ACIAC Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Ren Presented the Seminar "Open Knowledge and Digital China"

On 6 April, the postdoctoral fellow of the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture, Dr Xiang Ren presented a seminar titled Open Knowledge and Digital China: Open Access, Networked Technologies and the Transformation of Publishing and Scholarship. The well-attended seminar was jointly sponsored by ACIAC and the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University.
 
In his presentation, Dr Ren reviewed the dynamics and challenges of the global open knowledge movement and introduced China's open innovation and open knowledge initiatives from new analytical perspectives of 'digital' China. He used Chinese open access publishing as a case study to analyse the disruption and transformations of knowledge systems, and how the complex relationships between government, market, and social aspects of production are impacting on the ways in which knowledge growth and open innovation are occurring in China. Dr Ren further discussed the transformative potential and challenges of open knowledge in relation to China's digital innovation, social justice and soft power.