INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE

Authors

  • Linda Karlsson

Abstract

Yes, I admit it; I’ve always been in favour of Open Access. There is something so inspiring about the saying “information wants to be free” that hackers in the early days of Internet chanted. And as I participate, in my role as librarian, in Malmö University’s Master’s course Communication for Development, these old words are filled with new connotations.

The thought that information wants to be free is a serious one, grounded in great ethical and epistemological positions, and it has obvious implications in the areas of communication and development. As the Internet has narrowed the world, enabling fast communication and meetings all over the globe, it has also increased the information gap and widened the digital divide. Each updated attempt to map the Internet, displaying hubs and nodes of connection clusters, clearly shows that there is still much to ask for.

Author Biography

Linda Karlsson

Master of Library and Information Science. Librarian at Malmö University, with a special interest in library support in e-learning context, the information search process and web usability.

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Published

2005-05-27

Issue

No. 1 (2005)

Section

Articles