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LJ-manifesto-ideas
Open Knowledge: power for the many, not the few
Technology has the potential to offer equal access to information to everyone. Knowledge is power, and open knowledge will empower people around the world.
Today, we don't have access to the information we need. The latest scientific research results are locked up in expensive journals, out of reach of many researchers. Information about our governments is hidden away, entirely inaccessible or hard to use, so they cannot be held to account. We cannot find out where public funds are allocated, whether they are actually spent as planned, and whether they are having the impacts they could.
When this information is locked away, we have little power to change the world and to build fair and sustainable societies.
Our governments and corporations have access to far more information about us, than we have about them. We must fight for balanced information power, for access to data about powerful institutions. And we should all benefit from the sum of human knowledge, science and culture - this is technically possible now, and it is our duty as a civilisation to make it happen.
We need this information to be open so we can all access it and benefit from it.
Open information is free for anyone to use, anywhere, for any purpose.
It is not enough that information is available on the web. It must be truly open, free for anyone to use without legal or technical constraint, and there is one way to guarantee that. Information must be opened up following the Open Definition, which ensures it can be used such that we can all benefit from it.
Of course, availability of information isn't enough. We need data skills so we can understand it and work with it. We need technical tools and guidance to help us do so. Tools and skills give us the power to make open information used and useful, and with that open knowledge we will build a better world.
A world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few.
A world where data frees us — to make informed choices about how we live, what we buy and who gets our vote.
A world where information and insights are accessible — and apparent — to everyone.
This is the world we choose.