2007/11/23

contributions are welcome

Being located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada - this will be a book that has relevance in the province of Saskatchewan. Some of the contributors will come from Saskatchewan. But I am also looking for contributors from outside the province. These issues have global impact - and international representation amongst the contributors is a good thing. Upon good advice, I am aiming to include approximately 15 essays. Even if you are not the one to write an essay, your input (via comments) regarding topic suggestions and the like will be much appreciated.

2007/11/22

Possible topic: artist Steve Kurtz and freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and academic freedom


Wednesday, I heard an interview with Steve Kurtz on the CBC radio program Q. The podcast of that program is available. I was stunned to hear his story. More information is available from the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) Defense Fund site. There is also a summary on wikipedia. I understand that there will be a fundraiser for him this weekend at the SPIN Gallery in Toronto, with Naomi Klein as keynote speaker. Aside from Steve, the scientist who worked with him was also charged - what does this mean for the future of those types of collaborations?

Artists also face difficulties in other forms. In universities, friction may be caused with the local IRB (in the States) or REB (in Canada). With the new privacy legislation (in Canada), some forms of artistic practice are substantially threatened. To avoid legal problems, an artist working with video surveillance could post a sign warning that passers by will be recorded. What happens then to the art and the artist's commentary on society?

Are you or do you know someone willing to write an essay on this subject? Contact me with any questions or concerns.

2007/11/21

Call for Essays -- Free Knowledge book

** PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY **

The increasing privatization of knowledge is changing our society in important ways, but for the benefit of very few.

Of interest are essays that deal with current challenges, and promising alternatives, in specific sectors such as (but not limited to) farming and food, computer software, medicine, media, arts, and libraries. Essays dealing with, for example, traditional knowledge, economics, or the historical context of this issue are also welcome.

The essays are being collected for a volume inspired by the “Free Knowledge” event held at the University of Regina on November 17 and 18, 2005. Contributions need not be Saskatchewan-specific. The finished manuscript will be available on the web, through a creative commons license, and it is also hoped to have it published in print.

Interested authors should contact Daryl Hepting, c/o Department of Computer Science, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada (e-mail daryl.hepting@uregina.ca) as soon as possible. Manuscripts should be approximately 20 double-spaced pages, not including references. One or more external referees will review each submission. Authors are invited to make suggestions about suitable referees. Deadline for manuscripts is April 30, 2008, with an expected publication date in the Spring of 2009.

Some background

Back in November of 2005, I along with some colleagues, put on an event at the University of Regina known as "Free Knowledge." The subtitle of "Creating an Information Commons in Saskatchewan" was not quite right: it was more about knowledge than information; we weren't trying to create something but rather protect it; and the issues extend well beyond the borders of Saskatchewan (Canada).

Here's what was written about the intent of that event back in 2005:

Agriculture has always been an essential part of life in Saskatchewan, but it is being threatened again and in new ways. The recent Supreme Court decisions in Monsanto v. Schmeiser, and others, have brought into question farmers' traditional role as stewards of the land and they threaten to make farmers further dependent on intellectual property owned by transnational corporations. It is important to consider the implications of this shift to private ownership of seed technologies on farmers' livelihoods and its effects on our food supply. Agriculture is not the only sector facing this kind of pressure. Consider the pressures on healthcare as profit competes with patient health as the prime motivator. How does commercialization of health care knowledge impact the goal of achieving a healthy population? Governments at all levels face questions of how best to maintain public infrastructure. Should private companies control technologies needed by the state to discharge its responsibilities, particularly in maintaining citizen rights in the area of information? In the area of education, the commercialization of knowledge affects not only universities who now compete with online institutions developing courseware, but can also lead to differential access to educational opportunities of varying quality while eroding public education systems. While commercialization of knowledge is framed as being in our economic interest, is privatization of public knowledge the best way to generate a prosperous and just society, particularly in Saskatchewan?

Many of these concerns about the privatization of knowledge in the areas of agriculture, health, education, and government provision of services have been considerably discussed within the particular sectors. The goal of this event is to facilitate a broad-based inquiry across sectors into these issues. It will attempt to explore how our community is currently responding to the potential dangers of transfer of knowledge ownership from public to private interests.

And its call for participation (slightly abridged):

Are you concerned about the privatization of information as it affects you in Saskatchewan? We want your input! We are a group of University of Regina researchers, and we are organizing a conference for the fall of 2005 to talk about the value of keeping information public, of sharing with humanity information that is of value to humanity.

We know that throughout the world, databases, scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs and even living entities are increasingly becoming the property of private companies, or falling under the management of for-profit enterprises. Because we're connected with the university, we know how this affects academic research. We suspect this trend affects many other people in Saskatchewan as well, in ways that we may not anticipate.

For this reason, we're making this call for ideas. Please distribute this notice as widely as possible. Whether you work in health, information and communications technology, government, education, agriculture, the arts, media (or any other field), you may have had some experience with the loss of public information, ideas and information systems, especially in the past decade. Maybe you've seen some publicly-created discoveries and databases being taken over by corporations. You may also have come across some good ideas and networks for sharing information freely. Please send us your ideas for topics and presenters (including yourself). The only restriction is that the topics must focus on Saskatchewan.