COURSE NOTES - WEEK FOUR - October 24-30, 2005

Blackboard for posted readings. Return to Schedule

Four readings: Bruce and Kranich and Komito and Marcum

This week I have posted four readings for your enjoyment. Below are a few comments and thought questions on the Kranich report, a very powerful and thought-provoking document. I posted some comments about the Komito article on the blog for you to comment on.

Kranich - The Information Commons. Nancy Kranich is a former president of the American Library Association (2000-2001). Her long term interest is in the role of libraries in democracies. She has conducted presentations, written articles and been interviewed many times about her interests and experience in such topics as advocacy, intellectual freedom, digital libraries, information policy, scholarly communication and legislative action for librarians. Among her many publications is Libraries and Democracy: The Cornerstone of Liberty (Chicago, ALA, 2001).

The article I asked you to read should be of interest to all of you as, in this report, Kranich defines and places in context many of the ideas about open source activities, the wikipedia, and other collaborative sharing ventures. She groups all these ventures into the idea of "the Information Commons." The reading may look long but I believe it is well-structured to enable you to enter it at several different places to to find items of value for you. Many examples of information commons are provided throughout the report -- all with brief descriptions and a link to each agency's website for further information.

Kranich is a passionate advocate for such projects and sees their importance in a world (speaking chiefly of the United States here) that where information is increasingly becoming commodified. Are you familiar with digital rights management (DRM) techniques and their threat to such copyright customs as "fair use", "first sale" and "public domain"? Do you see these issues as purely American issues or do you see implications for other countries as well? In the debate between information as a public good and information as a commodity, where do you stand?

I posted some of the questions about information policy that Komito poses in his "Regulation of Information" chapter. I invite you to select any one of these questions for a comment.

Revised Oct. 24, 2005.
If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Evelyn Daniel