[Foundation-l] Survey of Open Content Projects in Non-Western Countries

[SJ]

Yes, an excellent survey.  It's good to see Alaa on the list of
rsearchers.  --SJ


On 9/4/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence at gmail.com> wrote:
> FYI - lots of good links for projects and initiatives to partner with.
>
>
> Survey of Open Content Projects in Non-Western Countries
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> http://oc.openflows.org
>
> Vienna, 04.9.2006. Openflows.org releases today a survey of open content
> projects in five non-western regions: Arab countries, Sub-Saharan Africa,
> India, Brazil and South East and Eastern Europe. The aim of the study is
> to assess the potential of the open content production process for areas
> and fields which are under served by the commercial players. While we
> cannot claim completeness, we believe that the range of projects allows
> insight into the complex ways in which these projects interact with their
> particular contexts and the vast differences this creates.
>
> Main Findings
>
> Open content projects are extremely sensitive to local conditions. For
> their constituencies (producers and users of the project) the practical
> value of the material tends to be far more important than abstract layer of
> licensing. Hence, very few projects view themselves as 'open content', in
> contrast to 'open source' software projects, where the sense of community
> across projects is much stronger.
>
> Open content projects rely on at least a kernel of a civil society,
> comprised of dedicated individuals, NGOs, educational institutions and
> initiatives, and others who value open cooperation (i.e. where
> contributions are encouraged from people who are not formerly known). If
> that does not exist, be it that social tensions are too strong, or that
> economic situation is too harsh, open content projects cannot flourish.
>
> For the majority to larger projects, some form of institutional support
> for basic intrastructure is necessary, because of the long-term nature of
> the projects. In Brazil, for example, this is provided by public
> institutions (educational and governmental), in collaboration with NGOs and
> other independent actors. Thus a number large, structured open content
> projects are developing strongly, particularly in the field of music and
> education. Where such institutional support is missing, for example in
> India, such projects have a hard time reaching critical mass.
>
> The situation is different for smaller open content projects, such a
> blogging. These can run on globally available commercial infrastructures
> (Web2.0 companies) and are hence in all areas growing strongly. Their
> social and political impact, though, depends highly on local conditions.
> Political blogs in Egypt, for example, are subject to entirely different
> dynamics than those in India.
>
> Outlook
>
> Apart from well-known project based in highly-developed countries
> (Wikipedia, MIT's Open Course Ware, Web2.0 companies) the field of open
> content is still nascent. Without support, the uphill battle to reach
> critical mass (when the project becomes self-sustainable) will be very
> steep for most larger open content projects.
>
> The growth of a globally available infrastructure for collaboration,
> provided by Web2.0 companies, on the other hand, might help to unlock some
> of the creative potential currently held-back by the lack of stable,
> scalable platforms.
>
> As of mid 2006, the snapshot provided by this survey, it's too
> early to say where and in which form this will happen. And without a
> general strengthening of civil society in these regions, it might well
> remain stunted for a longer time than necessary.
>
> Principal researcher and contact:
> Felix Stalder
>
> Essential research partners:
> Branka Curcic, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro; Alaa Abd El Fattah,
> Cairo, Egypt; Tori Holmes and Tati Wells, Rio de Janerio, Brasil; Kerryn
> McKay and Heather Ford, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Lawrence Liang,
> Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India
>
> Support:
> The research was made possible by a generous grant from the Open Society
> Institute's Information Program (Very Franz)
> http://www.soros.org/initiatives/information
> login or register to post comments
>
> --
> Peace & Love,
> Erik
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>


-- 
++SJ