Open knowledge management in higher education

1. Motivation Digital contents and online information play a prominent role in the development of modern economies and societies. This kind of resources arouses a growing interest in citizens and also in the various stakeholders related to the life cycle of digital information assets (Wyman, 2008). This living digital era has produced enormous business opportunities in this times of economic crisis, and also a wide-ranging diffusion of knowledge. This means a great opportunity for the scientific development and improvement of all countries. One of the most significant and efficient ways for knowledge sharing is the Open Access philosophy, because knowledge is absolutely indispensable for social evolution in a globalized world. Following the UNESCO's principles, one of today's main goals is to build modern knowledge societies in which all persons must be able to participate from the information and knowledge. In this context, Internet plays a clear and important role because it has fundamentally changed the practical and economic realities of distributing scientific knowledge. This means new challenges for educational institutions and also for researchers and educators. The Berlin Declaration (2003) on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities wholeheartedly promotes the open knowledge paradigm. Declaration with the subject " Unlocking the promise of open educational resources " and the European Union guidelines about the distribution of research results through open repositories are obvious examples of the real impact of the Open Knowledge paradigm in higher education institutions, especially universities. Consequently, the Online Information Review Special Issue on Open Knowledge Management in Higher Education is devoted to the question of how higher education institutions deal or should deal with Open Knowledge approaches. This includes a wide spectrum of topics, but we are especially interested in current practices to manage this new paradigm, that is quickly taking root in the scientific community. According to the scope of the host journal, this means to emphasise how this " open knowledge " changes