Opening of the Conference “Knowledge Crossing Borders”
San Jose - March 8, 2010
President Arias
Dean Chacon
Dr. Weinsteinten
Dr. Segura
Honorable Guests and Conference Participants
I am honored to speak with you this evening at the opening ceremony for your conference "Knowledge Crossing Borders".
The U.S. has long championed activities that promote knowledge crossing borders. In the "old days", one of the principal ways knowledge crossed borders was with the literal border crossing of people pursuing the exchange of knowledge. One of the most historic U.S. programs is the U.S. Fulbright Program that every year brings thousands of students, teachers, and experts together from around the world to share their learning. In fact, I understand that one of our speakers here tonight, Dean Lucia Chacon, is an alumna of the Fulbright Program and we are very proud of her accomplishment as an exchange scholar.
Two other excellent examples of U.S. engagement with Latin America on knowledge crossing borders are located in Costa Rica. They are the EARTH University and INCAE, the Central American Institute for Business Administration. Each of these centers of education, founded with U.S. assistance, share expertise across borders to better integrate Central America into the world economy. EARTH and INCAE now host an international student and faculty community that promotes innovation and sustainable, job-creating businesses. And both serve as testimony to Costa Rica's leadership in promoting regional integration to address common challenges of development.
Today, with the internet and audio and video technology there has been a revolution in human communication. People can now earn a foreign university degree without leaving their kitchen table.
And it is not just in a university setting. I'd like to relate just one moving story of how knowledge crossing borders has opened a new source of learning and support for Port-au-Prince -- a place desperately in need of knowledge and expertise in rebuilding all sectors of its civic life.
Haitian businesswomen are one of the key groups we are working with to help restore jobs and basic market functions in Port-au-Prince after its devastating earthquake. Under the auspices of the Pathways to Prosperity Ministerial meeting, hosted by Costa Rica on March 3rd, we connected Latin American women entrepreneurs with their Haitian counterparts through a digital video conference. The result was extraordinary. Latin American women, seeing their Haitian counterparts, hearing their voices, were galvanized to action and have promised to continue to network and assist their new business colleagues in Port-au-Prince.
No doubt that technology has changed our worlds -- how we communicate, the speed at which we can communicate, connecting people across the globe -- in real time. And, this technology revolution and the internet network have, and will, continue to shape how knowledge crosses borders. In fact, the internet and technology even challenge our sense of borders -- giving us movies like Avatar where the border between "real" and a technology-created environment is suspended.
But what is real is the rights of peoples to equal access to the information and ideas available on the internet.
As Secretary Clinton set forth in her January 21st policy address on internet freedom, access to information networks is critical to provide people with the "on-ramp" to modernization and the opportunity for economic equality.
As outlined by Secretary Clinton, the U.S. recognizes the challenges of internet freedom -- including the challenges of the governments who will repress freedoms by limiting access to information, and the challenge of those terrorists who use the internet to pursue violent extremist ends -- and the U.S. is committed to devoting the resources to advance the freedom of the internet in a principled approach.
We are working to address this challenge at the UN and in other multilateral forums to put cyber security on the world's agenda. President Obama has appointed a new national cyberspace policy coordinator to coordinate U.S. efforts to ensure that networks stay free, secure, and reliable. At the same time, the State Department has an innovation competition to seek out the best ideas for application technologies that help to break down barriers, overcome illiteracy and connect people to the information they need.
In concluding, information is not knowledge, but the free and fair access to information is essential to sharing knowledge.
As you all are just taking off on your journey in this Conference to consider how knowledge crosses borders in the 21st Century -- in this new digital frontier. We applaud your efforts with this conference and congratulate the organizers on hosting this worthy event.
Thank you.
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