surveillance/ privacy/ data protection
I blogged this last week in some format, but deleted that entry. Yes. Well, here it is again. We have been dealing with the theme of privacy and data protection these past two weeks or so. For one I was reminded of my own lecture that I gave on this theme to the MIKM (
www.sun.ac.za/mikm/ ) students last July, and of how I could have changed or improved on that. A remembrance which also served to remind me of data that I seem to be missing. There´ve been a lot of those realisations of late - missing or I guess misplaced data, as a result of my move. We´ve had a number of persons, some from a law firm, to deal with this theme. But mostly we´ve had lectures with the MDTTI deputy Director, Mª Nieves de la Serna Bilbao.
I prefer it when the proper Professers (i.e. those with said titles) give the lectures. They´re just better at conveying the conceptual essence usually of the lesson.
So, I was looking for the story that I´d read about in the Guardian newspaper on my way back from London on 1 Jan, regarding the high level of citizen surveillance in the UK (higest per capita in the world). I could not find the story that dealt with the surveillance and tracking of cars, by way of their license plates (registration plates), and of course by implication the tracking of people. I did find the following opinion piece:
Get the feeling you are being watched?
Victor Keegan
Thursday January 5, 2006
The Guardian
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,,1677828,00.html
If you think surveillance in Britain has reached the limits of acceptability, then think again. Last week's successful launch of Europe's Galileo global satellite navigation system will take surveillance into a whole new era. When it is fully operational in 2010 it will be able to locate people, cars, mobile phones, planes, trains, goods in transit, front door keys, and maybe even footballs, to within a metre of where they are - and it will be able to tell how far off the ground they are as well. It will make the present US-controlled global positioning system (GPS), which claims 10-metre accuracy if the location is right and you are outdoors, look like an early Meccano set.
The piece is a bit "light in the pants" when concluding, but nevertheless contains some good points.
Another piece, related to a theme that has always fascinated me, viz. how to augment one´s brain capacity. Yet, it also dealt with what kind of data management is needed to record the subtleties of any one life in its minutiae over a timespan of years, as well as the question of whether having everything recorded of one´s life is good for you. As the article suggests, as I recall it and which an acknowledged fact in learning theory, forgetting is part of the human learning process. (recall the movie: eternal sunshine of the spotless mind?) So, what consequences are there for human learning if everything is recorded? Thinking about my own functioning, I´ve come to rely a lot on external memory (yes, my computer, often my blogs of the past years) to remind me of themes I´d visited (e.g. a book I might have read, details that I might have forgotten). Anyhow, the story of the man with the perfect memory is fascinating also from the point of view of privacy and questions about what should be recorded and/or revealed. Some non-contiguous excerpts below:
The man with the perfect memory - just don't ask him to remember what's in it
·
Digital technology records scientist's every step
· Experiment could help sufferers of brain disease
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Wednesday December 28, 2005
The Guardian
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1674439,00.html
Gordon Bell doesn't need to remember, but has no chance of forgetting. At the age of 71, he is recording as much of his life as modern technology will allow, storing it all on a vast database: a digital facsimile of a life lived....
Dr Bell has now stored so much of his life on computer that he is in danger of forgetting how to remember. "I look at it as a surrogate memory," he says. If he wants to recall something, he switches on and picks his way through days and months of information until he finds what he is after. It was all dreamt up at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Centre in San Francisco, where Dr Bell works. ...
How much memory does a life need?
Microsoft researchers believe that technological advances will ensure one terabyte of memory is enough to store everything except video for 83 years. Many iPods have 20 gigabytes of memory, or one fiftieth of a terabyte. If we recorded video constantly, we would need an extra 200 terabytes of memory.
fire on table mountain...
There is a range of mountains that run across the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, and invariably in summer some part of it goes to blazes (quite literally) because some fool with a cigarette has been careless. I may sound weary and resigned to this annual occurrence, but no, this isn´t so. The latest fire has/had been this last week.
Yesterday, all day I´d been receiving the same set of pics from various persons telling me about and illustrating a raging fire on the slopes of Table Mountain. I include one of the pics above. Thing was, I´d received so many copies of the same mail ito. content that I started to wonder if this was some kind of hoax thing going around. Most notable example was an e-mail from my cousin in Australia, that had first gone some loops, passing through New York, Canada, Sydney, and then found its way to my mailbox. Very illustrative of South African diaspora, and life online. Anyhow, what´s frustrating is that I couldn´t get to any news sites when trying to authenticate the story.
And since it was the middle of the night, I didn´t want to call anyone in Cape Town so as to find out... Odd.
See also
Table Mountain blaze rages on
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1870435,00.html
and
Table Mountain fire battle won
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national&articleid=262576
Item Source: SciDevNet
http://www.scidev.net/announcements/index.cfm?fuseaction=readannouncement&itemid=349&language=1
An AIDS epidemic as severe as the one plowing through South Africa will change society. But how and along what lines? Buckling: The impact of AIDS in South Africa, a new publication by South African writer and journalist Hein Marais, tackles the question in distinctive and critical-minded fashion — and arrives at disquieting conclusions.
Published by the Centre for the Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria, and based on a comprehensive review of published sociological and epidemiological research, this multidisciplinary study scrutinises commonplace conceptions of AIDS impact, presents a fresh understanding of the epidemic's consequences in South Africa, and proposes a minimum package of social adjustments that could reduce the damage.
Electronic copies can be downloaded at www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001789/index.php
Hard copies can be ordered from csa@up.ac.za or by writing to:
Centre for the Study of AIDS
University of Pretoria
Pretoria 0002
South Africa
"The future of open business, and its significance for entrepreneurs:
A presentation and discussion of practical examples from the United
Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa"
== Wednesday, 8 February 2006: 17h30 - 19h00, Wits University Public
and Development Management Campus, Parktown, Johannesburg ==
Entrepreneurs, artists and creators of intellectual work often have
limited means of getting their intellectual outputs published.
Invariably the needs of the creator are secondary to those of the
large, corporate publisher who relies on a business model that takes a
sizeable cut of the profits, and endeavours to hold all the rights to
the intellectual work.
Within this business model there is little scope for creators who
would like to not only make a living from their work but would also
wish to provide their audiences and target markets with greater
freedom to sample, copy, share or build upon their works in order to
develop a useful and sustainable pool of resources for the community.
In this sense OpenBusiness entrepreneurs are realizing that
collaboration, sharing, and giving can be economic activities, while
they are at the same time a cultural and social form of interaction.
However, any of these creators who wishes to move away from the
traditional publishing business model that strictly controls the
rights, dissemination and profits of the work, often have to rely on
their own intuition. There is no well structured overview of how
creative entrepreneurs can integrate into their business models,
open-content licences which offer both the user a variety of freedoms
and the creator a number of protections.
A collaborative research project entitled OpenBusiness
(http://www.openbusiness.cc) is currently being compiled by academic
institutions based in Brazil (FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro), the
United Kingdom (Oxford University, London School of Economics and
Michael Young Foundation) and South Africa (LINK Centre, at the
University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg), to provide
entrepreneurs, artists and creators with practical guides about how to
incorporate Creative Commons open-content licences and other
open-content licences into their business models.
The team involved in the OpenBusiness project will be presenting the
OpenBusiness concept and findings to date on the 8th February 2006.
The presentation will include:
§ an introduction to the project
§ objectives and outcomes of OpenBusiness
§ country-specific examples of successful OpenBusiness projects
from the UK, Brazil and South Africa
§ the future of OpenBusiness, and
§ general discussion and debate.
DATE:
Wednesday, 8 February 2006
TIME:
17h30 - 19h00
VENUE:
Classroom 9, The Donald Gordon Building, Wits P&DM
ADDRESS:
2 St David's Place, Parktown, Johannesburg
light snacks will be served
RSVP:
Tumi Molefe, on (011) 717 3913 or via email at Molefe.B@pdm.wits.ac.za
Biographies
Christian Ahlert:
Christian Ahlert is a public project lead of Creative Commons England
and Wales. He is a fellow at the Michael Young Foundation, where he is
establishing an organization to support and protect the cultural and
intellectual commons in a sustainable way. He is Research Associate of
the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, where he is also a
Senior Research Associate of the Centre for Brazilian Studies.
Previously, he worked at the Programme in Comparative Media Law and
Policy at Oxford. In addition he managed a number of European
Commission projects in the area of internet and media policy, as well
as international development and technical assistance projects.
Ronaldo Lemos:
Ronaldo Lemos is the director of the Center for Technology & Society
at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro.
He is the project lead for the Creative Commons project in Brazil, and
a member of the International Commons Board. He is an LL.B. and an
LL.D. from the University of Sao Paulo, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law
School. He is one of the founders of the collaborative site
www.overmundo.com.br.
Carolina Rossini:
Carolina Rossini is a member of the Center for Technology & Society at
the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. She coordinates the the regional Open Business project in
Brazil, which includes actions in two other Latin American countries
and also in Nigeria. She earned an MBA in E-Business from the
Instituto de Empresas de Madri, Spain, and a Master Degree in
International Negotiation from the joint program offered by
UNICAMP/UNESP/PUCSP, São Paulo, Brazil. Carolina is a lawyer graduated
from Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and studied International
Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo (PUC).
She worked for 6 years as the legal counsel for the Telefonica Group
in Brazil.
Heather Ford:
Heather Ford is the public project lead for Creative Commons South
Africa. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Rhodes University
and a certificate in Telecommunications Policy, Law and Management
from the University of the Witwatersrand Link Centre. She worked with
Creative Commons when she was a fellow at the Reuters Digital Vision
Fellowship Program at Stanford University, California and is now
running Creative Commons South Africa and a programme entitled
'Commons-sense: Towards an African Digital Information Commons'
(www.commons-sense.org). The programme focuses on encouraging access
to and development of accessible educational content on the internet;
developing case studies of open content business models; and engaging
in the local cultural 'commons' in order to encourage local content in
the film, music and creative industries.
Andrew Rens:
Andrew Rens is the legal lead for Creative Commons South Africa. He
studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg where he
read for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (BA), and of Law (LLB). After
qualifying as an attorney he researched Intellectual Property Issues
on the Internet for the Master of Laws degree again at Wits Law
School. At Wits he subsequently taught Intellectual Property,
Telecommunications, Broadcasting, Space and Satellite, and Media Law
and pioneered a course in Information Technology Law. He is currently
a fellow of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, researching
access to knowledge and alternative copyright issues.
Kerryn McKay:
Kerryn McKay is currently employed as a researcher at the LINK Centre
at the University of the Witwatersrand. Kerryn holds a Bachelor of
Journalism from Rhodes University, majoring in Journalism & Media
Studies and English. She has worked for a number of years in the
advertising and marketing industries, and was most recently the
marketing director at a commercial property consultancy which
specialises in education and training for both the public and private
sectors, and the undertaking of property audit reviews and due
diligences.
--
Heather Ford
Phone: +27 11 717 3914
Cell: +27 82 872 7374
IM:
queenbea878: AOL
243161375: ICQ
heatherford: skype
Creative Commons South Africa
http://za.creativecommons.org
Commons-sense: Towards an African Digital Information Commons
http://www.commons-sense.org
This just in:Dear colleagues,
The call for applications for the 2006 International Hermès Fellowship Programme, financed by the French government, for young post-doctoral researchers in the Social and Human Sciences from emerging countries, is now online on the site of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, the administrative organiser assigned for this programme by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, the French Minister of National Education, of Tertiary Education and Research, and the French National Research Centre (CNRS).
All the necessary information and the application forms can be downloaded at the following address:
http://www.msh-paris.fr/la_recherche/app_off/af_hermes_presentation_en.htmThe
closing date for applications is
15 March 2006.
I will appreciate it if you would diffuse this information in your organisation.
Regards
Aurelia WA KABWE - SEGATTI
Research Director
French Institute of South Africa
fomenting (my) creativity
Each weekend I try to do something which will serve to feed my creativity and in effect feed my soul. What I do then is try to engage with some expression/instantiation of the arts. Three weeks ago I saw a documentary on Araki Nobuyoshi (
http://www.arakinobuyoshi.com/) quite co-incidentally in that I had not planned nor chosen any movie to watch at the Fine Arts cinema beforehand. It was happenstance. It was like a discovery. I like his innovative approach to web site navigation on the abovementioned Web site. Then, as I´ve already mentioned in a previous blog, I´ve watched a number of movies. Yesterday I went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
http://www.museoreinasofia.es/portada/portada.php and popped in to catch the temporary exhibit. Again unplanned in the sense that I had not read any reviews beforehand about whose work was on show. I prefer doing the latter so that I don´t have any preconceptions when I enter. Yesterday the work of one Harun Farocki
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/21/farocki_intro.html was in the temporary exhibition hall. An installation, consisting of two juxtaposed video displays, titled
Ich glaubte, Gefangene zu sehen/ I thought I saw Prisoners (2001). It dealt with, in effect, the treatment of prisoners in a maximum security prison (that it was a prison in the US might or might not be important, but let´s leave that question aside for now). The prison inmates are mainly dressed in shorts, and sneakers only (no sweaters). They spend their days training (working out) and hanging out a lot of the time in a concrete yard. If a fight breaks out (and that happens often enough), the guards on duty open fire over the crowd, sometimes with live ammunition). The way for the prisoners to avoid assassination is to fall face down on the ground, hands behind their heads. Of course, often enough someone gets caught in the hail of bullets, if not a perpetrator then a bystander (all prisoners). At some point the guards changed from using live ammunition to water cannons (the water has some mixture of a stingy substance). What one is left with after having watched the installation is a sense of the futility of sending someone to prison. And of course questions around the possibility of rehabilitation in such an environment. Yes, in principle people are sent to prison for crimes in a bid to deprive them of the freedoms that regular citizens enjoy; that is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the inhuman environment and conditions prevalent in prisons.
I also went for a walk in Parque Retiro. It was sunny, though very cold (ponds frozen over).
Lessig on Google Book Search, etc & some musings
Today, Monday, has been lovely and sunny weather-wise, and also with regard to some positive mails received today I am happy. But somehow the day´s also been topsy-turvy, not by virtue of its being a Monday. I don´t believe in that. I have bad moments, not
days.
Well, it is that I want to watch Lessig´s video
http://www.youtube.com/?v=5l2nrbmBQXg on Google Book Search being an instance of "fair use", but I´ve left my
auriculares at home. And I don´t want to listen sans the earphones since that´s just disruptive.
I will try to embed the video here, and hope it works as it´s supposed to:
Then, I arrived late for my class, and lately that has been happening more than I care that it should happen. I was 15 minutes late, so it was not so grave, but it still irritates me when it does happen.
Great thing is that Imma´s mom has joined the online world, with e-mail and other Internet access. That´s so cool! Really. I wish I could get my parents online; for one I would be able to have contact with them far more often. I´ve spoken to my parents once (on Xmas day) since I came to Madrid. Well, Roberto who sits next to me in class asked me how I could manage to speak to them so infrequently. Thing is, if I were back in Cape Town the rhythm of our contact might be the same. Though, I must say that when back in Cape Town I would call them weekly (at most) if I remembered that a week had passed. Sometimes I would have my lapses and only call four weeks later. That happens. So too my having to check sometimes that I´ve left the house wearing a pair (the same pair - pair as in partners) of shoes. Yes. Funny. I wonder if I made it as far as the metro if that mismatched-shoes happened if anyone would notice? Though, I should add that madrileños are very good with social control. In large part in SA if you´re doing something peculiar or being unruly (I´m thinking here of kids in restaurants, for instance) people won´t meddle in your affairs or say something like "jeez, try to control your kids". They will look the other way. Not here. Here someone will at least raise an eyebrow, or at most say something. In some ways that is a good thing, I guess. In SA, well from what I´ve seen wherever I´ve lived in Cape Town, the attitude is more one of "don´t get involved".
So, my parents are not online. Riding the escalator at FNAC the other day I thought about my mom who refuses to use something as simple as an escalator. No, she´s not from some rural town. She´s just always refused to use the escalator. So imagine the weekend familial shopping trip - one kid accompanies my mom so as to locate the elevator, and another kid accompanies my dad on the escalator, and then we´d have to define a place to rendezvous on each floor of the department store. ¡Ay caramba! Can hardly believe that we did that. So, for sure my parents are not online, though my dad (turning 76 this year) does comprehend notionally the concept of the Internet. But so who says they have to comprehend what´s happening behind the screen? There´s that theory of people, especially in developing countries, having and being able to jump technological paradigms (e.g. skip landlines, go directly to mobile phones; skip video, go directly to DVD).
So, speaking of Lessig, I see that he was riding the Docklands Light Railway
http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003279.shtml over the new year. I was there too. Trainspotting? No pun. Saw that ad he mentions. Also read an article in The Guardian, when on my way back to Madrid, about the worrying increase in the level of surveillance in London. Yes, and I took the DLR because Canary Wharf underground station was closed after Xmas for reforms. So travelled instead from Heron Quays to Bank, switched lines, etc.
Further, today I am wearing a touristy (cringe cringe) t-shirt from London , but I bought it because it has a big white C enclosed in a red circle (see
http://www.cclondon.com/), much like the CC logo (if you´ve seen a rendition in red as I have), except this C denotes the congestion charge in London, and the byline of the tee reads "london - congested all the time". Graphically it´s a nice t-shirt, but I liked also the suggestion (even if subconsciously) of the CC logo if you were familiar with it. Ooh, this is really some stream of thought I´ve got going here. Saturday I was in FNAC browsing in the books section on the Spanish Civil War, and there is a recent book on propaganda posters of that era - and the book is covered by a CC license - yeah! I was so absolutely pleased to see that.
Saturday night I went to watch the movie El Bola
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243794/ . I remember when it had been released in South Africa, but I never got around to viewing it then. So, this time I went, and enjoyed it. As much as one can enjoy a movie about the physical abuse a boy suffers at the hands of his father. It made me think a lot about the damage people inflict on one another.
Then, the Saturday before I went to watch Jarhead
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/ , by Sam Mendes which only made me contemplate as well the damage we inflict on one another. One thing that gets me is that Peter Sarsgaard never convinces as actor - will someone please ask him to wipe that smirk off of his face. He always disports this smile/smirk, as if he knew something that everyone else doesn´t. In that sense he always appears cold and aloof, and so not convincing as an actor.
The sun starts to set later here (18:30 rather than 18:00) , and when I notice that that is happening I start to feel very optimistic, alive.
The 2005 African Digital Commons Guide is now available!
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Commons-sense] The 2005 African Digital Commons Guide is now available!
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:55:43 +0200
From: Heather Ford
To:
akinimod-commons@lists.sourceforge.net'The African Digital Commons - A Participant's Guide: 2005' is a conceptual map of the people, projects and processes that contribute to the development of shared, networked knowledge across the African continent.
Download it in both French and English at
http://www.commons-sense.org/ or
http://www.commons-sense.org/pages/encyclopedia.htm. Let me know if you'd like a hard copy.
*****************
Foreword
One of the goals of the Commons-sense Project is to conduct researchthat helps equip African activists and decision-makers with theinformation they need to develop cutting-edge, relevant intellectualproperty policies and practices.
We decided to begin with a map - a map that hopefully presents a broadpicture of how far we've already come in Africa towards the goal ofachieving a "digital information commons", as well as providing somesense of how to grow it further. We have tried to chart theinternational, regional and national policies, players and movementsthat to some extent dictate the scope of the commons in Africa, and atthe same time to outline some of the creative responses from people onthe ground working towards the expansion of the commons in some way.
Because we wanted to get as extensive a picture as possible of who isalready involved in digital commons activities throughout thecontinent, we decided to try to get people in Africa to representthemselves in the Guide . The technology we used was an online "wiki"which anyone, anywhere in the world could edit, amend, build on andimprove. This Guide , then, is the offline version of a living "wiki"built by the people living and working on these issues in Africa.
We are hoping that the publishing of this Guide can become an annualevent, where we take stock of how far we've come, how issues, policiesand laws have changed, which new projects have begun, and what theimpact has been on the ground and on the net - in terms of the growthof the African Digital Commons.
In time, we're hoping that the Guide will be used in classrooms andoffices, by policy-makers and activists, educators and students, toraise awareness around the value of the commons to African innovation,education and creativity.
One last word of thanks must go to our colleagues at the LINK Centrefor their support and advice, to Wits University Copyright LibrarianDenise Nicholson for innumerable leads and contacts, to A2LM inSouthern Africa project leader Achal Prabhala for editorial support,to the IDRC - especially Heloise Emdon and Steve Song - for theirongoing encouragement, and finally to the hard-working builders of theAfrican Digital Commons who, in the face of many challenges, continueto inspire with their vision of a continent that is turning the cornerin many ways.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1: The Digital Information Commons: Mapping the Terrain
1.1: Information Commons1.2: Copyright1.3: Digitisation & Convergence
Section 2: Global Players, Processes, Issues, Projects
2.1: WIPO2.2: Geneva Declaration on WIPO2.3: WIPO Development Agenda2.4: The Broadcasting Treaty2.5: Access to Knowledge (A2K) Treaty2.6: WTO TRIPS2.7: Exceptions via Berne & TRIPS2.8: Compulsory Licensing & Parallel Importing2.9: ' TRIPS Plus '2.10: United States2.11: UN Agencies2.12: UK CIPR2.13: APC & Soros-OSI2.14: Librarians2.15: Consumer Groups2.16: FOSS: Free & Open Source Software2.17: Lawyers2.18: Blogs & Wikis2.19: Open Access2.20: Open Content2.21: Creative Commons (cc)
Section 3: African Players, Processes, Issues
3.1: OAPI & ARIPO3.2: UNECA3.3: African Union & NEPAD3.4: IPR Exceptions & Africa3.5: Traditional Knowledge (TK)3.6: Sui Generis Models3.7: FTAs & TRIPS Plus3:8: Open Access & Open Content in Africa3.9: Funders
Section 4: Directory of African Projects
4.1: Research, Policy Inputs & Advocacy4.2: Creative Commons in Africa4.3: ccSA: Creative Commons South Africa4.4: Commons-sense Project4.5: University Institutional Repositories4.6: University Electronic Theses & Dissertations4.7: Group Licences for Databases4.8: Online Research Publishing4.9: Online Journals4.10: e-Learning4.11: Schools: Online Curriculum & Support4.12: SchoolNets & NEPAD e-Schools4.13: FOSS in Africa4.14: Archives4.15: Local Content & Language4.16: Blogs
References & Bibliography
***********Avant-propos
L'un des objectifs du Projet Commons-sense est de mener des recherchesqui aident à fournir aux décideurs et activistes africains lesinformations dont ils ont besoin pour développer des pratiques et despolitiques liées à la propriété intellectuelle qui soient pertinenteset innovantes.
Nous avons décidé de commencer par une carte : une carte qui présenteavec espoir une vaste image du chemin que nous avons déjà parcouru enAfrique pour atteindre l'objectif d'une « mise en commun del'information numérique », ainsi que pour fournir des indications surla manière de continuer à la développer. Nous avons essayé de portersur la carte les politiques, les acteurs et les mouvementsinternationaux, régionaux et nationaux, qui, dans une certaine mesure,imposent l'ampleur de la mise en commun en Afrique, et en même tempsd'exposer certaines des réponses créatives des personnes sur leterrain qui travaillent vers l'expansion de la mise en commun del'information de quelque manière que ce soit.
Puisque nous voulions avoir une image aussi étendue que possible despersonnes déjà impliquées dans les activités de mise en communnumérique dans le continent, nous avons décidé d'essayer de faire queles personnes en Afrique se représentent elles-mêmes dans ce Guide. Latechnologie que nous avons utilisée était un « wiki » en ligne quen'importe quelle personne, n'importe où dans le monde, pouvait éditer,modifier, construire et améliorer. Ce Guide est donc la version horsligne d'un « wiki » vivant, construit par les personnes quitravaillent sur ces questions en Afrique.
Nous espérons que la publication hors ligne de ce Guide puisse devenirun événement annuel, où nous ferrions le point sur le chemin que nousavons parcouru, comment les questions, les politiques et les lois ontchangé, quels nouveaux projets ont débuté et quel a été l'impact surle terrain et sur Internet, en termes de croissance de la Mise encommun Numérique en Afrique.
Avec le temps, nous espérons que ce Guide sera utilisé dans les écoleset les bureaux, par les décideurs et les activistes, les enseignantset les étudiants, pour sensibiliser davantage à la valeur de la miseen commun pour l'innovation, l'éducation et la créativité en Afrique.
Nous devons également adresser un dernier mot de remerciement à noscollègues du LINK Centre pour leur soutien et leurs conseils, à DeniseNicholson, bibliothécaire de droit d'auteur à l'Université de Wits,pour ses innombrables initiatives et contacts, à Achal Prabhala,directeur du projet A2LM en Afrique Australe, pour son soutien quant àla rédaction, à l'IDRC (en particulier Heloise Emdon et Steve Song)pour ses encouragements continus, et enfin aux créateurs assidus de laMise en commun Numérique en Afrique qui, face à de nombreux défis,continuent d'inspirer grâce à leur vision d'un continent qui surmonteses difficultés de nombreuses façons.
Table des Matières
Introduction
Section 1 : La mise en commun de l'information numérique : la carte du terrain1.1 : La mise en commun de l'information1.2 : Le droit d'auteur1.3 : La numérisation et la convergence
Section 2: Les acteurs, processus, question et projets mondiaux2.1 : L'OMPI2.2 : La Déclaration de Genève sur l'OMPI2.3 : Agenda pour le développement de l'OMPI2.4 : Le Traité sur la Radiodiffusion2.5 : Le Traité sur l'Accès à la Connaissance (A2K)2.6 : L'ADPIC de l'OMC2.7 : Les exceptions via la Convention de Berne et L'ADPIC2.8 : La licence obligatoire et l'importation parallèle2.9 : 'ADPIC Plus'2.10 : Les États-Unis2.11 : Les agences des NU2.12 : La CDPI du Royaume-Uni2.13 : L'ACP et Soros-OSI2.14 : Les bibliothécaires2.15 : Les groupes de consommateurs2.16 : FOSS : Logiciel Libre et Gratuit2.17 : Les avocats2.18 : Les blogues et les wikis2.19 : Le libre accès2.20 : Le contenu libre2.21 : Creative Commons (cc)
Section 3 : Les acteurs, processus et questions africains3.1 : L'OAPI et l'ARIPO3.2 : L'UNECA3.3 : L'Union Africaine et le NEPAD3.4 : Les exceptions aux DPI et l'Afrique3.5 : La connaissance traditionnelle (CT)3.6 : Les modèles Sui Generis3.7 : Les ALE et ADPIC Plus3:8 : Le libre accès et le libre contenu en Afrique3.9 : Les investisseurs
Section 4 : Répertoire de projets africains4.1 : Recherche, participations politiques et Défense4.2 : Creative Commons en Afrique4.3 : ccSA : Creative Commons Afrique du Sud4.4 : Le projet Commons-sense4.5 : Les dépôts institutionnels des universités4.6 : Les mémoires et les thèses électroniques des universités4.7 : Les licences de groupe pour les bases de données4.8 : La publication des recherches en ligne4.9 : Les revues en ligne4.10 : L'apprentissage en ligne4.11 : Les écoles : programme d'enseignement en ligne et support4.12 : Les SchoolNets et les e-Schools du NEPAD4.13 : FOSS en Afrique4.14 : Les archives4.15 : Le contenu local et la langue locale4.16 : Les blogues
Références et bibliographie
--Heather FordPhone: +27 11 717 3914Cell: +27 82 872 7374
IM:queenbea878: AOL243161375: ICQheatherford: skype
Creative Commons South Africa
http://za.creativecommons.org/Commons-sense: Towards an African Digital Information Commons
http://www.commons-sense.org/
e/merge 2006 - Learning Landscapes in Southern Africa- Call for abstracts & proposals
De: Laura Czerniewicz
Enviado el: mié 18/01/2006 14:00
Para: De Beer Jennifer
Asunto: e/merge 2006 - Learning Landscapes in Southern Africa- Call for abstracts & proposals
Dear Colleagues, this email comes with warm wishes for 2006, and apologies if you have received this call before.
Please distribute to colleagues who may be interested, especially to those who might like to venture into new territories presenting and discussing online.
All the best, Laura
e/merge 2006 Call for Papers e/merge 2006 - Learning Landscapes in Southern Africa (
http://emerge2006.net) is the second virtual conference on educational technology in the SADC region and builds on the e/merge 2004 conference. e/merge 2006 will take place online from 10 - 21 July 2006 and may include associated face to face events in a number of cities. This conference focuses on online collaborative learning in our regional context of unequal access to technology and to education. This could involve both online and face to face interaction. We will prioritise high quality papers and presentations which demonstrate responsiveness to the context of learning in Southern African tertiary education including issues of digital divide, differential access to education, and diversity. We would envisage papers in the following areas: * Research Methodologies * Access to Learning Technologies * Theories and models of online learning, & computer supported collaborative learning * Learning Communities * Staff Development * Learning Environments We are also interested in receiving proposals for technology demonstrations and online workshops focused on the regional context. All abstracts will be peer reviewed to ensure that an appropriate range of high quality presentations will be selected. There will be a maximum of 32 presentations in the formal programme. Presentations will be accepted in forms such as full text papers, slide-show presentations, web pages and narrated slide-show presentations. Presenters are encouraged to explore innovative technologies and methods of online presentation. Each paper will be discussed online over a period of 3-4 days. Papers on similar themes may be grouped for discussion. Conference papers in the peer reviewed publication track may also be submitted for a peer reviewed Special Issue of The International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) at
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/index.php. e/merge 2006 will incorporate several tracks including: * Peer Reviewed Publication Track * Peer Reviewed Proposal * Invited presentations and workshops * Panel Discussions Authors will retain copyright to submitted papers, while granting permission to the Centre for Educational Technology (
http://www.cet.uct.ac.za) and the e/merge 2006 conference to publish the papers. The conference proceedings will become a publicly accessible online resource for the broader community after the conference. Conference delegates will receive a CD of the conference proceedings. Proposals of up to 500 words should be submitted by email to
proposals@emerge2006.net by 30 January 2006. Early submissions will be greatly appreciated as this will facilitate the review process. Deadlines * Proposals of up to 500 words: Monday 30 January 2006 * Notification of acceptance: Tuesday 28 February 2006 * Peer reviewed papers of up to 4000 words submitted for review: Friday 28 April 2006 * Acceptance of Final Peer Reviewed Papers: Wednesday June 14 2006 * Conference Site open for Introductions: Friday 7 July 2006 * Conference dates: Monday 10 July - Friday 21 July 2006 Review Panel * Chair: Tony Carr, Staff Development Co-ordinator: Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape Town * Chair: Associate Professor Laura Czerniewicz, Director: Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape Town * Professor Alan Amory, Director, Centre for Information Technology in Higher Education, University of KwaZulu Natal * Professor Johannes Cronje, Professor of E-Learning, Department of Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria * Dr Kitty den Boogert, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique * Ms Alice Goodwin-Davey, University of South Africa * Professor Elizabeth Henning, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg * Professor Cheryl Hodgkinson, Education Department, Rhodes University * Ms Catherine Kell, Learning Designer, Centre for Flexible and Distance Learning (CFDL), University of Auckland * Mr Elisha Kujeke, Principal Instructional Materials, Distance Education Primary Level, Department of Lifelong Education, Zimbabwe Government Correspondence Schools * Dr Pam Miller, Cape Town facilitator of the M.Ed in Computer Assisted Education, University of Pretoria and Computer Studies teacher at Pinelands High School, Cape Town * Dr Ton Mooij, Radboud University of Nijmegen, Netherlands * Associate Professor Andrew Morrison, Intermedia, University of Oslo * Dr Dick N'gambi, Research Coordinator, Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape Town * Dr Martin Oliver, Senior Lecturer in ICT in Education, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London * Mr Fred Opali, Head of Department of Communication at the Polytechnic of Namibia * Mr Andrew Scholtz, Academic Computing Support Manager, University of Limpopo * Mr Geoffrey Seleka, Lecturer in Information Systems, University of Botswana * Professor Thomson Sinkala, School of Mines, University of Zambia * Ms Juliet Stoltenkamp, E-Learning Manager, E-Learning Division, University of the Western Cape * Ms Bronwyn Stuckey, Researcher, Department of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia * Associate Professor Martin Terre Blanche, Department of Psychology, University of South Africa * Dr Antoinette van der Merwe, Deputy Director, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Stellenbosch University * Associate Professor Duan van der Westhuizen, Dept. of Mathematics, Science,Technology & Computer Education, University of Johannesburg
--
Associate Professor Laura Czerniewicz
Director, Centre for Educational Technology
University of Cape Town
Ph: 021 650 5036 (direct)
Ph: 021 650 3841 (secretary)
Fax: 021 650 3841
www.cet.uct.ac.za
outmoded technology: how long do those sunk costs last really?
After an online tech hiccup re applying to a graduate institution in the US, I now resort to completing a good old paper application. That is not the story. No. The story is that I thought to send the 20+ pages via fax, and unbelievably it will cost less if I send it via the proverbial plane, train, and automobile, than if I send it via fax from the local postal company. It costs, with DHL, 32.60 euros to send a package (A4 envelope of documents) to the US from Spain (East coast, West coast - doesn´t matter). It will cost more (12.50 + (19 x 3.50)) for me to send the same via fax to the US. Madre mía.
If the Internet had not existed, would I be willing to pay this cost, and just accept that things get more expensive (as a consequence of cost of living)? Is it that I am unwilling to pay because unwittingly with the ease and relative reduced cost of Internet technologies, I expect that network effects should apply, and therefore the cost of faxing (an outmoded technology in many regards, but it works so who am I to argue, right?) should get less as the years go by? How can these costs be justified? Sunk costs (for those who aren´t sure), are those which are made as an initial investment in infrastructure, and theory holds that companies accept these sunk costs and recoup them via providing service
x at price
y over years
z.
But then, consider the actual cost of sending same via courier (where actual humans, scarce gas/petroleum resources, other old infrastructure (roads, airplanes) are involved), and where I expect that network effects should not pertain, then where does that leave me? Why does network effects (when considering price) seem to apply to couriering and not to faxing? For sure, if I felt remotely inclined to part with mucho dinero, I would send the fax, but simply as a matter of principle I refuse to pay all that money to send a communication.
----
Speaking of outmoded technology. I had occassion to visit the Telefónica Telecommunications museum probably more than a month ago. I was passing by in Gran Vía, had no plan to go there, but the street was so full of people that I hopped in the direction of the museum and thought "hey, what the heck, I´m here so I might as well visit." Which was not such a bad idea after all as when I left the museum the street was less crowded.
It was an audiovisual and photographic exhibit of the development and expansion of Telefónica in Spain sometime between 1925 and 1930 (at the latest). I liked the video footage (old news reels), all digi-preserved as the plaque explained. Then also an instructional video of "how to make a call" with a suitably serious/pretentious-looking man smoking a pipe and making a call. 1) Pick up the handset 2) Wait for the dialtone 3) wait for operator or dial number (? can´t recall). ...Use the telephone directory; be sure to leave the directory close to the phone when done (as a matter of courtesy). Fascinating. Quaint.
A photo of people in a queue, waiting to listen to what a dialtone sounds like. Video of a group of men (at least 8) installing one telephone pole with lots of effort. Looking at the video is exhausting, and you wonder, they had to do that across the country? Pobrecitos.
When I see such photos I always think: that´s someone´s great-grandmother, or relative of some sort. I wonder what it must feel like if you walk into a museum and see an ancestor. Is it a proud moment, or a confusing one? When in Castelló d´Empuries last week, Imma, Helena, Pepa, and I visited an old medieval awaiting-trial prison. But it was also the prison where Imma´s grandfather had been incarcerated during the Spanish Civil War. We didn´t really talk when there, but I do wonder what it felt like for her when we were there. Some questions are best left unasked as a matter of respect.
Losing one´s identity + Zittrain article
With my move to Spain, I lost three aspects of my identity, and which I then needed to grapple with in an effort to find and define again. For instance, aspect 1 - going from being lecturer to student. I´ve never been exclusively the one nor the other, so adapting my self to a notion of "student" still feels strange and does not fit. I am always somehow more than just one role. I guess many people have this sense, yet we are frequently expected to only don one hat.
I recall attending my first, no second, Linguistics conference in 2000, and in chatting to a noted and lauded Linguistics professor from Stanford University on our way to dinner. He´d asked me who I was, what I do etc. At the time I was working for an NGO, studying Linguistics, etc. So, after giving this guy the overview on my professional life, he turns to me and in a very serious tone asks: "Yes, but are you a Linguist?. ...Rather pregnant pause on both sides ensues. I look at him and reply "Is that a trick question?", as if to say "would life be that simple".
Aspect 2 - my old jad at sun e-mail address which I´ve had for the past 7 years or so. Aspect 3 - my mobile number which I´d had ever since I´ve had a mobile (1995). My e-mail address, and mobile number, had become part of my identity, much like identity numbers. I don´t think many of my friends and colleagues understood this. For many of them these were disposable aspects of myself.
----
Zittrain article on the way forward for law and technology, titled "Without a Net" see
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2006/feature_zittrain_janfeb06.msp
Evo Morales, the newly-elected Bolivian president, has been on a whirlwind tour, visiting many countries dentro de pocos días. Well, I see that he is in South Africa today and tomorrow (See Fabricius´ "
Morales thanks SA for 'strong support' "
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=269&fArticleId=3062571, in the Cape Times) and is getting a very warm reception from the South African government. So much so that South Africa and Bolivia will enter into formal bilateral agreement talks (Ay de mi, my English). Well, Evo Morales graced Spain with his presence in recent days, and quite amusingly and unbelievably the point of discussion raised was that the man was not dressed for the occassion. I see that he disports a preppy look, with polo t-shirts, and cardigans, and not (que horror!!) a suit. So, the latter was up for discussion over here. Very amusing. In fact, something short of hilarious.
Freedom of expression
Yesterday and today we´ve had lectures on freedom of expression. For the most part it was interesting, but I´m never crazy about dealing extensively with hypothetical/philosophical situations. I know, maybe this is my punto flecha (I don´t know if that´s phrased correctly), but entering into extensive discourse on well-trodden paths such as "is pornography artistic expression covered by freedom of expression,?" etc etc. I find rather tedious. Give me reality. Yes, as a humanist / scholar I should be able to do scenario planning, and indulge in the hypothetical, and yet. Maybe it is because I have a very postmodern, relativistic approach to these questions: do what you want to as long as you´re not harming anyone, and doing whatever with their consent.
That said, a recent case (more correctly, this week in Spain) is that, General Mena, the head of the armed forces here in Spain, quoted from the Spanish Constitution in saying that re the claim for autonomy by Catalonia via a Catalonian Statute (Estatuto Catalán), if excessive, the armed forces would act if necessary to preserve the state. In so doing he was castigated by the government (the Defense Minister Bono) for opining about the affairs of state (See
http://www.spainherald.com/2452.html). In Democracy 101, we know that in order to further the doctrine of the "separation of powers", the military is not supposed to have (or more explicitly express) opinions about the affairs of a nation state. So, this guy was castigated, and two other higher-ups were also similarly castigated. Then, two days ago an open letter was published in La Razón (the indy paper here
http://www.larazon.es/) signed by a number of high-level persons expressing support for the concern expressed by General Mena. Other news is that there´s a lot of separate discussion, apart from the above, about the Estatuto Catalán. For me, speaking about the Estatuto is like trying to make sense of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in that the situation is very complex, and it´s difficult to say who is right, wrong, etc. And of course, there is a lot of emotion involved, on both sides.
Hhhmm, my English is all funny today.
So, today we are discussing pornography, and some of the reactions (giggles, etc) from my classmates reminds me of my second-year students´ response when I showed them an award-winning video from RESFEST
http://www.resfest.com/ of 2003. The video, I forget who the band was, was an excellent example of the use of cartooning to tell a story, and make a snide commentary on society, within the space of 3 minutes. I am also reminded of the time that I lectured on how the adult industry drives the development of Internet technologies. My students were very uncomfortable that I had dedicated an entire lecture to the topic. But well, are we to deny that the demand for greater bandwidth, improved viewing technology, etc is not greatly driven by this market almost subterranean?
Last day of old year (memorabilia)
I´ve been arranging pics for posting on jenniferdebeer.net, and happened across the one included in this blogpost. It was taken in a little Sicilian eaterie in Soho, London, the afternoon of 31 December 2005.
After thát little interlude... back to work.
MDTTI: today´s lecture
Today, the first day back to classes, we have four hours of lectures from Prof D. Manuel IZQUIERDO CARRASCO. I have no link of note to cite for him; seems to be an occupational hazard for many lawyers as yet in that they frequently lack an online presence. Grumble grumble. Well, let me not run on about that subject.
Having visited in the Catalunya region last week, I am now keenly aware of accents. Yes, more than before. Well, of course I heard mostly Catalan spoken last week, and after a while I was able to follow, more-or-less, conversations. No problem with understanding written Catalan of course. Well, today´s lecturer drops the letter "s", always the final "s" of words ending in "s", and then I´ve not discerned the pattern for his dropping the "s" in the middle of words, as the latter is not consistent. Sometimes he does the typical Iberian Spanish thing of pronouncing the "s" as "th" (as is obvious I lack knowledge re transcribing the IPA (international phonetic alphabet) on the Web). So, even though he is currently at the Universidad de Córdoba, he seems to not be from southern/Andalucian Spain (judging by his accent). What´s interesting is that sometimes instead of pronouncing the "s" as English "th", he aspirates the sound, making it into something else, a different sound altogether, and sometimes not aspirating but rather dropping the "s" sound. He´s dropped the "s" in [España, francés, país, distinto, and después] making them into /Epaña/ /francé/ /paí/ /ditinto/ and /despué/. Though, he´s not dropped the "s" in [establecía], [desentiendo]. So, I´m not sure about his linguistic pattern (if any) for "s" as they occur within words. For sure he drops final "s" always. ...
And yes, I am listening to / following the lecture content.
Ooh, he just said that he´s Andalucian. Curious. His accent does not conform to the Spanish linguistic theory I was taught.
PS: MDTTI is shorthand for my master´s course.
I am back in Madrid after having spent 10 days in London (22 Dec 2005 to 1 Jan 2006), and 6 days in the Costa Brava (2 to 8 Jan 2006). I start to like London, which was definitely not the case when I went there in 1992. In London, since I was there visiting with (my ex-partner now friend) Jacques, and his sister Adele, we had a nice Xmas and New Year´s Eve. The best in many years. And the fireworks from the London Eye as we greeted in 2006 were spectacular. I took the time to visit a number of places, most notably the Tate Modern, SOHO, all the bridges, Greenwich, and so forth.
In the Costa Brava I was with my friend Imma and her family and friends. I had a great time there too. On day 1 of my arrival at Imma´s mom´s place, Imma´s mom (Roser) took me aside to ask me about my dietary requirements, and after that made sure that I was well fed during my entire visit. It was great to be part of their familial Spanish /Catalan christmas tradition. We talked a lot, watched a number of movies, walked a lot, and visited a number of little villages in the Costa Brava region. And we waited for the three wise men in the town of Figueres.
A more comprehensive photo-illustrated version of my time during the holidays will be posted at
www.jenniferdebeer.net in due course.
