LINK Centre (Learning Information Networking Knowledge Centre)

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/19250

The Wits LINK Centre is a leading African academic research and training body focused on ICT ecosystem policy and practice. Based at the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, LINK engages in knowledge production and capacity-building for the broad communications and information and communications technology (ICT) sector in Africa. Its focus spans across policy, regulation, management and practice in telecommunications, Internet, broadcasting, digital media, e-government, e-transformation and e-development, all with an emphasis on economic and social implications in African and other developing-world contexts. LINK publishesThe African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC), which is accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Director: Dr. Lucienne Abrahams: luciennesa@gmail.com

For technical questions regarding this collection, contact Nina Lewin, nina.lewin@wits.ac.za, who is the responsible librarian.

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    Conceptualising Knowledge Governance for Development
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2016-12-15) Armstrong, Chris; Schonwetter, Tobias
    Through examining conceptions of the interface between development and knowledge, and conceptions of the notion of knowledge governance, this article provides a conceptual framing for the items published in this AJIC “knowledge governance for development” thematic issue.
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    Africa and the Digital Information Commons: An Overview
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2006-12-15) Armstrong, Chris; Ford, Heather
    Digital technologies and global electronic networks present unparalleled opportunities for international knowledge sharing and collaboration. But these same technologies and networks can also be used by authors in ways that significantly limit access and sharing for the purposes of education, innovation, and development. Through the efforts of librarians, archivists, academics and activists, vast new reserves of information and knowledge are being made available for free public consumption, and even adaptation, on the Internet. At the same time, however, electronic networks and digital technologies are being used to limit non-commercial access to some learning materials. For example, large educational publishers charge high subscription fees to universities for access to databases, with restrictions on use that are often more prohibitive than in the offline, paperbased environment. This fundamental schism present in the digital, globally-networked era – between the building of an “information commons” on the one hand, and the privatisation of knowledge on the other – is generating a variety of dynamic activist responses, including the free/libre open source software (FLOSS) movement, the “open access” movement in scholarly communication, and the “open content” approach to online sharing and collaboration among authors. The open access movement revolves mostly around the practice of academics making their research outputs and writings freely available on the Internet, either through open access online journals or online institutional repositories (archives). The open content movement is in some cases even broader than open access, encouraging online adaptation of materials by users, with the Wikipedia collaborative encyclopedia being perhaps the best-known such project. Another important open content initiative is the Creative Commons (cc) licensing system, which allows authors to adopt a “some rights reserved” approach when publishing their materials online. Under the terms of a cc licence, users are permitted unlimited copying and distribution of materials, and in some cases, are permitted to even adapt and/or derive commercial benefit from the materials. Open access and open content initiatives aim not to eliminate copyright in the online environment but rather to ensure that copyright does not restrict the potential of new technology to overcome barriers to access and innovation. The debates around the information commons and the restrictive practices of copyright rights-holders in the online environment are of particular relevance to the developing world and the African continent. Much of the world’s copyrighted material is owned by developed-world multinationals, leaving developing nations as the “payers” or consumers of knowledge and culture, and the developed world as the “payees” in much of the flow of monetary value derived from copyrighted materials. This article outlines the global information commons debates and players, and then focuses on efforts to maximise the potential benefits of digital networks for the developing world, and in particular Africa.
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    Open Innovation and Knowledge Appropriation in African Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs)
    (2015-12-15) De Beer, Jeremy; Armstrong, Chris
    This article seeks enhanced understanding of the dynamics of open innovation and knowledge appropriation in African settings. More specifically, the authors focus on innovation and appropriation dynamics in African micro and small enterprises (MSEs), which are key engines of productivity on the continent. The authors begin by providing an expansion of an emergent conceptual framework for understanding intersections between innovation, openness and knowledge appropriation in African small-enterprise settings. Then, based on this framework, they review evidence generated by five recent case studies looking at knowledge development, sharing and appropriation among groups of small-scale African innovators. The innovators considered in the five studies were found to favour inclusive, collaborative approaches to development of their innovations; to rely on socially-grounded information networks when deploying and sharing their innovations; and to appropriate their innovative knowledge via informal (and, to a lesser extent, semi-formal) appropriation tools.
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    Current African Intersections Between Intellectual Property Rights and Knowledge Access
    (2015-12-15) Armstrong, Chris; Schonwetter, Tobias
    In this introductory article, the two Guest Editors of this 2015 thematic issue of The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC) – a thematic issue focused on the theme of “African Intersections between Intellectual Property Rights and Knowledge Access” – provide practical and conceptual context for the articles and thematic reports that follow.