A quick heads-up: A new report (PDF) just dropped that I co-wrote with Dr. Henriette Litta, executive director of Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. In it, we explore the state of Openness, its challenges and opportunities, and where to go from here. We make a range of recommendations, too.
Openness is in an odd place right now: It’s part of mainstream debates, but it mostly lost its rallying power. It’s suddenly part of major geopolitical debates, too. For the report we spoke to about 20 experts who kindly shared their time and insights — a huge thank you to all of them!
Here’s the announcement as per the Open Knowledge blog:
The idea of openness has had a decisive influence on the digital age. Whether open source software, open standards or freely licensed content – many foundations are based on principles of accessibility, participation and transparency. Openness, understood as free access, free use, modification and sharing of knowledge, has established itself as a driver of innovation and social progress. However, despite all its successes, the concept of openness seems to be going through a crisis. Between political appropriation, economic instrumentalisation and technological upheaval, the concept of openness is coming under increasing pressure and threatens to become diluted. The reasons for this include contradictory definitions, the enormous concentration of power in a few tech companies, geopolitical tensions and internal conflicts in openness communities.
The new study “From Software to Society: Openness in a Changing World” by Dr. Henriette Litta and Peter Bihr takes stock and looks to the future: What does openness mean in the digital age? Is the concept still up to date? The study traces the development of Openness and analyses current challenges. It is based on interviews with experts and extensive literature research. The key insights at a glance are:
- Give Openness a purpose
- Protect Openness by adding guard rails
- Open innovation and infrastructure need investments
- Openness is not neutral
- Market domination needs to be curtailed
You can find the English version here (PDF, alternative link), a German translation will follow soon.
