Category — Science and Technology Policy

The ARTICLE 19 Freedom of Expression Virtual Handbook:

The ARTICLE 19 Freedom of Expression Virtual Handbook
The ARTICLE 19 Freedom of Expression Virtual Handbook is a resource providing access to international and best comparative standards on the right to freedom of expression. It is designed to be accessible to journalists, NGOs and others, while also providing high-quality legal information.

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Freedom of expression is necessary for scientific progress.

The Australian: Muzzling of science [ 08mar06 ]:

The censorship against which more and more leading Australian scientists are speaking out is both overt and covert. It exists in managerial directives not to communicate, to comment or otherwise share information and scientific conclusions with the public. It exists in the reprimand, the bullying, the sidelining, the punishment and the actual dismissal of those who dare to transgress. This is not supposition; it is on the public record.

But it also exists in self-censorship. Step out of line and your paper won’t be published, you won’t get the next grant, you’ll be passed over for promotion, you’ll be made redundant. Nothing is ever said, just a veiled threat and the rest left to the victim’s imagination. And in science it’s hard to find another job that isn’t in a taxi.

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another great tragedy proceeding as normal….

bridges.org:

Comparison
Study of Free/Open Source and Proprietary Software in an African
Context: Implementation and Policy-making to Optimise Community Access
to ICT
The Software
Comparison research project provides
the needed background information and advice to
people who want to make
sound software choices for public computer labs in Africa.
The
final report represents the first comprehensive analysis of software
choices
in the African public-access context. The study looked at 121 computer
labs in Namibia, South Africa and Uganda, examining the range of
factors that affect software choices; the realities of the current
situation in Africa; and the long-term implications of software choices
for Africa. This
research was led by bridges.org and supported by Collaborating Partners
SchoolNet Africa, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
and the Open Society Institute (OSI). In addition, a number of
field-study partners provided access to computer labs for the study. A
high-level
Advisory Group, comprised of experts in the field from both sides of
the debate, was actively involved in the study on a regular
basis: reviewing project documents (methodology, report drafts etc.),
providing feedback and additional resources.

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interesting study

New Open Access Journal for human-centered ICT research:

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interesting new journal.

Women and ICT Policy:

Focusing efforts into increasing women’s participation in policy, regulatory and advocacy issues is an effective and powerful way to achieve competitive and fair levels in the ICT sector. This has the potential to increase the role of women in community decision making, where they can influence policy issues at any government level. With increased participation, women can then ensure that gender issues are taken into account in ICT resource planning and administration.

http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=122

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this could be a very good thing.

Outstanding Article on Politicization of Science:

Philipp Steger, editor of bridges — a publication of Office of Science & Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, D.C. that I have only just recently learned of – has published by far the best analysis I’ve seen…

yes pandora’s box is pretty good, but for those who watch eu policy there is a nice set of articles below it that is just as good http://www.ostina.org/html/bridges/

Having poured over the umpteenth attempt to give some meaning to the
now-official ‘crisis’ of the EU, this one looked all the more
refreshing, as the reiteration of Stenger’s call for a democratization
of the production of scientific authority reminded me of the many
terrains ‘beyond politics’ where Europe takes (its) shape, sz

Europe’s foremost philosopher of science offers a devastating indictment
of contemporary European science

Isabelle Stengers
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/WSWE.php

As a philosopher, I can imagine no better keynote to strike than: what
are you doing, what are you trying to do? Organizing a discussion on the
European Research policy matters! It matters because it is both urgently
needed and difficult.

How to read the seventh framework programme? The first point to note is
that this programme does not really invite political debate. Indeed we
do not dealing with choices that could be discussed but with what
presents itself as the simple enactment of the “Lisbon agenda”, fully
endorsing its slogans, such as “knowledge society”, “economy of
knowledge”, “knowledge and its exploitation” as “the key for economic
growth” and “the competitiveness of enterprises.” All this, leading, as
we should trust, to employment, while maintaining and strengthening the
so-called “European Model”, and also providing an improvement of welfare
and well-being, quality of life, health and the environment; for such
improvements rely, as history has shown, on the progress of knowledge
and its many applications.

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1397&date=20050509

China “suspected of spying at Swedish universities”

(AFP/The Local) China is suspected of hiring scientists to spy and steal unpatented research from Swedish universities, Swedish public radio reported on Monday.

Quoting an unnamed detective within Sweden’s security service, Säpo, radio news program Ekot reported that guest scientists from China were suspected of stealing unpublished and unpatented research from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

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wow! just wow. this is the sort of thing i just don’t expect to come from Sweden. Oh, I can see it happening… that is not an issue, knowledge is ’stolen’ or more precisely ’shared’ all the time. That is the nature of science, it is communal and shared. It is not personal/private and owned. However, when states stop underwriting knowledge generation and knowledge producers have to turn to profit and guarantee mechanisms to ensure their future livelihood and the continued existence of their institutions, traditional understandings start to fade awy.

Guardian Unlimited | Life | Two-thirds of world’s resources ‘used up’

The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries – some of them world leaders in their fields – today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure.

The study contains what its authors call “a stark warning” for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself.

“Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted,” it says.

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it won’t be long now.

American Scientist Online – Harry Collins :
This is easy—it is a little book, written in 1958 by the Wittgenstein-inspired philosopher Peter Winch, called The Idea of a Social Science. It’s short, and the words are easy, but the ideas are so difficult when first encountered that, when I first read it in 1967, it took me months to understand. Nowadays its main point—the identity of thinking and doing—seems entirely clear, and most years I will spend a few weeks trying to induct students into this way of understanding the world.

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interesting…. i’m rereading winch’s edited collection of wittgenstein on culture and values before bed… it really is thought provoking.