Sergio Amadeu da Silveira - Cidadania e Redes Digitais

eng
c i t i z e n s h i p a n d d i g i t a l n e t w o r k s
sues such as chaos, networking, complexity and organization, and forecasts that the
“connections that allow us to learn are currently more important than our current
state of knowledge.” (SIEMENS, 2006, 30).
This theory is based on the understanding of the learning process as the process
of creation of networks between contact points:
“Learning is a process of creating networks. Nodes are external entities which
we can use to form a network. Or nodes may be people, organizations, libraries,
web sites, books, journals, database, or any other source of information. The
act of learning (things become a bit tricky here) is one of creating an external
network of nodes — where we connect and form information and knowledge
sources. The learning that happens in our heads is an internal network (neural).
Learning networks can then be perceived as structures that we create in order
to stay current and continually acquire, experience, create, and connect new
knowledge (external). And learning networks can be perceived as structures that
exist within our minds (internal) in connecting and creating patterns of understanding”
(SIEMENS, 2006, 29).
The philosophy of the open educational resources (OER) and of open access
(OA) to scientific publications meets this definition of the connected learning process
and potentializes it, for it removes from its way the barriers of access and use
placed by intellectual property (copyright and software license, specifically), and by
technological protection measures such as TPMs or DRMs 3 .
However, despite the best intentions and beliefs of many cyber space thinkers,
the latest 10 years taught us that the network technologies can be closed by changes
in the laws, by market interests or in their codes (LESSIG, 2006). In scientific
literature, for instance, “openness” and “connectiveness” were concepts foreign to
the traditional editors, who moved aggressively to control and restrict the access to
digitalized knowledge by technical protection measures, radical prices increases and
3. “The Technology Protection Measures (TPMs) are encrypting keys that take from the consumer the
right of deciding how to use the cultural assets acquired in a legitimate manner, performing through
the acknowledgment of technologic features programmed in the factory. In other words, the TPM
prevents you from, in the digital world, doing things you have always done in the real world, such as,
for instance: Recording your favorite shows to watch them later; creating music selections for friends;
watching movies in your computer and portable devices; backingup songs purchased in the Internet;
sharing videos or DVDs with friends or family; etc.” More at: http://www.idec.org.br/restricoestecnologicas/faq.html.
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