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Beldiman, Dana --- "Introduction" [2013] ELECD 1359; in Beldiman, Dana (ed), "Access to Information and Knowledge" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 1

Book Title: Access to Information and Knowledge

Editor(s): Beldiman, Dana

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783470471

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Beldiman, Dana

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

Introduction
Dana Beldiman

1. ACCESS IN A PARTICIPATORY NETWORKED
ENVIRONMENT
Events related to intellectual property (IP) laws appear as prominent
news items with increasing frequency.1 Their common thread is a
growing concern, almost an anxiety, about the ability to access and use
information and the far-reaching implications of a restricted flow of
information.2
In a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is the output of the
production process and therefore constitutes the basis for wealth gener-
ation and economic growth. The inevitable counterpart is that knowledge

1
Street demonstrations in a number of European countries against the
ratification of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) by the EU
Parliament: Thousands take to streets across Europe. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
technology-16999497; Internet blackouts in the US voicing opposition to the
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/
sopa-blackout-wikipedia-reddit-mozilla-google-protest; a Cambridge professor
initiating an organized boycott of Elsevier due to exorbitantly high prices for
subscriptions http://thecostofknowledge.com; the smart phone war waged in at
least 10 different jurisdictions among the leading market share holders in the
industry, and so on.
2
The terms `information' and `knowledge' will be used interchangeably for
purposes of the present writing, but it should be noted that scholarly literature
differentiates them. R.L. Ackoff, From Data to Wisdom, Journal of Applied
Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989, pp. 3­9, classified the content of the human
mind into the following categories: ...