Delegates at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) Generation Open Symposium have endorsed the crowdsourcing call made by the inventor of the World Wide Web (WWW), Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to create a Magna Carta for the Web.
The symposium, which is DUT’s e-Learning Project, in partnership with the University’s Library Services unit, held on October 20 and 21, 2014 in celebration of the International Open Access Week. The two day symposium with the theme: “Generation Open – The Promise of Open Access and Open Educational Resources” took place at the DUT Hotel School, Ritson Campus, Durban, South Africa.
The delegates supported Sir Berners-Lee’s call in a statement, “We subscribe to the ideal of a Web which is a good basis for democracy and which resists balkanisation/fragmentation in the face of current concerns about surveillance. Yet we do want a Web that is safe for all: safe from intrusion, obstruction, manipulation and political interference. We expect a Web with ‘net neutrality’ giving every user equal access to the bandwidth and ease of use available to big business and to governments.”
They also called for an open Web which allows and promotes free expression and sharing of information and knowledge, but which protects personal privacy and curbs hate speech and child pornography. They want a Web that opens up and extends access to knowledge globally.
