[okfn-discuss] The Four Principles of (Open) Knowledge Development (v0.1)

Tue May 9 10:43:02 UTC 2006

Vedran wrote:
> hello,
> 
> I found your principles well defined.  owever, I think that it is good to put 
> in explanation of collaborative that it assumes to be accessible to all 
> including people with disabilities.

That's a good point Vedran but one which I think is a bit too specific 
to include here. The principles aren't prescriptive they are just 
highlighting prominent features of the process of open knowledge 
development.

Furthermore collaboration and accessibility are related but distinct. 
When collaborating with people it is natural to focus your work and 
efforts on issues that are directly related to those people and I don't 
think you have an immediate obligation to ensure everyone can 
participate. For example if start work on making a collection of 
shakespeare's work I might only provide an initial version in English or 
might expend effort making glossy pdf versions of the texts. Later 
translations might be made, or special versions developed with markup 
suitable for those who are visually-impaired etc etc. This 
prioritization doesn't mean the project wanted to exclude people but 
just reflects the fact that time is limited.

At the same time accessibility is very important and all work should be 
provided in open formats so that it is easy for future collaborators (or 
other projects) to convert them and use them easily. As you know the 
open knowledge definition -- http://www.okfn.org/okd/ -- specifically 
mentions that information must be provided in 'open formats' and the OKF 
also has an information accessibility initiative: 
http://www.okfn.org/iai/ specifically focused on that issue.

Regards,

Rufus