New Media Pioneer Talks About the Dilemma of Open Knowledge
3rd December 2007
New media pioneer Bill Thompson will discuss the nature of knowledge in the network society at a public discussion in Leicester this week.
Bill Thompson will talk on 'Open Publishing and Closed Minds' at 6pm on Thursday (6 December) at the regular Salon event at De Montfort University's Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT).
A journalist, commentator and technology critic based in Cambridge, Bill has been working in, on and around the Internet since 1984.
He currently has a weekly column which appears in the technology section of the BBC News website, and contributes to other publications both on and off-line, including the Guardian, The Register and The New Statesman. He writes a monthly column for new net users for BBC WebWise, and a technology column for Focus magazine.
Bill appears weekly on 'Digital Planet' on BBC World Service and is the editor and systems administrator for the Working 4 an MP website.
Ahead of the talk Bill said: "According to the Open Knowledge Foundation, 'a piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and redistribute it'. This sounds simple enough, but underneath the slogan lie hard decisions about ownership, authority and, inevitably, cost. Those who live by writing may not wish their work to be freely available, while publishers of academic journals argue that changes to the current subscription model will threaten the ability of researchers to share knowledge."
For more about Bill Thompson and the topic see: www.andfinally.com and The Open Knowledge Foundation - www.okfn.org
IOCT Salons are a regular public event highlighting practice and practitioners in the digital arts. All events are free; book at www.ioctsalon.com or just turn up.
The IOCT leads the UK in trans-disciplinary collaboration between the previously separate fields of digital arts and e-science and acts as a catalyst for research that defies the traditional boundaries of computer science.
The Institute's work benefits the creative industries - one of the most important sectors in the UK and the East Midlands' economy - and it has attracted the support of Microsoft, Leicester-based ideas company Sleepy Dog, renowned computer scientist Steve Grand OBE, of Cyberlife Research Ltd, and the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA), as well as award-winning authors and artists.
For further information or to be kept informed about IOCT activities, please contact:The Director, Institute of Creative Technologies,
De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH
Tel: (+44) 0116 250 6146
Email: eedmonds [at] dmu.ac.uk
www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk