Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa: International Development Research Centre

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Added: 2007-11-13 15:56

Modified: 2009-01-26 13:48

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Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa

Responsible Officer: Khaled Fourati

Institutions: National Book Trust of Uganda

The African Commons Project (TACP)

The Knowledge Pipeline Limited (TKP)

Region: Africa

Start Date: 2007/10

Project Details

The Context of the Project:

Africa depends on learning materials published elsewhere, and has serious difficulty acquiring, producing and distributing them. In order to facilitate citizen access to these materials, the publishing sector in Africa needs to explore new business models and technologies. Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa (PALM Africa) seeks to improve access to education materials through flexible licensing. This grant will allow PALM Africa to conduct a comparative study of the viability of publishing demonstration projects involving flexible licensing agreements in South Africa and Uganda. The team will help local publishers better understand and use alternative licensing and new business models that take advantage of the digital environment. The project is also expected to consider the statutory and regulatory environment that would best support the application of liberal licensing practices

Project Objectives:

PALM Africa seeks to explore the application and outcomes of flexible licensing regimes in the publishing industry in Africa. It will seek to better understand how these can facilitate citizen's access to knowledge in the digital environment and how the adoption of new and innovative business models of publishing can help African countries improve the publishing of learning materials.

To build capacity in Africa to research and better understand the application of flexible licensing and the new challenges faced by the publishers;

To build the capacity of local publishers to better understand and use alternative licensing and reflect on the adoption of new business models that can take advantage of the digital environment;

To explore whether the various stakeholders in Africa are receptive to new perspectives and alternatives of access to learning materials in the digital environment;

To explore whether and under which conditions flexible licensing regimes are suited and can be applied in developing countries context; and,

To better understand the statutory and regulatory environments that would best support the application of liberal licensing practices.

News

Palm Africa Cape Town Publishers' Workshop 2008-11-17

News on PALM Africa 2008-07

Blog from May 2008 PALM Workshop 2008-05

Project(s)

Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa

Web site(s)

PALM Africa Blog
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PALM Africa Description - Creative R&D
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