Why do we need to increase access of knowledge resources for grassroots communities? How do we increase access of knowledge resources for grassroots communities? Is it ethical on the part of researchers to collect information from individual/community knowledge holders and never communicate back their research results to the original knowledge providers? What kinds of knowledge resources should be shared back to the grassroots communities and how can we share them optimally? Are the current intellectual property laws and policies promoting such an open and democratic knowledge sharing process? Or are they treating grassroots knowledge communities only as consumers of information and not as producers of information? What kind of innovative legal and/ or policy measures can enable more equitable knowledge sharing and development outcomes based on shared knowledge resources? How do we evolve more open and collaborative science approaches? What are the different open and democratic approaches that can enable an inclusive knowledge movement for sustainable development outcomes across the globe?

These are some of the questions we would like to explore together as part of a panel discussion at the Third International Conference on Creativity at Grassroots (ICCIG3) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), India, January 19-22, 2015. As some of the knowledge movements in different parts of the world have already highlighted, there has been a serious neglect in communicating back value added knowledge to the original knowledge providers. Even worse, many of us are still trapped in the limited benefits of individual monopoly of knowledge resources and failing to see the wider benefits of collaborative science. Through a more equitable, open and democratic sharing of knowledge resources, supported by the developments in digital technologies for communication, we may see far more development outcomes across the globe. Through this panel discussion, we aim to contribute to the global open and collaborative science movement, by highlighting the best practices and optimal legal/ policy changes for enabling such an inclusive knowledge movement. We would be particularly interested in hearing from policy makers, activists, academicians, lawyers and students from different fields of studies and different countries.

You can find more information about the conference and different panels here. If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this panel discussion, please email your abstract on or before November 30, 2014 to arul.scaria[at]nludelhi[dot]ac[dot]in with a copy to iccig[at]iimahd[dot]ernet[dot]in . Please do not forget to mention the panel name in subject line. Short-listed abstracts will be notified by December 7, 2014. If you have any questions regarding the panel or the conference, please do not hesitate to contact in the above-mentioned email addresses.