Open Source

Digital Ecosocialism: Breaking The Power Of Big Tech

April 18, 2022 Michael Kwet, ROAR Magazine. Create! Big Tech, Capitalism, Democracy, Open Source

In the space of a few years, the debate on how to rein in Big Tech has become mainstream, discussed across the political spectrum. Yet, so far the proposals to regulate largely fail to address the capitalist, imperialist and environmental dimensions of digital power, which together are deepening global inequality and pushing the planet closer to collapse. We urgently need to build a ecosocialist digital ecosystem, but what would that look like and how can we get there? This essay aims to highlight some of the core elements of a digital socialist agenda — a Digital Tech Deal (DTD) — centered on principles of anti-imperialism, class abolition, reparations and degrowth that can transition us to a 21st century socialist economy.

US Government Fears China Will Give Away COVID-19 Vaccine For Free

May 7, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! China, COVID-19, Open Source, Vaccine

The number of official global coronavirus mortalities surpassed a quarter of a million people today, including over 69,000 in the U.S. (although this is very likely an undercount). Polls show that the American people are extremely worried about contracting the virus. However, the government has a much bigger concern: that if they find a COVID-19 vaccine, China will copy it and distribute it for free. To many, it will not be immediately clear why it would be a problem for a manufacturing superpower, home to 1.4 billion people, to inoculate itself and others. But to the White House, this would be “stealing” a potential American innovation. “Biomedical research has long been a focus of theft, especially by the Chinese government, and vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus are today’s holy grail,”

Open Access Plan To Make Scientific Work Free To Read

September 9, 2018 Holly Else, Nature.com. Create! Information, Media, Open Source, Science

Research funders from France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and eight other European nations have unveiled a radical open-access initiative that could change the face of science publishing in two years — and which has instantly provoked protest from publishers. The 11 agencies, who together spend €7.6 billion (US$8.8 billion) in research grants annually, say they will mandate that, from 2020, the scientists they fund must make resulting papers free to read immediately on publication (see ‘Plan S players’).

Barcelona Kicks Microsoft Out In Favor Of Open Source

January 19, 2018 By Derick Sullivan M. Lobga, Itsfoss.com Create! Barcelona, New Economy, Open Source, Technology

A Spanish newspaper, El País, has reported that the City of Barcelona is in the process of migrating its computer system to Open Source technologies. According to the news report, the city plans to first replace all its user applications with alternative open source applications. This will go on until the only remaining proprietary software will be Windows where it will finally be replaced with a Linux distribution. The City has plans for 70% of its software budget to be invested in open source software in the coming year. The transition period, according to Francesca Bria (Commissioner of Technology and Digital Innovation at the City Council) will be completed before the mandate of the present administrators come to an end in Spring 2019.

Welcome To The Pirate Bay Of Science

February 14, 2016 Fiona MacDonald, www.sciencealert.com Create! Knowledge, Open Source, Science, Transparency

By Fiona MacDonald for Science Alert. A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles - almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest publishers. For those of you who aren't already using it, the site in question is Sci-Hub, and it's sort of like a Pirate Bay of the science world. It was established in 2011 by neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who was frustrated that she couldn't afford to access the articles needed for her research, and it's since gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of papers being downloaded daily. But at the end of last year, the site was ordered to be taken down by a New York district court - a ruling that Elbakyan has decided to fight, triggering a debate over who really owns science.

Ecuador Buen Conocer Summit Declaration

June 6, 2014 FLOK Society, www.buenconocer.org Create! Ecuador, Knowledge, Latin America, Manifesto, New Economy, Open Source

Table 1: Open Educational Resources Education is a common. It has to be open and free access, as a mean to maximize the participation of all people in social knowledge economy. When we talk about open education we talk not only about ICT. Access to educational resources (tangible and intangible) must be released under open licenses. Free access must be ensured distributing repositories via Internet, intranet or other means. Education systems must recognize learning by formal and informal experiences, at any stage of life. All work done with public funds should have open and free license and access. It is necessary to strengthen and create learning communities as a strategy for knowledge production and social economy. Table 2: Open Science Science should be accessible to everyone, being the requirement for open data, processes and results of scientific research and its management through free licenses and open protocols and formats, as well as construction of a collaborative scientific commons platforms, and knowledge banks repositories. Only in that way we can guarantee the development of human capabilities and access to resources, processes, and scientific results and also the transparency in the management of this aspects.

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