Group items tagged

This is about the inequitable global power and how it dynamics the confronting global knowledge production in nowadays.

Underlying this notion of global knowledge production inequities is how developed countries "The Global North" dominate modern knowledge systems. This hegemonic control of global knowledge, driven by increased globalization, places pressure on virtually all societies to adopt global values and services. While this development does have positive implications (e.g. better understanding of modern health practices, nutrition, environmental protection, governance systems, etc), on the negative side, the imposition of cultural forms from the developing world could be considered a form of political and economic domination. This leads to the increasing homogenization of cultures and a threat to local knowledge, and the exacerbation of local differences and inequalities through uneven access to such knowledge and the means for it's application. The production of knowledge implicates and is implicated in power relations, as those with superior technology cannot only generate but also store, monopolize and disseminate information to safeguard their interests. Foucault (1972) suggests that the relationship between power and knowledge has its origin in the ownership of the means of material production and technical expertise. According to Said (1978), Western powers in a colonial and post-colonial context, using agents in developing countries, have been able to develop elaborate cultural and political institutions where knowledge production exists with supporting mechanisms that dominate and suppress African communities. In a critical examination of development policies and programs in Africa, Okolie (2003) considers these to be shaped by knowledge and assumptions about knowledge production that are primarily Euro-American centered, and are consequently "exclusionary and often contemptuous of other ways of knowing" (Okolie, 2003). The establishment of the continent's universities and research centers was primarily driven by Western powers, and the African elites who h

Article Title: The CCC Position on Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act

Researchers and academics spend a lot of time documenting the sources of the ideas, methods and evidence they have drawn on in their own writings. But Patrick Dunleavy writes that our existing citation and referencing practices are now woefully out of date and no longer fit for purpose.

I think that LSE is doing a lot of useful work for change the way scholars work and communicate. But the structure of the whole system is solid rock (still).

a. Finding a balance between technology and teaching has proved challenging in the traditional classroom. Some institutions, such as University of Chicago Law School, have altogether banned internet access in the classroom, claiming that it imposes on the integrity of the education. Although the authors draw attention to research demonstrating the rampant frequency of distractions with laptop and mobile technology amongst students, they beg the question of whose fault it really is - and begs educators to reflect on their own teaching, and the educational institution as a whole. Fang describes possible solutions for the distraction dilemma for educators to apply to the modern classroom. Filtering applications can help to create a temporary filter on computer applications to ensure a singular task, or set of permitted tasks, are accessed. Network switching allows faculty and network administrators to determine which, if any, applications can use a network at a given time. Social solutions can also be effective; by educating the student on the issue of technology-related distraction in classrooms, and assessing teaching styles, class formats and institutional practices. In the modern classroom, the professor and technology should coexist peacefully; yet it will take social and technical finesse in order to find the right balance for the maximum benefit of the student.

"the data lead us to argue that any journal rank (not only the currently-favored Impact Factor) would have this negative impact. Therefore, we suggest that abandoning journals altogether, in favor of a library-based scholarly communication system, will ultimately be necessary. This new system will use modern information technology to vastly improve the filter, sort and discovery functions of the current journal system."

Talk about an ambitious suggestion! As we've talked about this in class, I'm not surprised to find scientific research that impact factor is bad scientific (not to mention business) practice. I'm also very interested in this idea of alternative scholarly communication systems; and if libraries are to play a central role, I have to assume that projects like institutional repositories would play an enormous part in this new system. I wonder what this suggests about altmetrics, though? Are we just putting a band-aid on a deep wound, and treating the symptom instead of the disease?

From Book Censorship to Academic Peer Review Mario Biagioli Together with tenure, peer review is probably the most distinctive feature of the modern academic system. Peer review, we are told, sets academia apart from all other professions by construing value through peer judgment, not market dynamics. Given the remarkable epistemological and symbolic burden placed on peer review, it is surprising to find that so little research has analyzed it either empirically (in its actual daily practices) or philosophically (as one of the conditions of possibility of academic knowledge).

As a scholarly publisher, we enable scholarly journals to take full advantage of the opportunities unlocked by electronic publishing and open access. Through our comprehensive and modern publication practices and technological expertise we realise each journal's full potential, and improve their scientific impact whilst upholding international publishing standards and ethical practices.

The wonderful blog, Hack Library School, has recently posted a piece on open access publishing. This piece is a great overview, which covers many of the basic concepts covered in Module 6. The article discusses what open access is (and what it isn't) and some of the biggest discussion points on the issue today. It's a great overview and well worth the read if you want an overview or a refresher on the topic!

This blog covers a lot of relevant concepts related to OA, but a finer point need to be clarified. Regarding Google Scholar, not everything retrieved from GS is OA. GS is a web crowler, it crows wherever it is allowed, including references and citations to articles behind paywalls. On the other hand, many librarians are working to make their paid journals subscriptions available to their faculty and students via Google Scholar. So when faculty/students are on their universities' network, they can search GS, find articles from journals. If their library subscribes to that journal, there is a good chance a link to the full text will be available.

I agree with the point that "findability" for green OA articles is a current problem. We need a PubMed or Web of Science for green OA articles!

Hi there, I have just find this excelente video about the future os property rihgts and think that may be interesting for you all. "Property Rights Development: Implications for Sustainability | PRESENTER: Brian Kelly, Graduate Student Fellow, MS Candidate in Community Development and Applied Economics | 4/20/12 Modern property rights assignments and regimes are ill-equipped to adapt to increased ecological scarcity, resulting in economically-inefficient outcomes and a systemic inability to enable the development of a green economy. This presentation will discuss how property rights emerge, the viability of rights for future generations, and the how the existence of environmental externalities necessitates the inevitable emergence of common property rights regimes, grounded in the empirical example of Vermont's groundwater". Regards Julia Echeverría

I'll preface this by saying I've shared a few things from the Biodiversity Heritage Library on Twitter. The Biodiversity Heritage Library Blog is a blog that I've been following for a few years. The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a project in coordination with the Internet Archive to digitize historic natural history journals and field notebooks. I find the digitization of field notebooks very interesting in terms of open science. In the module on open science there was a lot of discussion of modern science, but I feel it is equally important to open historic or legacy data.

This interesting inset describes an early classification system for medieval manuscripts, taking early steps to make information easier to access. I thought that it would be interesting to add for the group.

The reality is the present is the foundation for the future. The medieval libraries were effective and serving the needs of that generation. The same generation found loopholes that led to the development of what we call modern libraries. We no w know who to thanks for the wonderful and life and time saving GPS!

The future will always trace its existence from the past which laid down the foundation. The shape of the libraries of the future is being crafted now. The GPS we see now has its roots in the Medieval libraries.

An interesting piece thinking about indigenous learning in a modern context.

Great tie in with the RIck Hill video in Module 1. Indigenous learning teaches us about the connectedness that stands in contrast to this MOOC even as we seek it in different forms through this sort of sharing and commenting and "liking."

Open Library is an open project: the software is open, the data are open, the documentation is open. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget--it's all welcome. Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.

Very good and will be helpful to all

Welcome to Open Library! Looking for accessible books in the DAISY format? View our accessible book subject page, or search for accessible books.

"In truth, publishing is flourishing, creating massive new fortunes for entrepreneurs and more choices for consumers. It's also attracting large investments by established companies and venture capitalists. Though not everyone prospers, there has never been a better time for publishers."

Good overview with fundamental advice for publishers: innovate

Good read, Kevin! :) I agree with this article that said "As long as people want to be informed, entertained, and inspired, there will be profitable opportunities in publishing." The main key to keep the business running is everyone must adapt. Traditional publishers need to moves to digital media in order to survive and meet the modern readers' needs.

ScienceOpen, is a next generation Open Access platform that builds on the premise that scholarly publishing is not an end in itself, but the beginning of a dialogue to move research forward. It combines over 1 million articles from all areas of modern science, the humanities and social sciences with collaborative pre-publication workspaces, immediate publication and post-publication peer-review.

ZBW Website German National Library of Economics - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ZBW is the largest library for literature in economics world-wide. This is one great example of "open access" whereby access for data is openly made available to users nationally and internationally. ZBW was is recently honoured by the German Library Association as the 2014 Library of the Year for its "a radically modern library whose customer- and innovation-oriented approach is exemplary for other libraries". Through its Econbiz Open project, ZBW was able to partner and create participatory culture among its partner countries.

I believe that one of the best ways to look for truthful information happens through the specialized free access library Julia.