Knowledge Society

As far back as 1976 we can see the root of the open source vs. proprietary software arguments in Bill Gates "Open Letter to Hobbyists", included in Volume 2, Issue 1 of the newsletter published by the Homebrew Computer Club, a small Silicon Valley club of computer enthusiasts, which ranked among its members future founders of Apple Computer, Steve Job and Steve Wozniak.

En estos tiempos en los que el flujo de información e intercambio de documentos es esencial para el funcionamiento de las instituciones y su volumen se vuelve cada vez más denso, la gestión de documentos toma una relevancia que no se limita a la simple labor de archivar, clasificar, indexar y poder acceder en forma eficiente a los materiales e informaciones documentales intercambiadas.

A changing world.

We live in a Changing World with increased internal and external competition running after available resources and opportunities at local, regional and global levels. It is up to us to make the world change for better, not worse, by making sure our local and regional issues are addressed by the changes, are generating the changes and are being part of the changes.

The Information Society Open School is a collaborative learning environment on issues relevant to human development and information and communication technologies.

Modeled after the open source model, all training materials and courses are free of charge, can be downloaded, copied, distributed, modified and enhanced by anyone. Community members can contribute back to the material with their enhancements.

Furthermore, local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to download courses material and prepare their own real life workshops and even charge for them if they like.

Given enabling environments for social entrepreneurship, both individuals and institutions will have similar incentives (beyond their social motivation) to innovate, explore, pursue and develop solutions, goods and services for their local communities and global markets.

As many of you know have already figured out from my poor grammar and spelling, my native language is Spanish since I am from the Dominican Republic.

Furthermore, almost all of my practical work and initiatives are in Spanish and target a Spanish-speaking audience (www.educar.org, www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com, www.civila.com, www.ciudadesvirtuales.com, etc.)

Until 2004, almost all of my research and papers were in Spanish, as I was residing in the Dominican Republic and my work as a consultant was related to Latin American initiatives.

Last week my work of the last eight months for United Nations Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean doing a Public ICT and Information Society assessment of the Caribbean region was presented in a regional Policy Makers Seminar at Barbados.

It has been a shock to read a note published in a local Barbados newspaper highlighting only negative parts of the extensive 12 page Public ICT Profile I put together for Barbados.

How to promote entrepreneurial initiatives and spirit at the local level by engaging relevant stakeholders and providing adequate support with ICT, beyond microcredit or financing. Money is not enough to promote and support entrepreneurial activity. Know-how, experience, administrative skills, marketing skills are all part of the picture and can only be attained by engaging multiple stakeholders.

That elusive digital state we call “Information Society” can be perceived as a collective environment where individuals, organizations and communities are empowered by the availability of information, access to it and the means to share, analyze and generate knowledge from this information. Such a state would enhance the options and opportunities available to individuals, promote an innovation and creative environment and enable the generation of wealth based on knowledge, skills, open competition and increased capacity and efficiency.

But to get there we need to build a framework that supports this new society and builds a bridge to it from our conventional society; a framework that tends to the needs and relationships of all the members of society and brings them on board.

A few days ago when I blogged on "Blogging and War: Can Technology change Social Processes?", I chose not to address the issue of ethics involved in journalism and the unbiased report of happenings from the field.

The issue has turned up a lot earlier than what I expected with the recent scandal involving the distribution by Reuters to the global media of doctored photos from a freelance photographer.