Re: [ox-en] Berlin Declaration on Open Access
- From: Thomas Berker <thomas.berker hf.ntnu.no>
- Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 23:05:24 +0200
Hi Graham, hi list,
--On Wednesday, October 22, 2003 06:17:37 PM -0400 Graham Seaman
<graham seul.org> wrote:
Hi Thomas,
Do you know anything about this yourself? Looking at the list
of signatories, the first one I see is Hans-Jörg Bullinger, head
of the Fraunhofer Institute, who have many patents on MPEG - the reason
the Ogg implementations were started, since free implementations of
MPEG were impossible.
Am I being too cynical?
Don't know whether cynical or not is the question here. Sorry, I should
have written more about my intentions forwarding this 'Berlin
Declaration'. That leading bureaucrats busy with liberalising research
in Germany (as other bureaucrats elsewhere are) are signing this
declaration initially seemed just weird to me.
Also, do you have any idea what they mean by the last sentence:
We realize that the process of moving to open access changes the
dissemination of knowledge with respect to legal and financial aspects.
Our organizations aim to find solutions that support further development
of the existing legal and financial frameworks in order to facilitate
optimal use and access.
You answered that one in the meanwhile, thanks for the research. It
looks to me like we have a situation here which is similar to what
Barbrook/Cameron describe as the marriage of new left and new right
when hackers in California and their most prominent adversary Ronald
Reagan eventually were reconciled in the techno-utopism of the Internet
hype. There is a distinct flavour of openness and freedom (as in Free
Speech), which is vulnerable to hyper-exploitation of mental resources.
Free Software and its way to conduct 'knowledge work' increasingly
becomes subject to debates around the concept of freedom and efficiency.
Before, nobody really cared (except the techies), but now the very
essence of Oekonux - that Gnu/Linux can be something else than just
being a cryptic toy-for-boys - is becoming part of (more or less)
public debates. 'Linux on the desktop' as a shortcut for: 'for
everyone' really changed something. The parallels to the Internet hype
(Mosaic browser prompting interest in technologies existing quietly
before) are clear, aren't they? Here I see one of the major chances and
dangers for the Oekonux project and Gnu/linux in general - in terms of
its potential for liberation. And that is, btw, why I insist on a clear
_political_ stance, which would draw a line between market-defined
freedom for the 'homo economicus' and freedom of the whole individual
as it was promised some 200 years ago.
best, thomas
P.S. Due to my incompetence spam-assassine ate quite a lot
Oekonux-mails during the last week. Sorry, for not relying directly to
some mails.
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/