Johannes J. Britz

To Know or not to Know: A Moral Reflection on Information Poverty:

This article reflects, from an ethical perspective, on the problem of information poverty. Information poverty is defined as that situation in which individuals and communities, within a given context, do not have the requisite skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it appropriately. It is further characterized by a lack of essential information and a poorly developed information infrastructure. It is argued in this article that information poverty is a serious moral concern and a matter of social justice and as such should be on the world’s moral agenda of social responsibility. Based on social justice a set of broad ethical principles are formulated that can be used to guide the social, economic and political initiatives to solve information poverty and to create a fair information society.

Is a knowledge society possible without freedom of access to information

Modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen not only as allowing global economic activities and the sharing of knowledge, but also as favouring transparency and democracy by creating space and a public sphere for civil society. The internet, and in particular the world wide web, have proved a powerful tool in both the manipulation of economic activities and the mobilization of civil society. Much is made of the democratizing effect of ICTs in e-government. Yet there are governments that attempt to control in an authoritarian manner both who accesses the internet and what content may be accessed and used. The question arises whether an information society and, more critically, a knowledge society can develop in the absence of freedom of access to information, freedom of expression and freedom to access the digital economy. Against this broad background the authors put forward four pillars of a knowledge society: (a) ICTs and connectivity, (b) content and the usability thereof, (c) infrastructure other than ICTs, and (d) human capacity. They attempt to evaluate the effect of authoritarian governmental control of access and content on each of them. It is argued from an ethical perspective, and more specifically from a perspective of social justice that, while a technologically oriented concept of the information society may not be incompatible with severe state control, a more multi-dimensional knowledge society cannot develop under such circumstances. Freedom is fundamental to participation in a knowledge society. Purely pragmatic arguments lead to the same conclusion.

Rethinking the ownership of information in the21st century: Ethical implications

This paper discusses basic concepts and recentdevelopments in intellectual property ownership in theUnited States. Various philosophical arguments havepreviously been put forward to support the creation andmaintenance of intellectual property systems. However, in an age of information, access toinformation is a critical need and should beguaranteed for every citizen. Any right of controlover the information, adopted as an incentive toencourage creation and distribution of intellectualproperty, should be subservient to an overriding needto ensure access to the information. The principlesunderlying intellectual property regimes in the UnitedStates recognize and embody this. In addition, thephilosophical/ethical dimensions of this debate couldalso be structured to support this attitude as well. Intellectual property is fast becoming digitalproperty. New technologies allow owners to extendtheir control of both legitimate uses and misuses ofthe intellectual property. Recent trends demonstratethat the access principle has not always beenparamount in judicial or legislative applications. Thetrend rather is to allow a proprietarianism factor todominate the analysis. Finally, several principles areforwarded which would assist adjudicators and policymakers in reaffirming the basic purpose of theintellectual property law, which is to benefit thepublic at large.

A Moral Reflection on the Information Flow From South to North: an African Perspective

In most discussions of the digital divide, the emphasis is on assisting developing nations by facilitating the flow of information resources from the developed countries to the developing – a North-South flow. The South-North flow of information receives less attention. A number of moral questions arise from the current state of South-North information flow, six forms of which are analysed in this paper with particular reference to Africa. The discussion is approached from an ethical perspective based on a specific moral framework based on three moral claims: (1) there exist universal information-related human rights – the right of freedom of access to information, the right of freedom of expression, and the right of individuals and groups to control the information they have generated; (2) the notion of a common good, predicated on a moral community which shares certain values, imposes an obligation to share information; and (3) justice is the main normative tool that can be used to regulate the flow of information.

Africa as a knowledge society

Abstract This paper investigates the question of whether Africa is moving towards a knowledge society. An analysis is made of the current initiatives that are undertaken in Africa to put the continent on the road towards a knowledge society. The content of the paper is structured in the following manner. Firstly, we explain what a knowledge society means and based on this definition we describe the technological and economic landscapes that shape the knowledge society. We also identify and discuss four interrelated pillars of a knowledge society which we coined as follows, information and communication technology (ICT) and connectivity; usable content; infrastructure and deliverability and human intellectual capability. We then use these four pillars to analyze the African content as a knowledge society. Our main findings are that Africa has still a far way to go to become a true knowledge society, but that there is hope to successfully transform Africa into a knowledge society. We argue that this success is based on certain preconditions amongst other investment in human capital, effective stopping of brain draining as well as the effective development and maintenance of a physical infrastructure.

Indigenous knowledge: A moral reflection on current legal concepts of intellectual property

Indigenous knowledge of underdeveloped countries or of underdeveloped peoples within developed or developing nations is a sought after commodity in todays marketplace. These commercialisation pressures will increase in the globalised climate of the new-world economic order. Since knowledge is intangible, legal protection of intangible knowledge is minimal. However, when the knowledge is expressed in a tangible form, societies have seen fit to offer protection under the rubric of intellectual property laws. In addition, these developments have emerged from a ‘Western’ or ‘developed’ legal tradition and are often inadequate to deal with the scenarios in which indigenous knowledge often resides. Several examples from patent, trademark, and copyright present these shortcomings. In addition, the cultural differences between concepts of developed versus indigenous property further highlight the problem of achieving a harmonised and universal set of legal protections. The result is a disparity of access to existing intellectual property of others by indigenous and developing peoples. More critical for the purpose of the present discussion is a second disparity in the inadequacy of existing intellectual property regimes to protect indigenous culture and knowledge from development, and often exploitation. In response to this, a discussion of ethical implications of the disparity is undertaken in an attempt to provide a moral basis upon which past practices and future protection mechanisms can be evaluated. In conclusion, a list of principles are forwarded identifying the moral-legal rights indigenous peoples have in their own knowledge and in their right to access the intellectual knowledge of others.

Can information ethics be conceptualized by using the core/periphery model?

The term ‘information ethics’ (IE) is rapidly diversifying as new technologies enter the milieu and add to already existing ‘entanglements’. Unsurprisingly, the term lacks a universally accepted definition, although there is some common ground as to its constitution. This paper explores the term using the most commonly co-occurring terms in IE literature as indexed in nine databases, namely the EBSCO-hosted Academic Search Premier (ASP); Communication and Mass Media Complete; ERIC; Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA); Newspaper Complete; Business Premier; and Master File Premier, and Wilsons Library Literature and Information Science (LLIS) Full Text. Core/periphery analysis, the co-occurrence of words as subject terms, and social network techniques were applied using UCINET for Windows, text STAT and Bibexcel computer-aided software to analyze data. The paper identifies the most common terms used to describe IE and the core terms with which IE can be defined. Other than informing LIS research and education, the results could potentially assist with the development of IE taxonomy and definitions (e.g. in understanding IE content and development) that may apply to the intercultural and global understanding of IE.

The information economy in South Africa: definition and measurement

Most Western economies have already achieved or are progressing towards information economy status. South Africas progress towards an information economy has not yet been ascertained. An attempt was made to develop a framework for describing and demarcating the information economy in South Africa. This framework ties in with avail able national data. The basic methods of measuring the infor mation economy were established, the first to determine the number of information workers and second to measure the contribution of the information sector to the gross domestic product (GDP). According to Porats [2] method, there were approximately two million information workers in South Africa in the late 1980s. If the generation and use of information are excluded from the description of the information sector, there were about 400,000 people working in the information sector in the 1980s. The contribution of the information sector to the GDP was about six per cent in the late 1980s. The gross operating surplus, a rough estimate

Challenges of the approaching knowledge society : major international issues facing LIS professionals

In the context of the follow-up work arising from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), this paper attempts to answer the questions: Why should librarians and information workers be involved in international advocacy? And what are the international issues with which librarians should concern themselves? Special attention is paid to the role of IFLA, as the main international body representing the interests of librarians, and to the eleven WSIS “action lines” set out in the 2003 Geneva Plan of action, along which much of the current follow-up work is aligned. The concept of the Knowledge Society, and more specifically four criteria for a Knowledge Society – ICT infrastructure, information content, human intellectual capacity, and physical delivery infrastructure – are used as a framework for the answers we give to these questions. A brief discussion of these areas and some comments on the WSIS process precede a broad outline of the international issues facing library and information professionals.

Everything, for ever? The preservation of South African websites for future research and scholarship

The amount of material published on the worldwide web continues to grow. This is also true of South Africa. Much of this material is banal and ephemeral, but it nevertheless forms part of South Africas documentary heritage. It will have value for future historians and social scientists just as previous centuries’ printed broadsheets, newspapers and ‘penny horribles’ are used today as raw material for research. The proliferation of websites worldwide poses enormous challenges to heritage institutions such as national, research and repository libraries. In the developed countries the capturing, organization and preservation of websites have become an important theme in the professional literature of information science. Many difficulties have to be overcome before we can be sure that an adequate proportion of this material is preserved for future use. The difficulties are not only of a technical nature, but also organizational, economic, political, legal and ethical. This paper draws on experience gained in two current projects funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The first is the Political Communications Web Archiving Project, undertaken in the United States under the aegis of the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, which has attempted to develop a model for the preservation of websites for use by area studies researchers at US universities. The second is a South African project on the legal deposit of electronic publications, managed by the Foundation for Library and Information Service Development (FLISD) on behalf of the National Library of South Africa. The paper outlines the major issues that have to be addressed when a national system for the preservation of websites is set up, with special emphasis on ‘soft’ issues (political, legal and moral) rather than technical issues.