Title: Africa Analysis: The benefits of open source software
Author:Linda Nordling
Source:SciDev.net
Date (published):05/11/2010
Date (accessed):07/11/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Africa should embrace open source scientific software, cutting costs and boosting IT skills across the continent...In science, open source software users are still a minority, but such programmes are no longer the exclusive preserve of those who love to tinker with computers...Cash-strapped African universities could be fertile ground for such open source packages, yet few academics know they exist.
...
Many African governments and intergovernmental organisations, including the African Union, want to promote open source programming and software. But the political support rarely filters down to institutional level.
...
What is needed is an awareness campaign, perhaps driven by researchers themselves, to raise the visibility of open source software at the coalface of African science. Research funders should also come onboard, so that they can encourage applicants to use open source packages where suitable."

Title: Science and Innovation for Development
Author Editor: Gordon Conway and Jeff Waage, with Sara Delaney
Pages: pp.
ISBN: 978 1 84129 0829
Publisher: UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS)
Date (published):
Date (accessed):
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf, 29,1MB!)
Abstract:
Scientific education, knowledge and research are crucial to solving development challenges.

Science as a tool for providing evidence and discovering solutions has been neglected recently by many key decision makers, Science and Innovation for Development aims to play a part in changing that.

Download by chapters:
INTRODUCTION

* Contents, foreword by Professor Calestous Juma, preface, about the authors (PDF 418KB)

Part 1: MOBILISING SCIENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT

* Chapter 1 - The Nature of Science and Innovation (PDF 1.15MB)
* Chapter 2 - Appropriate Innovation (PDF 1.72MB)
* Chapter 3 - Building Partnerships for Innovation (PDF 2.31MB)

PART 2: SCIENCE AND MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

* Chapter 4 - Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (PDF 4.71MB)
* Chapter 5 - Combating Hunger (PDF 2.38MB)
* Chapter 6 - Improving Health (PDF 3.84MB)
* Chapter 7 - Achieving Environmental Sustainability (PDF 2.71MB)

PART 3: THE CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

* Chapter 8 - The Science of Climate Change (PDF 4.86MB)
* Chapter 9 - Adapting to Climate Change (PDF 5.16MB)

PART 4

* Conclusion (PDF 324KB

Title: The Manchester Manifesto
Publisher: Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation, University of Manchester
Date (published): 25/11/2009
Date (accessed): 26/11/2009
Type of information: manifesto
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
...it is increasingly important to consider the question of “Who Owns Science?”. The answer to this question will have broad-ranging implications: for scientific progress, for equity of access to scientific knowledge and its fruits and for the fair distribution of the benefits and the burdens of science and innovation – in short, for global justice and human progress...It is clear that the dominant existing model of innovation, while serving some necessary purposes for the current operation of innovation, also impedes achievement of core scientific goals in a number of ways. In many cases it restricts access to scientific knowledge and products, thereby limiting the public benefits of science; it can restrict the flow of information, thereby inhibiting the progress of science; and it may hinder innovation through the costly and complicated nature of the system. Limited improvements may be achieved through modification of the current IP system, but consideration of alternative models isurgently required.

See also:
How science is shackled by intellectual property
John Sulston, Guardian, 26 November 2009
Who Owns Science? The Manchester Manifesto
open..., 26/11/2009

Title: Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive Intercommunication for Knowledge
Pages: 332 pp.
Publisher: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and United Nations Development Programme/ Regional Bureau for Arab States
Date (published): 27/10/2009
Date (accessed): 18/11/2009
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (several pdfs)
Abstract:
Foreword, team and table of contents
Preamble
Chapter 1: The theoretical framework: Concepts and problematic of the knowledge society
Chapter 2: Arab knowledge performance environments: Expanding freedoms and building institutions
Chapter 3: Education and the formation of knowledge capital
Chapter 4: Information and communications technologies in the Arab countries: The pillars and tools of knowledge
Chapter 5: Arab performance in research and innovation
Chapter 6: Building the knowledge society in the Arab world: A vision and a plan
References
Annex 1: List of background papers
Annex 2: Project for a database on knowledge in the Arab region
Annex 3: Measurement of the Arab countries’ knowledge economy
Statistical Annex

See also:
Arab world 'long way' from knowledge society
Science and Development Network