The government functions as both a facilitator and inhibitor of the growth of knowledge. To progress toward an Open Knowledge Society, the government must balance public and private interests by protecting the freedom of information as well as by reigning in overzealous intellectual property schemes.

Freedom from political and private agendas

Facing one direction on the Information Highway, the government is frequently cast in the role of censor. The function of moral censor has been variously adopted by religious and political institutions throughout history. In the present era, this role has been seized by countries that find they are becoming increasingly brittle under the deluge of the modern information flood. China, for example, has managed to cow down even mighty Google into deleting content and services deemed unacceptable. To the surprise of many, Google has chosen to continue to do business in China, within these official constraints. When perceived market demands override dedication to truth and openness, trust is necessarily diminished.

It is indeed ironic that emerging economies are among the most eager adopters of open source, yet some are also among the strongest proponents of censorship. Open source can provide the tools for universal information exchange, but evidently tools are not enough. The intent to develop free and accessible content must exist as well. Knowledge in every sphere must be created, organized, preserved and disseminated, regardless of conflicting political agendas.

However, freedom from a political agenda is only one of the conditions for knowledge to flourish. Equally important is the need to temper the reckless ability to cash in on knowledge through government enforced ownership of ideas under current patent regimes. The value of knowledge to society lies not in how ideas can be hoarded for private gain but in how they can be promoted and shared. Unsuitable for patenting, fundamental scientific knowledge must be developed collaboratively in order to be reviewed and tested and to be able to form the basis for additional discovery. In every area, either theoretical or practical, developing knowledge and content can be rapidly accelerated through open, shared efforts, as in the example of Wikipedia. Furthermore, collaborative information content development and open source information processing tools form a symbiotic pair.

“Governments can help best by minimizing their role as censors and maximizing their role as knowledge facilitators.”

Growing knowledge

Facing the other direction along the Information Highway, the government is cast in the role of the facilitator of knowledge. Here, the government functions as one of society’s most important sponsors for the creation of new knowledge and its technological application. The National Science Foundation (NSF) in the U.S. is a famous embodiment of this function, but there are similar governmental agents even in places that have adopted the strongest commitment to censorship. For example, in China, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) stimulate the creation of new knowledge, together with facilitating international collaboration, for the benefit of the Chinese people and their industries.

However, to sustain the growth of knowledge in society, both public censorship (regulation of ideas) and its sibling in the patent system (regulation of the use of ideas) must be brought under control. Like censorship, an overzealous patent system poisons the development of the Knowledge Society. When applied to business processes and software, patents represent a perverse variation of the dual nature of government as censor and facilitator. Through regulatory gymnastics, patents attempt to promote the freedom to innovate while simultaneously blocking that innovation’s free use. The two faces of government along the Information Highway become one. As the number and variety of patents grow, an increasing swath of knowledge is treated officially as property for the benefit of its presumed inventors and this is enforced by the legal machinery of the government. Because all new knowledge is built on prior research and knowledge, whole families of ideas and discoveries become off-limits. Curiously, in today’s over-reaching patent system, the apparent opposites of market freedom and government control come full circle to collude surreptitiously at their polar ends.

Making the right moves

As the examples of acquiescence to censorship in China, and patent misuse in the U.S. underscore, private interest must not stand alone in collecting, organizing and disseminating the world’s knowledge, for knowledge is too important to be funnelled and controlled by only selfish motives. Public interest also must not stand alone, for there is no surer path to bureaucratic lethargy, or even worse, to a regulatory “presumption of public interest” as seen in censorship or in the support for business process and software patents. Instead, public interest must be joined by private interests in creating an open knowledge commons. The checks and balances of diverse motivations represent the best way to sustain the progress of knowledge and build an Open Knowledge Society. Governments can help best by minimizing their role as censors or enablers of knowledge hoarding. Governments must maximize their role as knowledge facilitators.

After Tim O’Reilly started his Friends of O’Reilly (FOO) Camp, bringing together diverse talent to discover new ideas and create a buzz around emerging technologies, similar camps such as the BAR Camp have sprung up in the Valley.

“Mashups embody the idea of organized chaos. Even chaos can lead to the birth of new stars in the universe.”

Mashup camps are the latest incarnation. Silicon Valley held a two-day mashup recently at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This camp brought together the creators of technology, their consumers and enablers, all under one roof. Its aim was to ignite creativity and generate new ideas about the Internet and community-based applications and technologies.

300 developers, users and service providers from some of the top technology companies and open source projects gathered to present, listen and learn. Participants included Google, Yahoo, Sun, Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon, EBay, SixApart, SocialText, SpikeSource, Eclipse, and others. Groups formed around discussions covering API best practices, finding APIs, EBay Web services, Yahoo APIs, Amazon Web services, Google’s Virtual Earth APIs, search, storage, mobility, wiki tagging, creative commons and licensing. The Computer History Museum was filled to capacity. Already hundreds of enthusiasts are signing up for the next mashup camp. Although the location of the next camp is yet to be decided, the objective is to find an even larger place, where everyone who wishes to, can join in.

What exactly is a “mashup”?

Wikipedia defines a mashup as a website or application that seamlessly combines content from multiple sources into an integrated experience. The word originates from mashing up different kinds of music in the recording industry. At mashups, participants strive to develop new content and applications by sharing knowledge, using collaboration tools like wikis, wi-fi, podcasts, videologs, weblogs, forums, online meetings, RSS and e-mail. Progress is based on the exchange of information about application interfaces provided by the creators and required by the consumers. Any participant can join a mashup on a first-come-first-serve basis. The camp is designed to be inclusive and everyone can invite their own interested communities.

“Think about the opportunity to remix by holding a mashup camp in your city or locality.”

Mashups embody the idea of organized chaos. Even chaos can lead to the birth of new stars in the universe. In the universe of digital content, just think how cool, creative content can be envisioned, composed, perfected and contributed from literally every sphere of interest–music, photos, images, film, animations, literature, poetry, language, art and culture. In a gathering similar to the Mountain View event, the SXSW Interactive Festival held recently in Austin, Texas brought together new media entrepreneurs, innovators, Web designers, bloggers and keen observers to discuss digital convergence, interactive movies, content, revenue models, have geek lunches and share ideas. Yet another example of organized chaos in the guise of a fashionable mashup.

Do a mashup in your city

Think about the opportunity to remix by holding a mashup camp in your city or locality. Mashup camps in your locality can provide an exciting platform for combining the energies of creative individuals in different fields, allowing them to interact with each other as well as to understand and better use digital and open technologies for innovation. Starting off can be as easy as selecting a time and place. Then begin planning. Use a wiki, podcasts, e-mail, chat, and blogs as camp infrastructure. Throw a `mashup ideas’ party. Hold a `best mashup concept’ contest. Give prizes.

So how about organizing a mashup camp on technology or digital content in your own neighborhood. Watch the creative community grow and illuminate a few stars along the way.