|
|
Honey bee publish details |
| More
Information |
|
|
| Name |
|
|
|
| Address |
|
|
|
| District |
|
|
|
| State |
|
|
|
| Country |
|
|
|
| Category |
|
|
|
| Title |
"Tracking one’s upload-to-download ratio to become a ‘Vishwa Guru’: Creating knowledge as a public good
" |
|
|
| Abstract |
|
|
|
| Details |
"For India to fulfil her aspiration of being a global leader in the knowledge economy requires us to immediately start paying attention to the upload to download ratio of content by each individual, institution and social group. I have raised this question in every public interaction in the last few years. I am yet to find a single person whose upload-to-download ratio is greater than one. Most academic institutions neither upload nor make public student project reports, their notes on interesting discussions in class, and assignments.
What will we gain by promoting open-sharing?
Reflections and Connecting with Strangers
By returning to some of our old ideas, we have the opportunity to improve upon them or feel embarrassed over our naivete – not a bad idea for authentic learning. If we revisit our ideas openly, corrections in our thinking may take place by others as well. Thus, sharing helps us get feedback about flaws in our arguments or logical steps missed. Sometimes, it helps forge productive and valuable collaborations. National Academy of Advancement of Science, USA wanted to develop TEK*PAD, a site of traditional ecologic and indigenous knowledge more than two decades ago1. It was not surprising that the Honey Bee Network database of people’s innovations and knowledge was the one with which they forged partnership, using our content with links to the original database at honeybee.org. Would such cooperation have come about if we had not shared the content openly?
We may also seed many spin-offs and be surprised by the variety of tangential triggers of ideas. We may not even have imagined such use or derivation of our ideas. It is true sometimes people will misuse our ideas and try to take them out in directions we may not like. ‘Jugaad’ was one such distortion of our work on frugal and grassroots innovations. Only once we had shared sufficient evidence that many of these solutions from bottom-up were quite durable and involved systematic experimentation and iteration, did people begin to see the difference. Jugaad is, after all, a temporary, makeshift solution that prompts people to learn to live with quick-fixes to problems rather than rooting them out forever. No society could ever progress far by using a mainly jugaad mindset.
Inclusion for Diffusion
Sharing openly also helps us find our followers, and thus our leadership in that domain or niche may get cemented. If the majority of us download content produced in the west, even in domains in which we are leaders, it seems not only to reveal a colonial mindset but also the strength of leadership that western scholarship built for itself by sharing ideas widely. While we may dislike the notion, does it not have an element of truth?
Enough to Go Around!
While we encourage the protection of IPRs of people’s knowledge whenever applicable, not only do we allow people-to-people copying but also people-to-Firms through licensing. We might get a reaction, feedback or critique from strangers around the world. I have made many friends this way. I don’t issue copyright notices on my blog, which has hundreds of papers and columns. After all, only precious things are stolen. Only when ideas are valuable, would people like to steal, borrow, or use them. Let good ideas spread and spawn many more ideas, making this world more beautiful and assimilative of difference and diversity!
Recently, with the help of two former students Zaigham Khan and Devika Kaushal, supported by Anamika Dey, CEO of GIAN, we have hosted a database of one million abandoned US patents at gian.org, exponentially multiplying our upload to download ratio. Earlier, techpedia.in, supported by Honey Bee Network (HBN) and anchored by SRISTI, was developed to promote originality, and lateral learning and collaboration among technology students by sharing abstracts and titles of over 200,000 projects by over 550,000 students. These projects and abandoned patents could be useful to small enterprises worldwide. There are many other databases on other themes – indigenous common property institutions (sristi.org/cpri), published HBN practices of farmers, artisans and other knowledge-holders, medicinal plants used for humans, agriculture and livestock in four Indian languages etc., available at honeybee.org. We rightly claim to be the largest provider of people’s knowledge in the world thanks to the generous contribution of Honey Bee Network volunteers. No information is collected from users and no password is needed to access these open databases.
Raising the upload-to-download ratio is vital for a nation seeking global leadership. Bureaucracies can learn and share lessons to promote delivery of public services, and follow the philosophy of continuous improvement. Private companies, too, may share lessons of solving problems, and discovering new solutions to encourage industry-wide leadership
I hope we will start taking baby steps soon in our individual and institutional life and enrich the public pool of creative and meaningful content to democratize learning and shared growth for a sustainable future.
1(2004, AAAS. Past Projects: Human Rights. https://www.aaas.org/programs/scientific-responsibility-human-rights-law/past-projects-human-rights)
" |
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 35(1)1 , 2024 |
|
|
| Sout |
|
|
|
| Call Number |
|
|
 
|
|
