This week our task is to to explore and reflect on the nature of the web — the digital — as an open forum for knowledge production, communication, and consumption.
A Few Interesting Finds Along the Way:
I. Digital Debate
The turmoil in Wisconsin is not only about bargaining rights or the pension payments of public employees. It is about transparency and openness. It is about neighborliness, decency and mutual respect. Joe McCarthy forgot these lessons of good government, and so, I fear, has Mr. Walker. Wisconsin’s citizens have not.
William Cronon- Op-Ed in the New York Times
II. Developing World Access to Leading Research
The demand for scientific literature in developing countries had gone unfulfilled for many years with thousands of students, researchers and academics struggling to gain access to current scientific information. While students were unable to access the literature and acquire the knowledge they needed, researchers and academics were confronted with mounting difficulties in publishing their findings in peer-reviewed journals, updating their teaching curricula and identifying funding.
The collective name for three programmes – HINARI, AGORA and OARE – Research4Life provides developing countries with free or low cost access to academic and professional peer-reviewed content online. Eligible libraries and their users benefit from:
- Online access to over 8100 peer-reviewed international scientific journals, books, and databases
- Full-text articles which can be downloaded for saving, printing or reading on screen
- Searching by keyword, subject, author or language
- Resources available in several languages
- Training in information literacy and promotional support
III. Commercial Photo Abuse from a Flicker Photo?
Puts our class discussion and building project related to Creative Commons licenses into a more clear perspective:
N. Cohen Technology Report in the NY Times in 2007
Virgin Mobile Ad from report- the comment section neatly covers our class content
IV. Free Civil War subscriptions and related apps at the itunes store.
The possibilities for teaching with these materials are really quite staggering.
Great Links. Here is my humble contribution:
What interests me in the Cronon debate is not that a political party angrily flexed its might after a light was shone on some of its dealings, it’s that the party seemed ignorant and shocked about the how history is made and how historians relegate information to the historical narrative. The web is the new journal, diary, calendar, minutes and historical record: How dare a historian publish insightful research finding based on publicly available information!! It’s almost like the party in question does not grasp the concept of the role of the scholar in society or even how the internet works…
I. Good rundown of links related to the Cronon Debate
II. Oxford Open Journals
III. Link to Lawrence Lessig on Creative Commons
Thanks Matthew,
I especially like the addition of the Oxford Open Journals. It opens the door even wider. And once the cows get out, it takes a lot of work to round them back up…
Wow! Great post! I read the articles on the misused Flickr photos. Sobering discussion. I’m glad we covered the information on the Creative Commons in class…….
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