Sharing knowledge

Much of the knowledge referred to here is free. It is not industrially secret, and it requires no difficult or costly process to transmit. It is readily available - yet little is being done to share it. Instead the effort is going to create more and more of it.

The 1999 UNESCO World Conference on Science, in its closing declaration, emphasised these issues:

• that there is a need for a vigorous and informed democratic debate on the production and use of scientific knowledge;
• the benefits of science are unevenly distributed; equal access to science is a social and ethical requirement for human development;
• that science is indispensable to human progress - but its applications can have detrimental consequences for individuals, societies and the environment; and
• all scientists should commit themselves to high ethical standards, based on human rights instruments. Political authorities must respect this.

In a new book Sharing Knowledge, I argue that the democratisation of science is not merely desirable from a societal viewpoint, but also from a scientific one.

The community can bring to science many ideas and perspectives which will result in the science being more widely accepted, rapidly adopted or commercialised, and of greater value to more people than would otherwise be the case.

The community can be a partner in the process of advancement and innovation, instead of an uninformed recipient or opponent. That is the true meaning of "knowledge society".

Democratising science will ease fear of change, allay concerns about loss of control or failure of ethical standards. It will limit exclusion. It will curb the growing fear and perception of risk.

The book proposes four-point charters for global science, technology and innovation:

• knowledge is the rightful inheritance of all the world’s people;
• the sharing of knowledge is as important as its discovery;
• science will engage the community in a dialogue, each recognising the other as an equal partner in human advancement; and
• partnership between all nations, developed and developing, in knowledge sharing is central to the peace, wellbeing, health, progress and sustainability of humanity.