OU on the BBC: Click - Openness in a digital age

The digital age has created unimaginable opportunities for people across the world, to learn, share and communicate in a global conversation. The BBC World Service has closely documented that conversation for ten years, first as Go Digital (which launched in 2001) then, as the world went digital, so did the programme - becoming Digital Planet.

Another year, another change, and in Spring 2011, Digital Planet took the name of its television sibling. Click.

When the programme began, it started by charting the so-called ‘digital divide’. But over the last decade, that divide has shifted away from a discussion about north vs. south, developed vs. developing, to fundamental questions around access, openness, censorship, privacy and ownership.

Creative Commons Image Divine Harvester under CC-BY-NC-SA licence

In a series of six programmes for 2011, we'll explore the conversation around openness and what it reveals about the changing nature of society as well as the changing nature of the web itself.

Amongst other questions, we’ll ask: what is openness? Is an open web more beneficial for society and if so, whom does it benefit most? Does openness hinder innovation or help promote it? Is the open tradition from which the web emerged under attack and if so, should and can it be protected?

From Hacker parties in Brazil, to the political impact of social media on in Tunisia, to open source geo-mapping at SXSW in Texas, Digital Planet will investigate openness in a digital age.

To listen to the programmes, find out transmission details or get the podcasts, visit Click on bbc.co.uk

Programme-by-programme

The Openness in a digtal age programmes will run monthly