The word information refers to something intangible that is non-depletable, as a contrary to natural ressources (The Scholarly Kitchen, 2009). It also has the property to be non-rival in the way that if I am using a source of information, it doesn't prevent anybody else to use exactly the same source. Thus there is no background of something private which has the intrinsic characteristic of ownership. If I am reading an article on the Internet environmentalist website www.novethic.com, it will not entrave anybody else to read exactly the same news. So what are the characteristics of information as a public good in the sustainable development field?
From the definition of the Linux Information project (2006), economists use the therm public good to refer to a good or service which can be consumed indefinitely without reducing the quantity available for other persons. About information, we went from private good with material media (newspapers, magazines) that are owned by editors, to digital media that gives information the trait of a public good: “The development of distributed digital information through network browsers has radically changed many of the traditional institutions of... communication” (Hess et al's, 2001). Thus, the point about digital information is that it can be spread easily and as a result could be copying. This act illustrates the non-rivalry of information that makes it a public good. The idea of copying is developed in the Scholarly Kitchen website, saying that an overuse of information doesn't make it scare, but do exactly the opposite. In doing so, information become infinitely expansible: each user of the Internet can duplicate, create and distribute information. From an article writing in the New-York Times, an Internet user can react on its blog to modify and add content from the original article, to create new reactions in other blogs and new articles in other news websites, and so on.
As a result, traditional communication has changed to make information rhyme with participation. Information is here all about participatory media content. All kind of media are gathered and contents are created by both citizens and professional. Information is created through participatory media, like blogs, podcasts, and widely broadcasted to share green ideas all over the world. Participation in web 2.0 is best illustrated with the rise of the open source encyclopedia: wikipedia. “Open source production essentially involves producing a commodity as a public good” (Anthony, 2009). A parallel can be made with the “creative commons” movement which “enable authors,... and other creators of original content to establish more flexible... principles through which their work can be used and repurposed to serve non-commercial, public-good principles” (Flew, 2008). A movie available on the internet reflect this principle: “Home”, directed by a famous french photographer. You can freely see the whole movie on YouTube, without being charged or risking to be pursued for hacking.
--> link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
Another interesting example is on the Google search page, if you click on the link marked “advanced search,” and then on “usage rights” you can select “free to use or share” (Boyle, 2008).
Information should be shared and provided, the problem is that sometimes information is withhold, as the example of the movie “The Cove” which revealed a catastrophic information about how dolphin are butchered in the Japan town Taiji.
In the sustainable development field, information needs to be widely provided to citizen to increase their awareness about climate change and to keep them in touch with the reality. So what could be more a public good than information about sustainable development?
References
Flew, T. (2007). New Media: An Introduction. South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
The Linux Information Project (2006, February 16). Public Goods: A Brief Introduction. Retrieved from The Linux Information Project http://www.linfo.org/public_good.html
Society for scholarly publishing (2009, April 9). Information as Property. Retrieved from The Scholarly Kitchen, what's hot and cooking in scholarly publishing: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/04/09/information-as-property/
Hess, Charlotte & Ostrom Elinor (2001). Artifacts, Facilities, And Content: Information as a Common-pool Resource. Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University: http://www.law.duke.edu/pd/papers/ostromhes.pdf
Anthony, D. (2009). Reputation and Reliability in Collective Goods. Rationality and Society, 21(3), 283-306. Retrieved from E-Journals database.
Boyle, James (2008). The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. Retrieved from: http://www.thepublicdomain.org/
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