UNESCO promotes ‘Openness’ in content, technology, and processes through
awareness raising, policy formulation and capacity building. These
solutions include Open Access to Scientific Information, Open Educational Resources, Free and Open Source Software, an Open Training Platform
and Open and Distance Learning. Such resources allow researchers and
innovators to more easily share and use data. They also provide students
and educators from around the world with unprecedented access to
knowledge and information.
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Knowledge
and information have significant impact on people’s lives. The sharing
of knowledge and information, particularly through Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) has the power to transform economies
and societies. UNESCO works to create inclusive knowledge societies and
empower local communities by increasing access to and preservation and
sharing of information and knowledge in all of UNESCO’s domains.
Knowledge societies must build on four pillars: freedom of expression;
universal access to information and knowledge; respect for cultural and
linguistic diversity; and quality education for all.
The
Organization’s thrust to create knowledge societies is premised on the
conviction that universal access to information is key to building
peace, sustainable economic development, and intercultural dialogue.
Central to its mandate of promoting peace and intercultural dialogue,
UNESCO supports the preservation of documentary heritage by
strengthening existing preservation frameworks, and emphasizes long-term
preservation of digitized and digitally-born information. UNESCO
equally encourages multilingualism and respect for cultural diversity in
cyberspace. It promotes local content production in different languages
and contributes to international debates on internet governance,
through participation in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
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In order to succeed in this constantly changing environment, and to
resolve problems effectively in every facet of life, individuals,
communities and nations should obtain a critical set of competencies to
be able to seek information, critically evaluate it and create new
information and knowledge. Information Literacy creates new
opportunities to improve the quality of our lives. Information Literacy is also closely linked to other types of literacies such as ICT literacy, Digital Literacy and Media and Information Literacy.
Toa Maoni Hapa Chini
