Since 2000, digital technology and other technological advances such as 3D printing have improved non-traditional scientists’ participation in biotechnology and life science research and development. Non-traditional scientists, including amateur scientists, students and graduates from the life sciences, artists, programmers, engineers, and entrepreneurs, have rapidly increased under the Do-It-Yourself biotechnology (DIY bio) movement. These DIY biotechnologists or DIYers increase biotechnology research and life science inventions in society by encouraging open and cooperative development. Biotechnology research and development (R&D), especially in healthcare and agricultural biotechnology, suffers from patent proliferation with fragmented and overlapping rights that cover upstream research resources and research tools which can enable downstream developments. The proliferation of patents and related rights protecting upstream research can be detrimental to progress and citizens’ welfare because they can increase the cost of R&D, interfere with access to upstream research tools, and allow R&D to be concentrated around the issues found in developed nations. Many DIYers depend on self-funding and community resources to experiment with biotechnology. Proprietary research tools and equipment are harder to access. Some of them operate alongside proprietary R&D in a research area by building on off-patent technologies and inventing around patents. Some DIYers have made significant contributions in science that benefit other biotechnology researchers and developers, such as developing and manufacturing open source versions of proprietary research tools and equipment. Nonetheless, they can risk inadvertent patent infringement by working in competitive biotechnology research areas with heavy patent coverage. The presence of patent thickets in biotechnology can also discourage volunteers’ initial participation in open R&D. When third party patents develop around open and cumulative development, the risk of patent infringement increases for downstream development and commercial activities based on upstream open R&D. Alternative knowledge management strategies, such as open source patent licensing, clearinghouses and contract-based compensatory liability regimes, allow open innovation communities to create a protected commons of shared resources. However, these do not resolve problems in biotechnology patent law, such as fragmented and overlapping rights on cumulative technologies and strategic patent use. Government actions can address these problems, such as broadening outdated patent law exceptions, which can discourage unnecessary patenting and reduce the risk of infringement in alternative innovation environments.

As part of its quest to become the first digital African city, in 2014 the City of Cape Town adopted an open data policy, which was later coupled with an open data portal to make government data available for public access. This was touted as a novelty initiative as the City of Cape Town was the first African city to implement a policy of this nature. This open data initiative aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability as well as promoting inclusive economic participation for its citizens. Open data project managers from the city and external industry experts working on open data initiatives were interviewed to understand the current the state of open data within the city and how it worked with other stakeholders. The study draws on these interviews to present the current challenges experienced by the city from the city’s official point of view as well as from open data experts working closely with the city. To understand the practical experiences of how the city publishes data in its platforms, the study also extensively explored the city’s open data portal, as well as examining and commenting on the documented open data policy guidelines contrasted and compared to current practical experiences. To guide the objectives and analysis of the study, four key themes were adopted from literature; context, use, data and impact. Context focused on the overall context or environment at which open data in the city is provided as a public service, while use focused challenges on the uses of open data as well as it is users, data focused on the types of datasets published on the portal as well as the technical challenges in publishing them. Lastly impact looked at the expected benefits and goals of the city’s open data policy. The study through the themes highlighted the ongoing challenges at various levels that the city experience as they implement and develop the open data policy. Overall it was noted that open data was not a goal but continuous challenges were arising daily while implementing and developing the policy- while it was noted that various stakeholders within and outside government had to collaborate to effectively meet the required open data standards.

Opening Up Scholarship in the Humanities: Digital Publishing, Knowledge Translation, and Public Engagement considers the concept of humanistic, open, social scholarship and argues for its value in the contemporary academy as both a set of socially oriented activities and an organizing framework for such activities. This endeavour spans the interrelated areas of knowledge creation, public engagement, and open access, and demonstrates the importance of considering this triad as critical for the pursuit of academic work moving forward—especially in the humanities. Under the umbrella of open social scholarship, I consider open access as a baseline for public engagement and argue for the vitalness of this sort of work. Moreover, I suggest that there is a strong connection between digital scholarship and social knowledge creation. I explore the knowledge translation lessons that other fields might have for the humanities and include a journalist–humanist case study to this end. I also argue for the value of producing research output in many different forms and formats. Finally, I propose that there are benefits to explicitly popularizing the humanities. In sum, this dissertation speculates on past, current, and future scholarly communication activities, and proposes that such activities might be opened up for wider engagement and, thus, social benefit. / Graduate

Lack of access prevents many from benefiting from educational resources. Digital technologies now enable educational resources, such as books, to be openly available to those with access to the Internet. This study examined the financial viability of a religious publisher's putting free digital versions of eight of its books on the Internet. The total cost of putting these books online was $940.00. Over a 10-week period these books were downloaded 102,256 times and print sales of these books increased 26%. Comparisons with historical book sales and sales of comparable titles suggest a positive but modest connection between this increase and the online availability of the free books. This dissertation may be downloaded for free at http://etd.byu.edu.

Open innovation that Henry Chesbrough introduced in 2003 promotes the usage of the input of outsiders to strengthen internal innovation processes and the search for outside commercialization opportunities for what is developed internally. Open innovation has enabled both academics and practitioners to design innovation strategies based on the reality of our connected world. Although the literature has identified and explored a variety of benefits and costs, to the best of our knowledge, no study has reviewed the benefits and costs of open innovation in terms of their importance for strategic performance. To conduct such a study, we need to take into account two main issues. First, the number of benefits and costs of open innovation are multifold; so, to have a comprehensive comparison, a large number of benefits and costs must be compared. Second, to have a fair comparison, benefits and costs must be compared in terms of different performance criteria, including financial and non-financial. Concerning the issues above, we will face a complex process of exploring benefits and costs. In this regard, we use multiple criterion decision-making (MCDM) methods that have shown promising solutions to complex exploratory problems. In particular, we present how using a stochastic multi-criteria clustering algorithm that is one of the recently introduced MCDM methods can bring promising results when it comes to exploring the strategic importance of benefits and costs of open innovation. Since there is no comprehensive understanding of the nature of the benefits and costs of open innovation, the proposed model aims to cluster them into hierarchical groups to help researchers identify the most crucial benefits and costs concerning different dimensions of performance. In addition, the model is able to deal with uncertainties related to technical parameters such as criteria weights and preference thresholds. We apply the model in the context of open innovation for universities concerning their research collaboration with industries. An online survey was conducted to collect experts' opinions on the open-innovation benefits and costs of university-industry research collaboration, given different performance dimensions. The results obtained through the cluster analysis specify that university researchers collaborate with industry mainly because of knowledge-related and research-related reasons rather than economic reasons. This research also indicates that the most important benefits of university-industry research collaboration for universities are implementing the learnings, increased know-how, accessing specialized infrastructures, accessing a greater idea and knowledge base, sensing and seizing new technological trends, and keeping the employees engaged. In addition, the results show that the most important costs are the lack of necessary resources to monitor activities between university and industry, an increased resistance to change among employees, conflict of interest (different missions), an increased employees' tendency to avoid using the knowledge that they do not create themselves, paying time costs associated with bureaucracy rules, and loss of focus. The research's findings enable researchers to analyze open innovation's related issues for universities more effectively and define their research projects on these issues in line with the priorities of universities.

In this paper, 936 faculty free response reviews of open textbooks from the Open Textbook Library were analyzed for content and themes. The reviews were completed by faculty members at institutions in the United States and Canada. The textbooks were evaluated regarding their comprehensiveness, content accuracy, relevance longevity, clarity, consistency, modularity, organization structure flow, interface, grammatical errors, and cultural relevance. The results of the reviews found that the across 9360 comments regarding the quality of open textbooks, of these comments 97.3% reflected adequate or exceptional reviews of the textbooks. Faculty often compared the texts to traditional textbooks and in all mentions of comparison, the open textbook were regarded to be of equal or superior quality. The results of this study aid in alleviating concerns regarding quality of Open Educational Resources (OER) and provide peer reviews that faculty who consider adopting these textbooks often request. Limitations of the study and further prescriptions for research regarding OER quality and peer review research have been explored in the study.

Wissenschaft lebt vom offenen Austausch von Erkenntnissen. Die Open-Science-Bewegung prägt weltweit die Wissenschaft, Wissenschaftspolitik und -förderung in immer stärkerem Maße. Um die Wissenschaftler:innen der TU-Bergakademie Freiberg regelmäßig über die für den Forschungsalltag wichtigsten Open-Science-Themen zu informieren, hat die Universitätsbibliothek Freiberg einen neuen Service eingerichtet: den Open-Science-Snack. Zugeschnitten auf das Fächerspektrum und die vorhandenen Infrastrukturen der TU Bergakademie Freiberg enthält jeder „Snack“ einen Kurzbeitrag zu einem bestimmten Open-Science-Thema mit Links zu weiterführenden Informationen sowie einen Überblick zu den aktuellen wissenschaftspolitischen Entwicklungen und Fördervorgaben im Kontext von Open Science. Ergänzt werden die Beiträge zum Teil durch eine kurze Vorstellung von Repositorien, Open-Access-Zeitschriften oder -Büchern.

Kauno kolegijoje yra patvirtinta ir vykdoma nauja e. mokymosi plėtros programa 2009-2013m. Pagal ją Kauno kolegija orientuojasi į atvirą e. mokymąsi, todėl atviras elektroninių išteklių kūrimas, panaudojimas bei talpinimas yra vienas iš pagrindinių šios programos tikslų. Taigi šiame darbe pateikiama: informacija apie atvirus elektroninius išteklius, jų nauda tiek studentui, tiek dėstytojui, tiek institucijai, atvirų elektroninių išteklių kūrimo ir panaudojimo proceso Kauno kolegijoje analizė, atvirų elektroninių išteklių talpinimo programinių įrankių integravimo projektas, sumodeliuotas UML kalba, vartotojo instrukcija. Parengus šį darbą paaiškėjo, kad minėtų programinių įrankių integravimas yra reikalingas ir kad tai tikrai skatintų vartotojus kurti, talpinti bei naudoti atvirus elektroninius išteklius, taip pat buvo surengti mokymai maždaug šimtui vartotojų, ir buvo parengta dalis dokumentų, reglamentuojančių atvirų elektroninių išteklių talpinimo veiklas bei institucinė licencinė sutartis, skirta autorių teisėms apsaugoti. / Kauno kolegija (Kaunas University of Applied Sciences) has adopted and implemented e-Learning Development Program for 2009-2013. One of the key components of the program is orientation to the open e-Learning, so the main tasks are the promotion of the development and use of open educational resources and storage of such resources. Thus, the aim of this work is to promote the development and use of open educational resources by preparing the integration project of Open Journal system, Open Conference System and DSpace systems, by organizing the training courses for users, also by preparing the documents regulating the activities of the hosting of open educational resources. In this document are presented: the information about open educational resources, their advantage for all – student, lecturer and institution, the analysis of the situation of the development and use of open educational resources in Kauno kolegija (Kaunas University of Applied Science), the project of integration of Open Journal System, Open Conference System and DSpace systems, modeled using UML language, and also a short user manual. After the completion of this work revealed that such integration project of the above-mentioned systems was necessary and it would really promote users to develop, load and use open educational resources, also there were organized training courses for about one hundred users, alike there were prepared a part of the documents regulating the activities of hosting open... [to full text]

Introduction: The introduction aims to provide a background to the case company, what Open Innovation (OI) is and how the concept is used in producing companies that are large and SME, as well as a brief description of what a fixture can look like. Purpose and issues: The purpose and goal of this study is to develop a permanent fixture for milling machines that will cut different articles into different lengths to save time and money. Since the case company uses this study as an OI strategy, the purpose is also to investigate why producing companies use OI in the development of products and what risks it may entail.Based on the purpose of the study, two questions were formulated: RQ1: What are the main reasons that producing companies use OI in their product development process and what risks may occur using OI? RQ2: Can a generic product development process, if possible, be applied when developing a fixture for milling machines through OI? In such case, what steps are applicable in this study? Approach and method: A case study was performed at a company and data was collected through literature studies, observations, and semi- and unstructured interviews. The literature study was collected to link the collected theoretical data with the results and was taken from books and scientific articles. The product development process was performed by following the theoretical frame of reference. Results: The respondents use OI for external input to develop the technology and utilize external knowledge. The concept is used to make the innovation process progress. The respondents have experienced positive results from using OI, but it has also entailed certain risks. Students are often used as an OI strategy to carry out student thesis and projects at companies.A fixture was developed following a generic product development process and a 3D CAD model of the product solution was developed. The phases product planning, concept development, development at system level and detailed development were completed to develop a solution to the problem that the case company experienced. Conclusions: The conclusions that can be drawn in this study are that OI is recommended to be used in producing companies to continue to develop even though it may involve risks.A fixture was created based on the requirements and goal specifications that the case company had, with a solution to the problem that existed. The fixture that was developed can be manufactured economically and practically and can save the fall company time and money. Keywords: Open Innovation, Open Innovation risks, reasons for Open Innovation, SME Open Innovation, large companies Open Innovation, product development, concept development, product design, concept design, fixture design, product development process. / Introduktion: Introduktionen syftar till att ge en bakgrund till fallföretaget, vad Open Innovation (OI) är och hur konceptet används i producerande företag som är stora och SME, samt en kort beskrivning av hur en fixtur kan se ut. Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet och målet med denna studie är att utveckla en permanent fixtur till fräsmaskiner som ska skära olika artiklar i olika längder för att spara tid och pengar. Eftersom fallföretaget använder denna studie som en OI-strategi är syftet även att undersöka varför producerande företag använder OI vid utvecklingsarbeten och vilka risker det kan medföra. Utifrån studiens syfte formulerades två frågeställningar: FF1: Vilka är de främsta orsakerna till att producerande företag använder OI i deras produktutvecklingsprocess och vilka risker kan förekomma genom användning av OI? FF2: Kan en generisk produktutvecklingsprocess om möjligt tillämpas vid framtagning av en fixtur till fräsmaskinergenom OI? Vilka steg är i sådana fall tillämpbara i denna studie? Ansats och metod: En fallstudie utfördes på ett företag och data samlades in genom litteraturstudier, observationer, samt semi-och ostrukturerade intervjuer. Litteraturstudien samlades in för att kunna koppla den insamlade teoretiska data med resultatet, och hämtades från böcker och vetenskapliga artiklar. Produktutvecklingsprocessen utfördes genom att följa den teoretiska referensramen. Resultat: Respondenterna använder OI för extern input för att utveckla tekniken och utnyttja extern kunskap. Konceptet används för att få innovationsprocessen att fortskrida. Respondenterna har upplevt positiva resultat av att använda OI, men det har även medfört vissa risker. Studenter används ofta som en OI-strategi för att utföra studentarbeten och projekt hos företag. En fixtur utvecklades genom att följa en generisk produktutvecklingsprocess och en 3D CAD-modell av produktlösningen utvecklades. Faserna produktplanering, konceptutveckling, utveckling på systemnivå och detaljutveckling fullföljdes för att ta fram en lösning till problemet som fallföretaget upplevde. Slutsatser: Slutsatserna som kan dras i denna studie äratt OI rekommenderas att användas i producerandeföretag för att fortsätta utvecklas även fast det kan medföra risker. En fixtur skapades utifrån de krav-och målspecifikationerna som fallföretaget hade, med en lösning till problemet som fanns. Fixturen som utvecklades kan tillverkas ekonomiskt och praktiskt och kan bespara fallföretaget tid och pengar.

Les objets, les supports, les sources, la gouvernance, les contenus, les acteurs, les fins et les formes de la transparence publique connaissent à présent une évolution rapide et profonde, qui dépasse les frontières nationales et dépend de l’interaction entre facteurs politiques, technologiques, juridiques et socio-culturels. Cela s’avère notamment lorsque la transparence se prévaut des moyens du paradigme de l’"Open Government Data" et s’inscrit dans les perspectives de la doctrine de l’"Open Government".Ce travail de recherche vise à esquisser les mutations et les axes de progrès de la transparence publique, à l’aune de l’évolution des systèmes juridiques italien et français. On se penchera à titre liminaire sur l’articulation entre les notions de transparence et d’ouverture, afin de cerner les questions juridiques soulevées par l’ouverture des données publiques à des fins de transparence. Ensuite, on parcourra le niveau supranational, à la fois un forum et un lieu d’élaboration des orientations fondamentales en la matière. Une place de choix sera réservée au droit (et à la politique) de l’Union Européenne, dont on examinera les développements les plus récents. Enfin, on analysera les ordres juridiques susmentionnés, qui font à l’heure actuelle de la refonte du droit à l’information publique l’un des chantiers majeurs, dans le cadre de partenariats multi-parties prenantes tels que l’"Open Government Partnership". / Objects, medium, sources, governance, content, actors, purposes and forms of public transparency are experiencing a rapid and profound evolution, which transcends national borders, and depends on the interaction between political, technological, legal and socio-cultural drivers. This happens when transparency exploiting the Open Government Data means and falls under the Open Government framework.Through the Italian and French legal systems, this thesis aims to highlight the recent advancements in public transparency. At first, we will look at the interplay between the concepts of transparency and openness, to identify the legal issues raised by the disclosure of public data. Subsequently, we will turn to the supranational context, which plays a key role in developing guidelines, standards and recommendations. A special place will be reserved to the right (and political) of the European Union. In the second part, we will analyse the above-mentioned legal systems, which are actively engaged in the wider reform of their Public Information Acts, within the framework of multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Open Government Partnership.On the whole, we will see how the shift from “transparency through documents” ” to “transparency through data” challenges the public action models.