be made scarce to be preserved. The knowledge ecology is aimed at achieving the goal of people-centered, inclusive and sustainable knowledge societies. In the "Commons" paradigm, this "knowledge ecology" -and in its context the idea of open access -provides an alternative both to existing commercial publishing models on the international information markets and to international copyright regulations: they both have mainly emphasized only the economic impact of knowledge and information. But it should also have to be taken into account the genuine character of knowledge as a common-pool resource. In this perspective, the "knowledge ecology" does not object to the commercial use of knowledge produced in public environments such as universities and research centers, but suggests that publishing models are only acceptable when they acknowledge the status of knowledge as a commons, allowing free and open access for everyone. This commons must be based on sharing knowledge, producing new knowledge collaboratively, and providing future generations with the same access and usage rights. As a result, the commercial use of publicly produced knowledge should be the exception and open and free access the default; there should be a need for compensating the public when the commons "knowledge" is exploited for commercial usage; there should be a need for new property right rules when knowledge is increasingly produced collaboratively: nobody should have an exclusive right on know...

Transparencia para su explotación: gobiernos intermedios español y mexicano

“…Por esta razón, y por la innegable contribución al desarrollo económico, el movimiento open data está creciendo rápidamente a nivel internacional (Garriga Portolá, 2011, p. 298;Giglia, 2011), convirtiéndose en un término de moda que aparece en la mayoría de las iniciativas centradas en la organización de la información digital (Méndez & Greenberg, 2012, p. 237) y configurándose como un revulsivo tecnológico (Peset et al, 2011, p. 164). No es de extrañar, por tanto, que en estos últimos años y siguiendo la estela de data.gov, el portal estadounidense que dispone actualmente de 225 000 conjuntos de datos, gobiernos de todo el mundo se hayan apresurado a poner en marcha portales de datos abiertos, hasta superar las 2600 iniciativas activas según muestra el estudio Open data inception (2019).…”