The Free Knowledge Institute (FKI) is a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

founded in 2006 in the Netherlands. Inspired by the

free software movement The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for user (computing), software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets thes ...

, the FKI fosters the free exchange of knowledge in all areas of society by promoting freedom of use, modification,

copying Copying is the duplication of information or an wiktionary:artifact, artifact based on an instance of that information or artifact, and not using the process that originally generated it. With Analog device, analog forms of information, copying is ...

, and distribution of knowledge about education, technology,

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

. The FKI coordinates and participates in projects concerning education,

access to knowledge The Access to Knowledge (A2K) movement is a loose collection of civil society groups, governments, and individuals converging on the idea that access to knowledge should be linked to fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic developm ...

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

, and

open educational resources Open educational resources (OER) are Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descr ...

Vision

Communication networks, and especially the Internet, have become the driving force of a revolution comparable to the one that followed the invention of the printing press. In its years of existence, the Internet has given wings to our natural tendency to share information. However, still a dominant sector of society thinks that knowledge should be protected by several legal regimes commonly referred to with the term '

'. This term suggests that knowledge can be exclusively owned and neglects the differences between tangible and intangible goods: while tangible goods have a scarcity problem, intangible goods can be copied and shared without limit and, when shared, tend to increase their total value. A countermovement started in the 1980s with the rise of the Free Software movement and open standards, which have produced a tremendous wealth of free software applications and form the basis of the current internet. The principles behind

Free Software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

have inspired the unrestricted sharing and reusing of artistic and cultural works in the free content movement (including

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

) and the creation and use of free educational materials in the educational sector. Similarly, the

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

movement promotes the sharing and open publication of research for advancing scientific knowledge. The Free Knowledge Institute believes that by promoting the use of Free Knowledge in the fields of Technology, Education, Culture and Science more individuals and organisations will profit from the benefits of sharing knowledge.

Principles

The Free Knowledge Institute has formulated a set of principles that it considers basic for being consistent with its vision. These founding principles take as a starting point the sharing of knowledge in the tradition of

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...

and include the use of

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

, adherence to

open standards An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

, the importance of education, respect for diversity and different cultures, transparency and consensus.

Activities

In order to work towards this vision, the Free Knowledge Institute participates in political debates and activism to highlight the wrongs of certain policies and propose alternatives. For that reason, the FKI works together in various networks and coalitions with other groups and organisations. With the Open Net Coalition, a collective warning has been formulated about policy proposals in the EU parliament threatening internet neutrality.

Projects

SELF Project

The SELF Platform aims to become a collaborative web platform with high quality educational and training materials about

and

Open Standards An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

. It is based on world-class Free Software technologies that permit both reading and publishing free materials, and is driven by a worldwide community. SELF (Science, Education and Learning in Freedom) is an international project that was initially financed by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

which has developed a platform to encourage creative cooperation and the sharing of educational materials and continuous training, paying special attention to free software and open standards. Inspired by the Wikipedia model, the SELF Platform is open to the contributions of all those who would like to bring their knowledge to it, and share this knowledge without restrictions.

Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference

The Free Knowledge, Free Technology Conference (FKFT) was an event that centered on the production and sharing of educational and training materials in the field of Free Software and Open Standards. It was held first in 2008 in Barcelona and was organised by the SELF Project and the Free Knowledge Institute.

Free Technology Academy

The Free Technology Academy consists of an advanced virtual campus with course modules that can be followed entirely online. The learning materials are Open Educational Resources that can be studied freely, but learners enrolled in the FTA will be guided by professional teaching staff from the participating universities. The full master programme can be concluded at one of the universities. The project financially supported by the Life Long Learning Programme (LLP) of the

, is a collaboration between the FKI and various European universities and organisations like the Open Universiteit Nederland (OUNL) from The Netherlands, the

Open University of Catalonia The Open University of Catalonia (; ) is a private Open supported learning, open university based in Barcelona, Spain. The UOC offers graduate and postgraduate programs in Catalan language, Catalan, Spanish language, Spanish and English languag ...

(UOC) from Spain and others.Free technology academy: a European initiative for distance education about free software and open standards, Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, 2009, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1562877.1562904

Free Culture Forum

The

Free Culture Forum The Free Culture Forum (FCForum) was an international meeting of relevant organisations and individuals involved in free culture movement, free culture, digital rights and access to knowledge. It took place in Barcelona every annually from 2009 ...

was an international encounter on free culture and knowledge that took place in Barcelona from 30 October to 1 November 2009. It took place jointly with the second edition of the oXcars. During the Forum 200 organizations and individuals linked to free culture expressions discuss on the privatization of the creation and the intellectual property and its incidence in the access to the knowledge and the creation and distribution of the art, knowledge and culture. The Forum ended up with the definition of a "Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge". The first edition of the Forum was organised by Exgae, Networked politics and the Free Knowledge Institute.

References

External links

Official WebsiteWhat Is Solana?Technology News
Privacy organizations Internet-related activism Computer law organizations Organisations based in Amsterdam Foundations based in the Netherlands Intellectual property activism Knowledge sharing 2006 establishments in the Netherlands Access to Knowledge movement Organizations established in 2006