German Development Cooperation and Open Access
By Peter Rave, German Technical Cooperation, GTZ
德國開放近用發展合作
In the context of the global structural change from
agricultural and industrial societies to knowledge
societies, knowledge has become a basic factor
for sustainable economic and social development(
73). One of the goals of German development
cooperation at university level is the independent
development and acquisition of knowledge, as
well as its application to local needs and problems
in the partner countries(74). In this context,
Open Access to digital research repositories and
virtual research environments harbours great
potential for developing countries.
全球結構由農業轉向工業社會到知識社會，
知識已經成為經濟和社會發展持續的基本要素(73)。
德國大學的發展目標之一是水平獨立的發展及獲取知識，
不但適用於當地的需求和問題也適用於合作的國家們(74)。
在此開放近用的背景下，數位研究庫跟虛擬研究的環境如大港口般，
是有發展潛力的國家。
The digital and academic divide
數位鴻溝和學術鴻溝
To ensure that scientists and scholars in our
partner countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan
Africa, can share in current research results, it
is generally necessary to first overcome what
is known as the ‘digital divide’: weak infrastructure
for information and communications
technologies (ICT), high access costs and/or
lacking deregulation of telecommunications
providers, as well as a lack of local ICT service-
providers and experts. This digital divide
slows down communication with international
research institutions, access to international
library initiatives(75), and also the production,
archiving and distribution of (electronic)
publications (cf. diagram). Looked at in this
way, the digital divide reinforces the existing
academic divide between developed and
developing countries.
為了確保合作國的科學家和學者可以分享目前的研究成果，
特別是在撒哈拉以南的非洲，
首先必須克服一般被稱為'數位鴻溝':基礎信息及通信技術
（ ICT ）建設薄弱 ，高使用費和缺乏管制的電信供應商、以及缺乏地區性的信息和通信技術服務供應商和專家。
這個數位鴻溝減緩國際研究機構交流，
國際上圖書館（ 75 ），同時也生產、存檔和分發出版物及電子出版物（見圖表）。
看這張圖，數位鴻溝加強了已開發國家和開發中國家目前的學術鴻溝。
The size of the countries is proportional to the percentage of all scientific and scholarly publications published there by authors in 2001. (Source: http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map205_ver5.pdf)
Improved access in developing countries to
ICT and the global communications networks
has been the object of international initiatives(76)
since the late 1990s. Germany supports these
initiatives and treats the subject of ICT as an
interdisciplinary issue, which, in conjunction
with improvements in education and research,
is intended to ease the way towards knowledge
societies for partner countries.
自90年代後期到20世紀，能在發展中國家妥善利用全球通訊網絡的信息和通信技術，一直是國際倡議（ 76 ）的對象。德國支持著這些倡議並且把信息和通信技術當成跨學科的問題，
其中，結合改進教育和研究意在舒緩合作國家面對知識社會。
Open Access approaches
in German development
cooperation•••••••••••••
德國開放進用的合作發展辦法
The Open Access approach of the KfW
Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank)
focuses on infrastructure. The KfW is part of
the consortium of development-finance institutions
that is preparing the funding of the East
Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy). This
will provide eastern and southern Africa with an
inexpensive broadband connection to the international
fibreglass communications network.
Further measures are necessary to ensure that
academics and entrepreneurs can use such networks
and further ICT to process knowledge and
adapt them according to their needs. For this
reason the GTZ and InWEnt (Capacity Building
International, Germany) are implementing
measures for capacity development and institution
building in many educational and research
institutions in partner countries. These measures
increasingly focus on independent electronic
production, archiving and distribution of digital
contents, also via regional networks(77). In addition,
teaching and learning materials are also
being offered in native languages, increasingly
through the use of alternative licensing models
such as creative commons (http://creative
commons.org/), which allow users far-reaching
freedom when exploiting the contents(78).
Since Internet access is still severely restricted in
many of the partner countries, innovative channels
of distribution for digital resources must be
tested. An example is the University of Addis
Ababa, which has a bandwidth of only 6 Mbit/s
(March 2007) at its disposal. In the context of the
Ethiopian Capacity Building Programme(79) a socalled
‘open toaster’(80) was developed together
with the students at this university. The students
are now able to select digital resources (free
software and publications) via a touch screen
and burn them directly on to CDs.
The measures presented here show how diversely
the Open Access approach is being implemented
within development cooperation and how much it
contributes to overcoming the academic divide.
開放進用在德國復興信貸銀行Entwicklungsbank（德國
復興信貸銀行發展銀行）的辦法是側重於基礎設施。
德國復興信貸銀行的一部分金融機構財團是準備發展
東非洲海底光纜系統（ EASSy ）的資金 。
這將提供東非及南非便宜的寬頻連接世界，用光纖連
上網際網路。確保學者和企業家可以使用這網絡並根
據自己的適應及需要進一步的用這信息和通信技術，
必需採取進一步措施。
因此，德國技術合作公司和InWEnt（能力建設國際，
德國）正在許多合作國家的教育和研究機構實施能力
建設和體制建設。透過網路（ 77 ），這些措施越來越集中在獨立的電
子生產、存檔和分發數位內容。此外， 也提供的本
地語言的教學和學習的材料，越來越多藉由使用替代
許可模式如創作共用 (http://creative
commons.org/)允許自由利用內容使使用者影響深遠（78）。
由於許多合作國家網路接入仍然受嚴格限制，必須測試新增數位資源的分布。
如 Addis Ababa 大學的例子，它的頻寬只能處理6 Mbit/s (March 2007) 。
在Ethiopian能力建設計劃(79)中，一個讓這所大學的學生共同開發所謂'開放烤箱'(80) 的計畫。學生現在能透過選取螢幕和燒錄CDs選擇數位資源(免費軟體和出版物)。
這些措施在這裡表明如何無窮開放近用的辦法正在實施，藉由發展合作和多少有助於克服學術鴻溝。
