Open knowledge is characterized by being easily accessible, without restrictions, and can be shared by any person, entity, or organization. This approach, which promotes the free accessibility of information, has been addressed by various authors whose contributions have had a significant impact on how knowledge is distributed. Among the main exponents of this open movement are: Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia (2001), an online encyclopedia with around thirty-seven million articles, mediated by a community of volunteer editors;[1] Rufus Pollock, British economist and founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation (2004),[2] defined as a global organization working on open data and open knowledge issues, with around 2,000 active projects in more than forty countries;[3] Tim O'Reilly, a tech entrepreneur who popularized the term "open source" as a software model developed through open collaboration and free of charge;[4] Peter Suber, author of the book "Open Access" (2012), which explores the benefits and challenges of freely opening academic literature;[5] Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, who in 1983 began developing the GNU operating system, software that can be freely used and distributed;[6] and finally, Lonny Grafman, professor at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, and founder of Appropedia (2006),[7] the wiki where collaborative solutions in sustainability are shared.
In essence, the open movement, through all its authors, seeks to make information freely and openly available to everyone. As has already been anticipated, a collaborative tool that facilitates this is wikis, which are digital platforms that allow the creation and editing of content individually or collectively. This is highly relevant because, in a context where the needs of Sustainable Development are increasingly diverse and changing, open knowledge, supported by wikis, represents an ideal space for development-promoting organizations in El Salvador, ranging from local NGOs to government agencies and international organizations, to document best practices acquired in their social projects, share detailed information about lessons learned, and continuously update findings as they progress in their efforts to improve community quality of life and achieve development.
This article aims to explore how the use of open knowledge platforms in documenting lessons and findings from learning processes represents an opportunity to strengthen collaboration and exchange of best practices among development-promoting organizations in El Salvador, contributing to a more efficient approach to maximizing the impact of their social projects. For this purpose, a specific case study will be used, presenting Appropedia as a site where content in the area of Sustainable Development is created and shared. In this sense, the data collection for this research presents the experiences of various organizations, both national and international, that have been using this wiki to highlight the lessons learned from their social projects. This seeks to break exclusive development paradigms and foster the exchange of ideas, collective feedback, and the growth of organizations facing similar challenges. Hence, this effort also serves as an invitation for the knowledge presented in this article to serve as a basis for broader and more rigorous future research.
- ↑ Ignacio Uría, “Interview with Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia,” Nuestro Tiempo, Cultural and Current Affairs Magazine, no. 690 (2016). https://nuestrotiempo.unav.edu/files/2019/10/nt690-jimmywales.pdf
- ↑ ''About the Open Knowledge Foundation," Open Knowledge Foundation, accessed January 25, 2024, https://okfn.org/es/
- ↑ "About," Rufus Pollock, accessed January 25, 2024, https://rufuspollock.com/about/
- ↑ "Opening up Open Data: An Interview with Tim O'Reilly," McKinsey Digital, accessed January 26, 2024, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/opening-up-open-data-an-interview-with-tim-o-reilly
- ↑ Peter Suber, Open access (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.+InstRepos:10752204
- ↑ "What is Free Software," Free Software Foundation, accessed January 25, 2024, https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software
- ↑ “User:Lonny”, Appropedia, accessed January 25, 2024, https://www.appropedia.org/ User:Lonny
