Group items tagged

"At the end of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights collided with everyday life. Expansive copyright laws and digital rights management technologies sought to shut down new forms of copying and remixing made possible by the Internet. International laws expanding patent rights threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS by limiting their access to cheap generic medicines. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries; but recently, groups have emerged around the world to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counter-politics of "access to knowledge" or "A2K." They include software programmers who took to the streets to defeat software patents in Europe, AIDS activists who forced multinational pharmaceutical companies to permit copies of their medicines to be sold in poor countries, subsistence farmers defending their rights to food security or access to agricultural biotechnology, and college students who created a new "free culture" movement to defend the digital commons. Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property maps this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. It gathers some of the most important thinkers and advocates in the field to make the stakes and strategies at play in this new domain visible and the terms of intellectual property law intelligible in their political implications around the world. A Creative Commons edition of this work will be freely available online."

What's in the toolkit? Compiled by our team of ICT law experts, the toolkit contains accessible, up-to-date information about cloud computing in an FE and HE context.  It will provide you with an overview of the key legal areas of copyright, data protection and contract law.  The five publications in the toolkit are: · Report on Cloud Computing and the Law for UK Further and Higher Education - An Overview (Access in Word, PDF and HTML) · User Guide: Cloud Computing and the Law for IT (Access in Word, PDF and HTML) · User Guide: Cloud Computing and the Law for Senior Management and Policy Makers (Access in Word, PDF and HTML) · User Guide: Cloud Computing and the Law for Users (Access in Word, PDF and HTML) · User Guide: Cloud Computing Contracts, SLAs and Terms & Conditions of Use (Access in Word, PDF and HTML)

"The internet lets us share perfect copies of our work with a worldwide audience at virtually no cost. We take advantage of this revolutionary opportunity when we make our work "open access": digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. In this talk, Peter Suber - Director of the Harvard Open Access Project - shares insights from his new concise introduction to open access - what open access is and isn't, how it benefits authors and readers of research, how we pay for it, how it avoids copyright problems, how it has moved from the periphery to the mainstream, and what its future may hold. This event includes questions and responses from Stuart Shieber (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), Robert Darnton (Harvard University Library), June Casey (Harvard Law School Library), David Weinberger (Berkman Center / Harvard Library Innovation Lab) and more."

(Note - free ebook version) - At the end of the twentieth century, intellectual property rights collided with everyday life. Expansive copyright laws and digital rights management technologies sought to shut down new forms of copying and remixing made possible by the Internet. International laws expanding patent rights threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS by limiting their access to cheap generic medicines. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries; but recently, groups have emerged around the world to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counter-politics of "access to knowledge" or "A2K." They include software programmers who took to the streets to defeat software patents in Europe, AIDS activists who forced multinational pharmaceutical companies to permit copies of their medicines to be sold in poor countries, subsistence farmers defending their rights to food security or access to agricultural biotechnology, and college students who created a new "free culture" movement to defend the digital commons. Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property maps this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts. It gathers some of the most important thinkers and advocates in the field to make the stakes and strategies at play in this new domain visible and the terms of intellectual property law intelligible in their political implications around the world. A Creative Commons edition of this work will be freely available online.

I think this is an important stating of the assumptions built into technology and the outcomes resulting from these assumptions and inherent biases. "... we need to understand how the shape of information access controls the intellectual (and, ultimately, financial) opportunities of some college students. If we emphasize the consequences of differential access, we see one facet of the digital divide; if we ask about how these consequences are produced, we are asking about digital redlining. The comfortable elision in "edtech" is dangerous; it needs to be undone by emphasizing the contexts, origins, aims, and ideologies of technologies."

Some statements / guidance from NC State Uni on the accessibility of Google Apps.  The 2 Athen docs linked to at the bottom of the page are useful.

Lincoln University becomes the 1st NZ university to declare an Open Access policy.

"Introduction to Web Accessibility is an online course that introduces tools and techniques for web developers to easily ensure that websites are more accessible to users who are blind or have low vision"

"Blanchard's and Moore's research finds that developmental milestones are changing as a new generation of young children approach learning and literacy in ways not thought possible in the past. According to this new report, digital media is already transforming the language and cultural practices that enable early literacy development, making possible a new kind of personal and global interconnectedness. The research reveals that: * Opportunities to engage with digital media increasingly prevail through the use of mobile devices-and in developing countries access to mobile devices is more commonplace than access to other technologies * Developmental milestones are changing as young people's access to mobile and digital technology grows. * Digital media positively impacts children's opinion of learning, providing engagement opportunities not always seen with print materials."

Jisc resources for Open Access

Account of difficulty with Open Access and misunderstanding / misreporting. Not an argument to stop OA but a plea to make the OA change now mean something to readers.

"The Access Copyright defeat on three key issues should have a significant impact on the education battle: repertoire, the breadth of insubstantial copying, and fair dealing."

creating accessible material for iTunes U - iTunes U video series

creating accessible material for iTunes U - iTunes U video series

Cloud Browse - How to access Flash content / sites on Apple mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

Report and resources from the CETIS Accessibility meeting in London. Some useful stuff.

Detailed report on accessibility needs for Moodle in the context of blind and vision impaired users.

Article on why open access is important. Has a long exploration of the for & against arguments in the comments.

Contents 1 Context 2 Improving data and research to create an evidence base 3 21st century school buildings and learning hubs 4 Training and professional development 5 Improving access to New Zealand content online 6 Development of 21st century skills 7 Equity issues 8 Improving device access 9 Ultra-Fast Broadband and the School Network Upgrade Programme 10 Network for Learning 11 Institutional arrangements for ICT and 21st century learning 12 Changes to legislation, regulation, and government agency operations 13 Minority views

Encouraging open access deposit at Uni Columbia