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Current Knowledge Dynamics

In his work L'imaginaire d'Internet (2001)1, Patrice Flichy creates the utopian concept of the so-called Republic of Computer Scientists, which is one of the founding myths of the Internet: an organized scientific community which is based upon the wider possibilities for distance knowledge-sharing. This community is structured around four main principles based upon the same ideal of a new scientific community:

1. - the exchange of ideas and cooperation, first and foremost, which take place between specialists;
2. - this community is one of equality where everyone is judged by his peers and not within a hierarchical relationship, which excludes authoritative argument;
3. - cooperation is a central theme;
4. - it is a world apart, which is separated from the rest of society.

In her statement on 24 January 20132, Geneviève Fioraso, then French Minister for Higher Education and Research, stated a second facet of the current dynamics based around sharing and she then declared, "Scientific information is a common resource which should be available for all", thus affirming its will to unlock the circulation of research produced for the benefit of all citizens.

Thus, scientific production is currently in total turmoil. With new information and communication technologies (NICTs), data are able to be shared by the largest number of individuals, without any time storage limit (at least on the face of it). The scientific environment is fundamentally changing with respect to data availability.

In short, knowledge is subject to more general digital developments. It benefits not only from new tools, but is also subject to the same risks.

New knowledge dynamics are structured around three major issues:

1. - enabling the deepening of individual disciplines and broadening perspectives by creating a synergy of researchers, with national and international projects (and making transdisciplinarity possible);
2. - providing scientific evidence and also popularizing sciences, which are increasingly now open to "laymen" and other casual observers;
3. - the research environment is based upon the sharing of scientific data (which allows the comparison and reuse of results). The environment is also based around competition (not only between states, but also at a practical level). In this context, it is incumbent upon national authorities to develop the competitiveness of the research sector.

1.1. Transparency of scientific data

New digital tools make it possible for a larger number of people to access scientific information. Knowledge changes dynamics from two angles. It may be produced by a larger number of individuals, who get involved in its elaboration through the widespread use of digital tools (participative science). However, the knowledge produced becomes more accessible, with scientific data being considered public property, and therefore subject to new knowledge-sharing tools and pooling.

1.1.1. Transparency of access

Access to research has for a long time remained both the reality and the privilege of academically recognized scientists. Yet, the Berlin Declaration of 12 July 20043 upon Open Access has tended to change this order, by assimilating scientific research into "a universal source of human knowledge and cultural heritage having gained the approval of the scientific Community".

Open Access therefore seems to be the logical continuation of this new principal. It consists of making digital content available, either free from copyright, or subject to the intellectual property law regime. The Internet has made the emergence of such a perception of science possible, through its collaborative concept. The Declaration promotes "an Internet which is a functional tool in the service of global knowledge and human thought base".

The idea is largely to spread science to the entire population, in a democratic manner, and to favor the largest possible sharing of scientific vocations. Knowledge (its production and the consequent access to it) currently exists within a dynamic of democracy in respect of data access.

For example, this ambition occurs by the creation of open archive digital information platforms, responding to very different needs and ideals. Web of Science4, which is a subscription-based private information service around online university publication for the university community, has unveiled a system of online sharing, while maintaining a traditional subscription system intended for an informed audience.

Other platforms display the willingness to provide free services. There is, for example, the Public Library of Science5, an American project with a non-lucrative purpose of providing English-speaking scientific publication with open access, operating upon the basis of free licensing, thereby abandoning the concept of paid access. Finally, these projects often draw support from public authorities as is the case with PERSEE6 in France, which is a free scientific web portal for French human and social sciences reviews, created by the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (the Ministry for National Education, Higher Education and Research - MENESR).

1.2. Transparency of experimental protocol

1.2.1. For scientists.

The experiments previously cited all have the common factor of relying upon Internet technologies to offer research interfaces between the various university environments, by sharing results and publications. However, this notion of interface takes on real meaning in the second widespread transparency movement within scientific domains. This is the transparency of the experimental protocol, which enriches scientific contributions from different disciplines, as well as citizens for whom their involvement is no longer conditioned simply by academic acknowledgment.

We then speak of open science, the aim of which is to produce and share hypotheses, methods and protocols, which are subject to discussion within a given wider scientific community. The results are freely available on the Internet.

Science therefore relies upon expert collaboration in the domain concerned, but also upon less directly linked disciplines. This type of scientific work allows for greater transdisciplinarity, which turns out to be particularly invaluable in diagnosing new pathologies in, for example, the medical sphere. It also offers greater increased value in research results by increasing the scope of such results considerably.

1.2.2. And as for citizens

The idea of participatory science is not strictly confined to scientists, but tends to extend toward citizens who wish to contribute. The concept of so-called "Citizen Science" goes back to Alan Irwin in 1995 (with the publication Citizen Science)7. The idea is that we accumulate knowledge with the help of a large number of individual experiences, especially as far as the environment is concerned. These new data provide a substantial contribution to scientific research by increasing the scope of the experimental territory.

Moreover, in 2013, the European Union produced a report on environmental citizen sciences8. This report stated four levels of scientific analysis. These were observation (or so-called "distributed science"), interpretation of data, project design and finally "extreme citizen science", or data collection accompanied by theoretical contributions.

There are thus two major movements that may be observed within this new participatory science: data collection (for example astronomical observations and plant collection) and co-creation (discoveries of new celestial bodies or even PolyMath9, a website for the demonstration of Mathematical theorems). Michael Nilsen speaks in favor of this latter movement of "networked research"10, since it not only mobilizes data collection, but also participation in the development of theorems. We may add in this perspective the role played by so-called Fab Labs, or "manufacturing" laboratories, which may equally be the breeding ground for scientific experiments carried out by amateurs.

1.3. A necessary form of research engineering

This new opening of scientific data transparency, as well as the broadening of participation, imposes an engineering of systems for the collection and publication of scientific results, which allows data to be used and increased in value.

Thus, Scientific and Technical Information (STI) brings together information which professionals working in research, teaching or industry may need. This concept, which first appeared in the 1960s, is linked to the development of information technologies and communication. It emanates from the idea that the marked increase in university and scientific output, as well as the profusion of data, necessitates precise organization to optimize such data dissemination. This is, to some extent, a form of knowledge management.

The STI indiscriminately covers all scientific and technical sectors and assumes various aspects. These include scientific articles, journals, copyright notices, bibliographical databases, open archives and accessible Internet data storage warehouses and particular portals.

It chiefly sets three...