This article is based on the debate and reflexions on the round-table “Geopolitics of information and knowledge” in the Seminar “Development in Question: what information or knowledge society?” (2006). The main issues discussed are inequalities (social, organizational and territorial) in the access to information and strategic knowledge and in the capacity for learning and innovation; the new forms of appropriation and privatization of strategic knowledge; and the needs of S&T policies and  how they relate to development. These issues generated a rich debate around the themes of the difficulties involved in the processes of commercialization of S&T, advantages and disadvantages of the concentration of scientific knowledge production, and the importance of policies addressing the problems caused by its excessive concentration. There was a consensus on the necessity of formulating and implementing policies appropriate to local and national peculiarities. Another issu addressed was that of conventional technologies as well as of social technologies and their possible applications in different contexts.