Not only there's a lot more information now, the development of communication technologies calls for making immediate decisions. It may seem that constant Internet access and the development of social networks should help people make conscious decisions, — still, it's the way round, in fact — believes Ivan Zasurski, head of the Department of New Media and Communication Theory of the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University.
«We are now at the „Dark Ages“. In Middle Ages that was the time when people lost access to cultural values and could access them only in certain places, churches, for instance. Now it is the same. The development of new technologies led to communications being conducted in real time — but no one can really work this way. We can bring up a problem online — but we don't have the access to the information necessary to solve it,» — commented Mr. Zasurski.
With his colleagues from the «Wikimedia RU», Mr. Zasurski created the «Public Domain» project — its' goal being the promotion of a new policy for copyright laws in Russia. They plan to provide public access to most objects that have not been yet protected, as well as open the access to works of art and scientific results that have been funded by the government. Thanks to that, people will escape the «Dark Age», and science will acquire a new momentum. In some countries, they already make attempts at making science «open». For instance, some use the following method: a scientist can't get a grant from the government unless the research results are to be published openly. As of now, protection of large amounts of data is beneficial to only a small part of the populace, but stalls the development of the society as a whole.
«If humanity gets access to maximum data, then all regulators will disappear and that can lead to an emergence of a real self-management social-economic system», — believes Mr. Zasurski (you can read more about self-management in economics here, -- Ed.).
Still, information environment in Russia becomes more and more regulated, and the rights of the Internet users are often infringed. First of all, this has to do with restricting access to different resources. In most cases, it's about restricting access to copyright-protected items or websites that (accidentally or intentionally) post prohibited information.
«Often, the decision on closing a website is based on a claim from a single person. And while the rights of the applicant are protected, the rights of other Internet users may be infringed by it. The situation with Rutracker is a good example. While some protected their rights by closing the website, others lost the opportunity to openly share their work in free access. Thus, while protecting the rights of certain individuals, the courts often fail to protect the rights of the society as a whole», — commented Artem Kozluk, an activist of the «Roscomsvoboda» movement.
He listed several laws that in one way or another may impend the freedom of information in the Internet — including Wikipedia resources. One of them is Federal Law № 139 about the «black lists» of websites. According to law № 129, any websites of «undesirable» organizations can be locked. Federal Law № 364 is an anti-counterfeiting law: using it, one can even advocate for rights on data that has long been in free access. Another law that can be abused is № 264, nicknamed «The right for oblivion». According to it, any citizen can demand to delete any information concerning himself from the Net. And that can be data on illegal deals, bribery and such, that has not yet been covered by journalists.
«Our rights in what has to do with freedom of information have been threatened for a long time already. Whatever comes, we have to protect them even if it ends up in lawsuits. In other countries, IT-companies unite to stand up to different restrictions. As a result, they succeed in defeating some of the bills that threaten their freedom», — shares «Roscomsvoboda"'s activist.
Despite all mentioned above, there is such a phenomenon as «open license» in Russia. According to Vladimir Medeiko, this is a special phenomenon that has yet to be regulated by the present legislation, but already contributes to data accessibility.
As of now, lots of organizations and movements worldwide promote open access to data, for instance, the OpenGlam international movement that calls for open access to digital archives of galleries, libraries and museums. Irina Radchenko, Associate Professor for ITMO's Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics shared on how these movements work.
«Works of authorship are published under an open license. If the legal term of copyright is past due, the item has to be in public domain. Also, authors have to be precise about what they agree to leave in public domain and what not. All the data has to be published in machine-readable format. Open access to data is one of the main principles of science's development, as well. If no one can use your results, then where is the common benefit? Large scientific organizations have to present data in open access as well. This will also contribute to promotion of science», — explained Ms. Radchenko.
During the conference, other issues related to information access were discussed as well. The experts shared experience of digitization of libraries, told of the development of different Wikipedia projects, as well as the necessity to translate the resource's articles to rare languages. Also there were several workshops on managing the website. Vladimir Medeiko underlined that Saint Petersburg and its citizens contributed a lot to the creation of Russian Wikipedia.
«The anniversary conference being held in Saint Petersburg, at ITMO University is quite symbolic. Wikipeida in Russian was created right after the launch of the resource worldwide. At first, there were mostly jokes there. Then, in the end of 2002, one of the project's participants started to replace them with encyclopedic articles, and that person was from Saint Petersburg. Then another Petersburg's citizen changed Wikipedia's interface. Russian Wikipedia's first administrator was from this city and the first wiki-conference was held here, as well. Then, in 2009, one of our colleagues undertook a great project on organizing the Wikimedia RU, and he was from Saint Petersburg too», — shared Mr. Medeiko.
