As much as capitalism has helped develop nations like India (and I know it has, I've read 'The World is Flat') it holds an interesting consequence when it comes to information access. I was reading this article today about the enormous "access to information" gap in developing nations. What I mean by that specifically in this case is access to journals related to health, medicine, science, technology - you name it. Credible, reliable, researched, and peer reviewed information that, if we believe the School House Rock adage "knowledge is power" (and I truly do) must be accessible to underdeveloped nations.
Anyway, there are many organizations like HINARI and AGORA, both mentioned in the quote below, that purchase journal subscriptions from large companies in order to distribute them to developing nations for free of a very low fee. The author points out an interesting problem when "commercial interest" comes into play:
"Also, in a few countries, publishers withhold some journals because the sales of these journals are significant in these countries.
Indeed, this is the case for India, which is excluded from HINARI and AGORA even though India’s per capita GDP is less than half of US$1,000, the threshold accepted by the publishers for these programs, simply because there are many institutional subscribers in India for many journals included in HINARI and AGORA. University and research institute libraries in various regions of India also belong to different consortia who sign different licensing agreements with different publishers that allow them access to some titles that are also available through HINARI and AGORA. So offering these programs to India would substantially undercut the subscription revenue publishers currently enjoy. It appears that profit motive prevails over the principle of true equity.”
I don't really know that I have a 'solution' to this issue, because truly, we ought to be valuing information and it ought to be expensive - it changes the world (we hope). I understand why they wouldn't want to give away what they are already selling. Companies have to be able to make a profit so they can continue to collect, publish, and disseminate good products...but groups like HINARI and AGORA are willing to pay...so why not just make a little less AND help the world?
Chan, Leslie, & Costa, Sely. (2005). Participation in the global knowledge commons: Challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries. New Library World, 106(3/4), 141-163.
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