Shipra Sharma
From apc.au wiki
For Growing the Global Information Commons (commissioned paper) and Nailing The Commons (micro-doc).
Day01 – Clip 077
APC: What do you understand as the commons?
Shipra Sharma: My understanding is very much the same that Heather Ford explained today during that, in the meeting... The commons is about sharing and openness and free content. This is my understanding of the commons.
APC: Does that relate to the information or knowledge commons?
Shipra Sharma: Oh yeh.
APC: From where you come from are the issues specific to the commons that you are aware of, or even deal with?
Shipra Sharma: In my particular project there were some issues. Like in South India the very definition of openness is very different. So it's more about sharing your expertise and learning. So in my project people were not very much eager or they did not come together and share there. So we had to motivate and sensitise them on the values of sharing their knowledge and expertise and then come together and develop something so that together they can come together and bring in new ideas and they can develop something better and they can add value to their own expertise and experiences.
APC: So you're working to address some of these processes?
Shipra Sharma: Yes, I will be sharing the challenge especially that we faced in India back home for developing open content and why other organisations were not coming forward to share their knowledge and expertise and how we motivated them to join this. So these are things that I want to share with other participants.
APC: What do you see open content providing the public in your country?
Shipra Sharma: Like in my case it was very important. Because the curriculum we were developing was for the grassroots trainers. They were trainers from the villages... and this was open so they had free access to this kind of thing. Especially in India there are more poor people in the villages, so they don't have any kind of access to training or education so if things are put on the common platform they are available free online so people can access them and they can increase and enhance their knowledge also.
APC: So you see this as contributing towards development?
Shipra Sharma: Exactly.
APC: What do you see as the key development issues arising from the commons?
Shipra Sharma: I will specifically try to explain it in the context of the things that we are doing in India. Like we have a telecentre movement over there. Telecentres are basically ICT access to places which are providing free accesss to ICTs to the rural areas who are poor and do not have any access to connectivity, don't have any access to ICTs, so this is basically a kind of commons. Telecentres are serving as a kind of common place where people can come and have access to knowledge knowledge and access to knowledge is the key to development because earlier people had access to knowledge, but only traditional knowledge that they used to share with themselves. But because of ICTs they can have access to knowledge from the scientific community also. So there will be more two way communication with the scientific community on the one hand and the village community on the other. So this is how I see the telecentres as commons space, or as a public space that encourages common sharing of knowledge and these kinds of things.
APC: What specific problems do you see these development processes resolving?
Shipra Sharma: Basically it was, as we have found out in India, it was lack of access to information or knowledge, that too in real time. Like in real time and local specific knowledge. So people didn't have this kind of knowledge. So you might have heard of farmers who ????? that was happening in India. It was mainly because of lack of knowledge. They were using the technology. They were using hybrid crops, but they did not know how to go about it. So, like at certain places they found they are just stuck, because they did not have any support from the scientific community. So this was the basic knowledge that crops failed because of this the crops failed and they could not go ahead. So they were facing these kinds of knowledge. So I think basically providing free access to knowledge can improve their lives and can help them in many ways.
APC: So it's both about informing and empowering people?
Shipra Sharma: Exactly.
