digitalcommons

Technology transfer: bio-knowledge

Eva Harris is a professor of public health at U.S. Berkeley and author of the  book A Low-Cost Approach to PCR: Appropriate Transfer of Biomolecular Techniques. She had a conversation  in 2001 about her own experience with technology transfer in Nicaragua some years ago.  It adds a human face to this kind of knowledge sharing.

Fadaiat 2005, Spain

Fadaiat 2005  is billed as the second conference on freedom of movement and freedom of knowledge. It is going to be held in June at Tarifa Spain, a coastal town which is a frequent destianation for thousands of African emigrants trying to sail across the 29 Km stretch of water between Spain and Morocco. There will be workshops on piracy, cartography, migration and ways of "connecting cognitarians."

Geospatial knowledge sharing

For a number of years only professionals familiar with GIS systems like ArcInfo from ESRI were even talking about sharing geospatial information. With the commoditization of GPS receivers, cheap cameras, and some creative people writing code we how have a number of applications where citizens/consumers making ad hoc databases of photos, wireless hot spots, and other subjects.

There are interesting humanitarian uses of mapping. Take a look at  Global MapAid in Santa  Clara,  California. They are going to be mapping famine relief efforts in  a part of Zimbabwe  where  Mugabe exercised  extreme measures against the locals. 

On the lighter side, Picturesque Tokyo has a rather elegant interface.It will take a while to load. There is a b/w satellite image of the city, and each entry is a bullseye. Pass the mouse over and a small image comes up with latitude and longitude information as well as an altitude attribute--something crucial in a high rise urban area.

Life Lines India Project

OneWorld South Asia is publicizing this project which is a joint effort by BT, Cisco and OneWorld to provide voice services as the main way of disseminating information (agricultural and other) to "58 locations covering hundreds of villages in the Bundelkhand region, and in the districts of Sirsa in Haryana and Madhubani in Bihar." However the questions and answers can be delivered by fax and data as well. It began in August 2004.  Thanks to Geert for the tip.

Library and IP statement

May 2-3, 2005: eIFL.net  Electronic Information in Libraries presented at the WIPO seminar on intellectual property and development in Geneva, Switzerland. Teresa Hackett made the case for the role of libraries in developing countries for children and adults. Her main points were about the erosion of the public domain, restrictions because of technology and by contract, and new layers of rights on information.