COURSE NOTES - WEEK FIVE - October 31-November 6, 2005

Blackboard for posted readings. Return to Schedule

This week is a short week because of our fine trip to ASIST. We left on time at 5am and returned on time at about 10:30 pm in time to see lots of costumed UNC students hurrying toward Franklin Street. I think our group had had enough for the time and headed back to the dorm. The conference was rich. We were able to hear the CEO of Red Hat, Matthew Szulik, who gave the keynote speech (introduced by SILS Dean Jose Griffiths) in which he argued the business case for information commons activities -- very timely from our class point of view. I attended a session on User Services for Digital Libraries in which the video conferencing didn't work as well as one would wish. However, Gary Marchionini's brief remarks were excellent. SILS faculty member Jeff Pomerantz moderated the proceedings with great aplomb. I also attended a really excellent session on studying the user in which Brenda Dervin's sense-making theory was applauded, criticized and added to. Many 110 students attended these sessions or others as well. A number of us walked over to see the Charlotte/Montgomery County Public Library. Weather was beautiful and the library is rich.

I have posted three readings for you this week that I hope we can discuss on the blog. Some of you are really good about blogging; we are still waiting to hear from some of the rest of you.

The first reading is one by Ronald Inglehart about value differences among different cultures. It's a follow-up to the Marcus & Gould reading you did on the use of the four Hofstede dimensions of cultural differences as they might affect webpage design. Inglehart takes a different view and bases his comments on the World Values Survey. Inglehart argues in this article that "economic development seems to bring a gradual shift from survival values to self-expression values, which helps explain why richer societies are more likely to be democracies." Read his article and see if you agree with his argument. If you do, then you will want to find out more about another event that is taking place as we speak.

This event is the World Summit on the Information Society. Part one took place in 2003 and part two is just commencing this month. The central issue of this UN-sponsored series of events is how to reduce the digital divide and make a place for the poorer countries of the world to take part in the development made possible by information and communication technologies.

I have given you a little background in Blackboard where I posted the link to the World Summit website and also a pdf of a report about Internet Governance, probably the key issue at the second World Summit meeting. I hope to read some opinions from each of you about these important information technology issues. Please post them to the blog.

Revised November 1, 2005.
If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Evelyn Daniel