1. Yves Bourgeois, PhD Director, UNB Urban and community studies institute Bailiwick 2012 Conference: Focus on open access UNBSJ, Saint John 24 October 2012 we are gathered here today because knowledge is not free 1 Superconducted info, sticky knowledge When does « open » help developing economies

2. Juxtapositions 1. Gov facilitating and implementing… 4G, 1gbps networks, e-services uptown revital, convention centres, airport upgrades 2. We recently observed… 1 billionth facebook friend request, spike in skype Can air traffic 85M (2001) to 113M (2011) Conflicting observations if you subscribe to a Death- of-distance view (ICT-mediated K cannibalizing physical proximity mediated K) but rational if you consider them mutually enhancing 2

3. K filtering You don’t watch a youtube video to learn how to ride a bike (Polanyi 1966), well… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjUopYKMVhA 1. Data  Info  K  wisdom (Ackoff 1989) 2. TK vs CK When we speak of open innovation, we are speaking of Information and arguably codified K Knowledge and wisdom = spatially-mediated 3

4. Packing & unpacking knowledge is costly Costs to acquiring knowledge can be high & many Direct costs IPR (Apple-v-Samsung), subscriptions Venue is money  K infrastructure, conferences Digital pony express  data encrypt, netw security Indirect costs Time = money  sift, act, learn (e-journals) Devel absorptive capacity (training, R&D) 4

5. Unpacking knowledge is spatial Distance, K decay, “broken telephone” F2F buzz – (Storper & Venables 2004) water coolers  trust, networks, gossip unrecord Temporary vs permanent knowledge clusters (Bathelt 2011) Introductions, collaborations, closing deals, fixing misunderstandings …F2F-dependent 5

6. Knowledge can be sticky When knowledge can be packed and unpacked into bits and bytes, transmission costs can be virtually nil, but … not all K can be packed  learning-by-doing, learning-by-interacting etc often requires physical space mediation chefs learn in kitchens, physicists in labs unpacking knowledge is costly  absorptive capacity (skills, R&D), learning, trust Inability to pack some K and cost of unpacking impel physical proximity 6

7. Implications for developing economies ICT mediated knowledge can substitute or enhance K acquisition strategies Oreilly.com, customer feedback integration Need much more sophisticated appreciation of how open and “closed” knowledge strategies are used by businesses according to environment/locales (access to infra) stages of product development (K forms) stages of business development (start up, export) industrial sector Firms develop sophisticated knowledge strategies – or wing it – recombining physical and relational proximities to identify, adopt, adapt, produce, share and sell knowledge. 7

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9. Reflections on open access Open access potential of flattening or leveling playing field in scientific production Open access journals will need to establish credibility not simply turnaround speed Some elephants in the corner… scientific production infrastructure (nanotech labs, particle accelerators) are spatially anchored absorptive capacity  skill levels needed to pack and unpack knowledge peer-reviewed content often subjected to earlier peer-reviews at F2F conferences 9