Knowledge commons for human development

Source and Copyright: https://10innovations.alumniportal.com (GIZ)

Today, I invite you to join the conversation on an article, which I just published on the issue of “Learning by sharing – how global communities cultivate skills and capacity through peer-production of knowledge“. I posit in this paper, that commons-based peer learning offers a trigger to enhance skills, competencies, connections, capacities, and the agency of people and their organisations on a global scale – from the global peer-to-peer university to a worldwide expert community of biogas digesters producers. It provides the freedom to learn – by sharing the world’s wealth of knowledge.

What do you think? Do you know additional examples of global -based peer production for human development? What are your thoughts on how to link sustainable human development to solutions that scale, empower, benefit, and increase ownership? Is peer-to-peer learning a potential game changer?

I cordially invite you to read the article and to join the conversation by posting your comment below the piece.

If you are part of the TLDR-community (Too long didn’t read …): Don’t worry, I will release selected subtopics of “learning by sharing” over the coming weeks here on www.knowledge-commons.de Stay tuned: You can subscribe the rss feeds of new posts or follow me on twitter.

Open Science Logo – Author: G.emmerich , under a cc attribution share-alike license. See http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Science_Logo_v2.jpg

Good news from re:publica 2014: Some scientists are moving from the “open access” paradigm (and battle) to the real paradigm shift (and real battle?):They now talk about “Books gone wild – how we write scientific books in an open, collaborative and continuous way”. In other words: they are moving from open access to open knowledge co-production. Two concrete books (and manuals, if you will) that have been built this way in Germany over the past year and that talk about dynamic publication formats and collaborative authoring, include:

Opening Science – The Evolving Guide on How the Internet is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing”, Available at http://book.openingscience.org/ and
CoScience (in German), available at http://handbuch.io/

I see quite a potential for international cooperation and for development cooperation, when we get into the mode of co-producing up-to-date scientific information globally. Why? Because then we have the chance to get scientists and practitioners from developing countries to co-create relevant research instead of just “accessing” it (or not even that …). Therefore, I hope that this example will catch on and that we will see more scientific “books gone wild” in areas relevant to development (such as health, education, energy etc).

Yours, Balthas reporting from re:publica 2014. For more curated news on re:publica 2014 check my twitter timeline from 6. May to 8. May 2014 at https://twitter.com/b_seibold

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Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

The enabling mechanisms of cooperation – copyright: contributing authors Messner, Guarin, Haun 2013

Last week, I took part in a webinar with Dirk Messner on “the enabling mechanisms of cooperation”. The lecture was part of the massive open online course “Leadership for Global Responsibility” of GIZ.

My takeaway has the form of a hexagon, more precisely the “cooperation hexagon” (see picture).Messner (with co-researchers Guarin and Haun) managed to find a nice form to sum up old wisdom: People do cooperate, if they feel that reciprocity is in place in the six dimensions of trust, communication, reputation, fairness, enforcement and we-identity – also across borders and cultures. Such a conclusion is really pretty close to the outcomes of research on cooperation of FOSS communities (no wonder, Messner cites Benkler, who comes from FOSS research). Unfortunately, I will not be able to add Messner’s work as a citation in my forthcoming article on “learning by sharing”, where I drew a table of factors that make people share knowledge – which it turns out, is motivated by pretty much the same hexagon. I will do that for the next edition 🙂

For now, I recommend to you to read the article on “The Behavioural Dimensions of International Cooperation” (the hexagon is on page 15), to watch Dirks talk and, if you like, to join the (ongoing) online course on “Leadership for Global Responsibility”. As always, feel free to comment, add or substract 🙂

Here, I want to talk about one of the many interesting themes of the compendium „Innovation & Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa“, which was just released (see also this blog post): Knowledge sharing in the informal economy in Africa and the knowledge commons. [Both links above link to content within the Alumniportal Germany (register or login first to access the link)]

For the first time, we find here some concrete answers to two key questions, that haunts people interested in the linkage between (open) innovation, commons-approaches and „intellectual property“ (IP): Who „owns“ knowledge in informal economy contexts in Africa?

Let us look at the informal automotive sector in Uganda, as described by Dick Kawooya.

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Source: source_knowledge_innovation_in_africa_scenarios_future / license: CC attribution share alike non-commercial

In part II of this blog series, I will link the current reality of knowledge sharing in Africa with appropriate knowledge governance systems for the future. For the future, the Open African Innovation Research and Training network has worked on Three Scenarios for the Future of Knowledge & Innovation in Africa.The current reality is described in the compendium „Innovation & Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa“, which was just released and in my last blog entry on „knowledge sharing in the informal economy in Africa & the knowledge commons“.

This report grapples with the complex and dynamic forces shaping innovation systems over the next two decades. It distills three different but equally plausible future scenarios: one a world of “wireless engagement,” another where “informal is the new normal,” and a third that is “sincerely Africa.” Each scenario raises different issues for control and access to knowledge in Africa.

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Great start of the long-awaited conference of the Open African Innovation Research and Training Network: We just launched two really interesting compendia on “Open African Innovation” packed with practical examples of the knowledge commons in Africa – and with a tool that allows policy advisors to discuss the future of knowledge governance in Africa in three scenarios for 2035. Check the books out online (they are free knowledge of course, sharable under a cc licence) at:

http://www.openair.org.za/capetown2013

Again: congrats to the Open AIR network for pulling all of this together and pulling it off.

For live info on on the conference and the concurrent Global Congress on IP and the public interest, you might also follow #gcongress #openair13 on twitter – and this blog 🙂

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Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

Like it: Two US senators today introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act, which directs the Secretary of Education to fund the creation of college textbooks and materials to be made available under open licenses.

I can only fully agree with the assessment by Creative Commons U.S.A. Director Michael Carrol: “This bill seizes the opportunity to make high quality textbooks affordable and reusable by paying once for their production and permitting free copying, updating, and adaptation with the requirement of an open license.” I think that this could mark an important step towards a knowledge commons for (English) textbooks. What do you think? Cheers, Balthas
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Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

Dear all,

this job offer by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) might be of interest to some of you – for further information, see their website:

“The Information Program seeks a full-time program manager to develop and expand the program’s work to support the nascent digital advocacy field, and the strategic use of new technologies and data by the human rights and transparency/accountability sectors.”

Link: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/about/jobs/program-manager

With joy, I reproduce below the invitation of GIZ colleagues to join the official launch of the global knowledge platform for agricultural water management

www.agriwaterpedia.info !

Main focus

www.agriwaterpedia.info focuses on agricultural water management in the context of climate change and food security.

It aims to secure knowledge gained from experiences in development cooperation. www.agriwaterpedia.info serves as an knowledge exchange and networking platform for practitioners and development experts and all those interested in the topic of increasing challenges in agricultural water management. What’s in it for you?

The platform contains a library with at the moment about 260 publications, a lot of them from pre-digital times, only digitally available and from anywhere in the world accessible on www.agriwaterpedia.info.
www.agriwaterpedia.info will give you access to relevant and up-to-date knowledge, as well as to expedient approaches, practices and experience in agricultural watermanagement.

You like the idea and you’re already thinking about how to become a part of the knowledge network?

Like all wikis, agriwaterpedia.info depends on user contributions. Please feel free to improve the platform by editing or writing articles, or by uploading publications.

Visit www.agriwaterpedia.info and sign up for an account today!

For further information please contact: (SV Nachhaltige Landwirtschaft) Your Agriwaterpedia-Team

Call for presentations and workshops

The programme is being developed through a collaborative planning process, via an open call for:

presentations/papers related to five thematic tracks: (1) user rights; (2) access to medicines; (3) enforcement; (4) openness; and (5) traditional knowledge.
participant-led workshops.

Proposed contributions should address one of the five thematic tracks, and should also shed light on the overarching theme: “Global questions, local answers“. What is the public interest in IP? Is it similar or different from place to place? What are the local priorities among the communities you work with? How are public interest IP research and advocacy activities connected? Which strategies are most effective for achieving positive change at the global or local level?

The deadline is 31 August 2013 for registered Congress & Conference participants to submit a proposal for a presentation/paper or workshop. The submission form is online via the Cape Town 2013 page.

Media and registration enquiries: Contact Congress & Conference Lead Coordinator Nan Warner on

Please pass this notice on to others who need to know. When tweeting about this Cape Town 2013 gathering, please use the #gcongress hashtag.

Interesting news coming from former training partner of it@ab, Mr. Hans-Peter Merkel. His organization “FreiOSS” is right now hosting Tanzanian IT experts in Germany on Linux-Learning-Tour. More in the news item (in German)…

Link: http://www.linux-magazin.de/NEWS/Afrikanische-Computerexperten-lernen-Linux-in-Freiburg

Dear all, please find below the invitation to a free course on “Open Content Licensing for Educators”, which might be of interest to some of you – please also share with other interested people. For more info, please contact the persons named on the website.

“The next Open Content Licensing for Educators course will be facilitated by the *UNESCO OER Chair Network* in collaboration with the *OER Foundation* and the* Commonwealth of Learning*.

*Open content licensing for educators<http://wikieducator.org/Open_content_licensing_for_educators/Home> (OCL4Ed) is a free micro Open Online Course (mOOC) designed for educators and students who want to learn more about open education resources, copyright, and Creative Commons licenses. *

This workshop will:

Reflect on the practice of sharing knowledge in education and the permissions educators consider fair and reasonable;
Define what constitutes an open education resource (OER);
Explain how international copyright functions in a digital world;
Introduce the Creative Commons suite of licenses and explain how they support open education approaches;
Connect with educators around the world to share thoughts and experiences in relation to copyright, OER and Creative Commons.

*Registration*:

Open<http://wikieducator.org/Open_content_licensing_for_educators/Home>

*When*: 4 – 18 September 2013. / *Where*: Online / *Cost*: Free

Reserve your seat today by registering from the course homepage <http://wikieducator.org/Open_content_licensing_for_educators/Home>.

Share the gift of knowledge and invite your friends and colleagues to join you.

re:publica is à priori a German blogger conference. Over the years it has however morphed into an international gathering of more than 5000 people from more than 50 countries with a common interest in the following themes: Digital business and innovation, social media, research & education in the Internet, campaigning, culture, media and ultimately, the “res publica”.

So re:publica 2013 was a good place to talk about the ‘Open African Innovation Research & Training Network’ and the upcoming ‘Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest’ and interwoven ‘Open A.I.R conference on open innovation and intellectual property’ in Cape Town from 9 to 13 December.

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Nice. I just found this new feature of the Alumniportal Germany, that shows a map of all my contacts (click on the picture on the left side to see the large version). [Disclaimer: I work at GIZ’s unit managing the Alumniportal Germany]

Hi to everyone, from Canada via South Africa to Indonesia. Let’s stay in touch! And I am happy to see that the portal is moving one step closer in the direction of “showing” networks and communities. Which is a genuine challenge, as I discussed in a previous blog post titled “Non-“Sense”?! Why you can’t touch an online network (yet)”

P.S. 1: unfortunately I had to cut the Fidji Islands and my friends from over there from the picture for space reasons, sorry). P.S. 2: If you are a user of the Alumniportal Germany, you should find the map with your own network at MY CONTACTS -> MY NETWORK. The URL should be [replace YOURUSERNAME accordingly] https://www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/community/pg/netzwerkkarte/YOURUSERNAME [This will be a link to content within the Alumniportal Germany (register or login first to access the link)]____
Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.

Are you interested in open innovation & the future of intellectual property in Africa? Or copyright, creative commons, openness, innovation, and the knowledge commons? Then check this conference announcement & join the open community of “Open African Innovation Research and Training” here: http://www.openair.org.za/join

Also, feel free to spread the word about the Open A.I.R. Conference on Innovation and Intellectual Property in Africa & 3rd Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, 09. December 2013 to 13. December 2013, Cape Town, South Africa. www.openair.org.za/capetown2013

Building that collaboration may be difficult for some people. so the project that will be built will be constrained at…

Dear Wahdan, here ist the source of the Quote from the letter of Jefferson: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html

Dear Winda, of course you can thare the guides - all is under open licenses. See below. Just Name the…

how quotation of the parts of the letter of Jefferson on knowledge and property?

Thank you for this nice guide.This really helped me, keep posting! can i share it?