[CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
anatoly
av at total-knowledge.com
Thu Oct 17 13:49:29 EDT 2019
Let it be a side note for the discussion since it is not in direct
relation with the subject.
I want to address "IP is often a problem" -- No, IP is not "often a
problem," in my view. IP is a global problem. The concept as such is a
problem. Its implementation is a problem. Its perception by the wast
majority of scientists "as reasonable instrument not to be abused" is a
problem. Looking forward for a possible argument, I answer: There cannot
be any "balance" in use of IP. It never played any positive role in
development of science, arts, engineering -- generally speaking --
culture. IP is a global inhibitor of any positive development nowadays.
On 10/16/19 08:48, George Alter wrote:
> Dear Anatoly,
>
> I think that we are seeing this from the perspective of different
> disciplines. I agree that IP is often a problem, but it is not the
> only problem.
>
> In the case that I was describing, the African research center
> actually "owns" the data, but they are dependent on funding sources in
> the US and Europe for support. This leads to an imbalance in their
> relationship with researchers with access to funding. I see this
> imbalance in resources and power as the central problem.
>
> The "Afrobarometer" survey (http://www.afrobarometer.org/) may be a
> model of interest in this discussion. Afrobarometer is a survey of
> attitudes about governance and society administered in 30+ countries.
> There are similar surveys (Eurobarometer, Asiabarometer,
> Latinobarometer, etc) in other regions, which are very widely used in
> political science. Afrobarometer started as a partnership between
> universities in the US, South Africa, and Ghana. At first, the center
> of activity was in the US, but the headquarters and leadership were
> transitioned to Africa. The US and South African partners continue to
> be involved as "support units".
>
> Best,
>
> George
> ---------------------------------------------------
> George Alter
> Research Professor, ICPSR
> Professor of History, University of Michigan
> PO Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
> Tel: 734-478-0783 Fax: 734-647-8200
> Email: altergc at umich.edu <mailto:altergc at umich.edu>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 11:15 AM Alex de Sherbinin
> <adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu
> <mailto:adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu>> wrote:
>
> Dear Kiringai,
>
> Thanks for your thoughtful response. I don't think that the cloud
> makes in-country or regional investments in the establishment of
> data repositories redundant. A repository could use the cloud for
> storage or backup and still require domain expertise for the
> curation, documentation and stewardship of data according to
> community standards. Note that the CoreTrustSeal certification
> requires repositories to identify their domain and mission, which
> is considered critical for understanding the needs of the user
> community.
>
> One of the issues I have with the current approach to putting data
> in open repositories (Dryad, Figshare, etc.) is that the data are
> often not well documented (unless accompanied by a journal
> article) or discoverable, e.g. through catalog searches. Something
> else I've encountered in Africa is a reluctance by national
> governments to entrust their data to cloud services hosted in
> Europe or North America. There may really be no threat to data
> security or breaches at all, but there is a perception that such a
> threat exists or that this is a form of neo-colonialism
> (exportation of data). Lastly, someone else raised the issue that
> the cloud requires monthly fees. Unfortunately this may represent
> an obstacle to donors, who can pay for infrastructure but not
> necessarily monthly fees. Perhaps those policies can be changed in
> recognition of the new reality. Or perhaps a continental/regional
> approach could mean that a repository is supported by fees coming
> from multiple member countries.
>
> I am not opposed to a continental/regional approach to data
> repositories, but where do we begin? With the AOSP? The African
> Union? And is it just one big open repository serving all domains
> from health to agriculture to climate or biological sciences, or
> could we envision various domain repositories being set up with
> core funding serving continental or regional needs (say under the
> umbrella of ECOWAS or CILSS in the West African context)?
>
> In any case - I wanted to make this point to the group at large,
> in case others have thoughts. I would like to follow up with you
> for some more discussions on possible GODAN-WDS collaboration in
> the region.
>
> Alex
>
> On Sun, Oct 13, 2019 at 12:56 AM Kiringai Kamau
> <kiringai.kamau at godan.info <mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>> wrote:
>
> Alex,
>
> As you well mention, the Cloud makes in-country investments
> redundant. and may to some extent be unnecessary. As Africa
> moves to centralize rather than decentralize within the
> Continental Free Trade Area and the Malabo Agendas, we may
> want to think of Africa's open data space as the policy
> environment where much of what emerges from your
> workshop/conference will get better mileage for realization.
>
> GODAN's Africa Agenda is to support a melting pot of
> innovation using data. It is my view that once data is openly
> available, the temptation of taking it away to any place or
> location after a project is done becomes unnecessary. We make
> a deal of data theft because someone having it has better
> mileage in what they can propose to us...what if everyone has
> access, can use and reuse the data for innovation-based not on
> information asymmetry but rather on their ingenuity?
>
> If we could do this, then the pan African institutions would
> focus on what brings development rather than other parochial
> interests...investment would be promoted and development achieved.
>
> I would be keen to discuss with your team on the possibilities
> of moving to a more centralized open data space that can
> inspire innovation as we work together within the GODAN
> Agenda. Unfortunately, we shall be finishing the Africa
> Geospatial Data and Internet Conference in Accra at the time
> yours kicks off.
>
> Inbox me for further discussion on how we can work together.
>
> Kiringai,
>
> On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 9:53 PM Alex de Sherbinin
> <adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu
> <mailto:adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu>> wrote:
>
> This conversation offers a good opportunity to make
> everyone aware of a conference coming up on 23-25 October
> in Dakar: "Open Science in the South: Issues and
> Perspectives for a New Dynamic"
> https://opensciencesud.sciencesconf.org/.
>
> At this conference I am co-organizing with a colleague
> from WDS (Arona Diedhou) and partners from Agrhymet,
> Centre de Suivi Ecologique and WASCAL a workshop on
> developing West African research data repositories. One of
> the arguments I plan to make is that the absence of
> national / regional repositories, along with policies in
> countries requiring repatriation of data (or at least
> maintenance of a copy in country), there will continue be
> a lack of "restitution" of research findings and
> development project data in the region. I'd be happy to
> know if others are making such arguments, or if indeed in
> the age of the cloud this seems too parochial. Obviously
> this would require training and funding. If anyone can
> point me to initiatives that would support this effort,
> that would be most welcome. I am hoping to convince IRD,
> the lead organizer, that investment in this area would be
> a tangible output from the conference.
>
> Cheers,
> Alex de Sherbinin
> vice chair, WDS scientific committee
>
> On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 9:42 AM Kiringai Kamau
> <kiringai.kamau at godan.info
> <mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>> wrote:
>
> Kassim, Niek
>
> As you rightly say, most of the projects are
> undertaken from a top-down perspective, with limited
> sharing of knowledge among all the actors ... the
> beneficiaries rarely get to see the definition of the
> mission and the impatience to get started by those
> coming with the project funds creates no opportunity
> for any preparedness among the beneficiary partners.
> Where knowledgeable persons exist, they may only be
> hosted within institutions. In many cases, such
> institutions are not core/key actors in the
> problem/project definition. They are only invited, by
> a higher privileged office/officer, when everything
> has been defined and pathways of implementation
> determined at a political level they cannot question.
> Economic or political interests are the pathways that
> those with interests use to take advantage of a system
> they may know presents the opportunity to give them
> leeway to mine data for their use and leave with it.
> The projects therefore are not defined with any other
> intention other than the data sourcing for a song and
> empty promises by those portending to possess the
> knowledge that will develop a beneficiary country.
>
> Realizing this challenge, the Global Open Data for
> Agriculture and Nutrition convened with ministers of
> the South-South an Open Data Conference in Nairobi
> where a Declaration was formulated. We are currently
> supporting African countries to evolve policies and
> frameworks that can advise compliance to national,
> regional and global agendas and in the process build
> local capacity key of which is data governance. I am
> convinced that we can sport feudal inclinations on
> behalf of partner countries in projects and therefore
> request anyone formulating a project that they feel
> should be bottom-up and create local knowledge should
> link up with GODAN through Suchith or myself (in
> case your area of focus is Africa).
>
> Thanks, Suchith for sharing the Feudalism concerns.
>
> Kiringai Kamau
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 10:16 AM Mwitondi, Kassim
> <K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk <mailto:K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk>>
> wrote:
>
> This is an instance of a biased data ownership. A
> few years ago I was working with a young African
> researcher on an agro-forestry research project.
> No sooner had we started than I realused that her
> centre had only some descriptive statistics but no
> direct access to the biomass data which she and
> her colleagues had spent months collecting from
> two islands! The vast chunk of the data had left
> with the development partners at the end of the
> project. It turned out, nobody at the centre had
> any knowledge or pressing interest to pursue the
> data and there was already new initiatives to run
> another project, which in my view was almost a
> duplicate of the first, but this time with a
> different development partner.
>
> To cut the long story short, I have come across
> several cases of data ownership of this nature and
> my view is that it doesn't help much coining
> terminologies, as the best that can be achieved is
> a blame culture. Would I call that data
> capitalism? Colonialism? Feudalism? I never would!
> I have learnt, over the years, that proper problem
> identification is a major stride in working out
> the solution. Blaming it on one part marginalizing
> the other when it comes to data generation, access
> and ownership is stripping everyone on the project
> of a fundamental responsibility in managing the
> project.
>
> Apparently, the problem starts with the project
> write-up. If the project recipient is fully
> engaged from project initiation to delivery, they
> surely should know how to access the data, as that
> is a key project deliverable. My personal
> experience is that there are a several factors
> that lead to this kind of situation. One, many
> project ideas are top-down, that is, they are not
> developed within the working conditions of the
> recipients. Two, there are often many gaps in
> engagement, mainly caused by near disparate
> motives on many projects, with the funders,
> experts and recipients not necessarily having the
> same perception, motives or knowledge. Put the two
> together and add the determined project timeline,
> you have a near disaster. But the tripartite
> interests to run projects continues and we are
> creating a vicious cycle. What is the solution? It
> must start from the recipients who must align each
> incoming project with their respective development
> strategies. They must present themselves as equal
> partners in defining the project problem and
> tracking and measuring its outcomes. They should
> be able to quantifiable identify what worked and
> what didn't and any there should be national
> institutions charged with such responsibility. I
> could be writing all night, I would rather stop
> here for now.
>
> Thanks.
>
> KSM
>
> Dr Kassim S. Mwitondi
> Sheffield Hallam University
> Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts
> Communication & Computing Research Centre
> 9410 Cantor Building, City Campus
> 153 Arundel Street
> Sheffield, S1 2NU
> United Kingdom
> Tel. +44-114-2256914 (Direct)
> Tel. +44-114-2255555 (General)
> https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* CODATA-international
> <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org
> <mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org>>
> on behalf of Trimpact - Niek <niek at trimpact.nl
> <mailto:niek at trimpact.nl>>
> *Sent:* 11 October 2019 18:12:22
> *To:* 'Ernie Boyko' <boykern at yahoo.com
> <mailto:boykern at yahoo.com>>; 'CODATA
> International'
> <codata-international at lists.codata.org
> <mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>;
> 'Suchith Anand' <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk
> <mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>
> *Subject:* Re: [CODATA-international] Digital
> Feudalism
>
> Dear all,
>
> This is indeed a huge problem. I also recently
> learned that information data from NGOs are best
> perhaps shared with some ministries in Bamako,
> Mali, but not within a region where the work is
> being done. This implies that local decision
> makers remain dependant on the information/data
> stream back from the ministries which may take
> some months, if ever. This can never be the
> purpose of the work executed.
>
> Since most of the projects are financed with
> public funding for the benefit of de people in the
> given (development) country and data/information
> belong in fact to the real funds provider of the
> work (i.e. tax payers), claims of intellectual
> property rights that data belong to the project
> executors seem not applicable. Consequently, data
> and other information (e.g. lessons learned)
> should be shared at large to the population and
> other relevant stakeholders to avoid duplication
> of efforts.
>
> A discussion worthwhile to be continued.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Dr. Niek van Duivenbooden
>
> /Bringing value to life/
>
> Mezenlaan 138 - 6951 HR Dieren - The
> Netherlands – T +31 61 13 81 061
>
> KvK: 64218422 - niek at trimpact.nl
> <mailto:niek at trimpact.nl>- www.Trimpact.nl
> <http://www.trimpact.nl/>
>
> *Van:* CODATA-international
> <codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org
> <mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org>>
> *Namens *Ernie Boyko
> *Verzonden:* vrijdag 11 oktober 2019 15:26
> *Aan:* CODATA International
> <codata-international at lists.codata.org
> <mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>;
> Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk
> <mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>>
> *Onderwerp:* Re: [CODATA-international] Digital
> Feudalism
>
> Thank you Suchith,
>
> I have not heard that term before but I did run
> into related term this week at the DDI-CODATA
> workshop here in Dagstuhl. The term is Data
> Colonialism. This often happens when a foreign
> entity (e.g., a development agency/project).e data
> are collected in a developing country and are
> taken out of the country. They will leave behind
> some summary tables but will take the rich data
> and metadata away. This makes it difficult to
> develop the data analysis and management skills
> within the country.
>
> Thanks for the message.
>
> Cheers, Ernie
>
> +1-613-290-2804
>
> *Larrimac: More than a golf course!*
>
> *CODATA: Making data work together to improve
> science to support decision makers.*
>
> On Friday, October 11, 2019, 08:51:29 AM EDT,
> Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk
> <mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
> I came across a recent op-ed by Prof. Mariana
> Mazzucato on “Digital Feudalism” at
>
> https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/platform-economy-digital-feudalism-by-mariana-mazzucato-2019-10?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d192f2bc47-sunday_newsletter_6_10_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-d192f2bc47-105013549&mc_cid=d192f2bc47&mc_eid=a8cee90b20
>
> Prof. Mazzucato is a leading researcher and
> thinker on Technology and Innovation, advisor to
> the European Commission on research and innovation
> strategy, and author of two important books on the
> subject “The Value of Everything” and
> “The Entrepreneurial State”.
>
> The report on “Mission-oriented Research and
> Innovation in the European Union” might be of interest
>
> https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/mazzucato_report_2018.pdf
>
> Since the use of cloud platforms for GIS data
> analysis is having a huge impact on the GIS
> community, the subject is of relevance. I would
> like learn more on this
>
> 1. Are there any examples of Digital Feudalism in
> GIS?
> 2. How will Digital Feudalism in GIS affect our
> future generations?
> 3. What policies are governments, regulators
> doing to reduce Digital Feudalism in GIS?
> 4. What policies and curriculum are universities,
> educators adopting to reduce Digital Feudalism
> in GIS?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
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>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
> Kiringai Kamau
>
> *GODAN Africa Lead*
> Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA
> Africa)
>
> *GODAN Head Office*
>
> 845 Sherbrooke Street West, *Montreal*, Quebec, Canada
> H3A 0G4
>
> Macdonald Campus, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore
> Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9
>
> *Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA)*
>
> PO Box 1618, 00100 GPO Nairobi, 1^st Floor, Nyaku
> House, Argwings Kodhek Road
>
> Cell: +254 722 800 986/+254 733 375 505
>
> *Email*: *kiringai.kamau at godan.info
> <mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>* or
> kiringai at perfect.africa <mailto:kiringai at perfect.africa>
>
> */Website/*: www.godan.info <http://www.godan.info> or
> www.perfect.africa <http://www.perfect.africa>,
> */Tweeter/*: @kiringaik, */Skype/*: kiringai.kamau
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------
> Alex de Sherbinin, PhD
> Associate Director, Science Applications Division
> Deputy Manager, NASA SEDAC
> CIESIN, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
> P.O. Box 1000 (61 Route 9W), Palisades, NY 10964
> Web: www.ciesin.columbia.edu
> <http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu> and
> http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
> Tel. +1-845-365-8936, Skype: alex.desherbinin
>
>
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
> Kiringai Kamau
>
> *GODAN Africa Lead*
> Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA Africa)
>
> *GODAN Head Office*
>
> 845 Sherbrooke Street West, *Montreal*, Quebec, Canada H3A 0G4
>
> Macdonald Campus, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road,
> Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9
>
> *Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA)*
>
> PO Box 1618, 00100 GPO Nairobi, 1^st Floor, Nyaku House,
> Argwings Kodhek Road
>
> Cell: +254 722 800 986/+254 733 375 505
>
> *Email*: *kiringai.kamau at godan.info
> <mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>* or kiringai at perfect.africa
> <mailto:kiringai at perfect.africa>
>
> */Website/*: www.godan.info <http://www.godan.info> or
> www.perfect.africa <http://www.perfect.africa>, */Tweeter/*:
> @kiringaik, */Skype/*: kiringai.kamau
>
>
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------
> Alex de Sherbinin, PhD
> Associate Director, Science Applications Division
> Deputy Manager, NASA SEDAC
> CIESIN, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
> P.O. Box 1000 (61 Route 9W), Palisades, NY 10964
> Web: www.ciesin.columbia.edu <http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu> and
> http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
> Tel. +1-845-365-8936, Skype: alex.desherbinin
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