And now it it time to announce the technology event of the year in Oslo:
The Norwegian Polytechnic Society invites you to a discussion with Cory Doctorow, themed “The Economics of Openness”
Time: May 9th from 7pm to 8:30pm, with informal discussions following.
Place: The conference hall, Norwegian School of Management’s Center for Management Education (at the old Marine College, Ekeberg – map reference), Karlsborgveien 4, Oslo. (Parking is available, or you can take the Ljabru tram line (about 10 minutes) from the center of Oslo.)
Open standards and access to information are not just about about teenagers downloading MP3 files. Historically, openness – in the widest sense of the word – has been an important contributor to economic success: Open societies experience faster economic growth and political stability than closed ones. Despite this, we see a trend today where public and private actors work to limit access to information, using both technical and legislative means.
The Norwegian Polytechnic Society, which has facilitated debate about technology and society for more than 150 years, has invited the Canadian author and activist Cory Doctorow to speak about openness as a basis for economic growth and innovation, followed by a debate. Doctorow currently works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization working for protection of electronic freedomes, and has as a representative of EFF followed the processes in international fora such as WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and the EU Parliament closely.
Cory Doctorow is himself an avid user of information technology and a prolific content producer. In accordance with his principles of openness, he makes his whole production (including books) available through his web site craphound.com. He is also a regular contributor to boingboing.net, one of the most widely read blogs on the Internet. Doctorow is a lively and engaging speaker, who delights in audience interaction.
Free admission, please register to the office of the Norwegian Polytechnic Society, via email or telephone +47 2242 6870. (Or, if you prefer, by writing a comment to this post.)