Towards an Ergonomics of Knowledge Syste…

Towards an Ergonomics of Knowledge Systems: Improving the Design of Technology Enhanced Learning :
“As Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems become more essential to education there is an increasing need for their creators to reduce risk and to design for success. We argue that by taking an ergonomic perspective it is possible to better understand why TEL systems succeed or fail, as it becomes possible to analyze how well they are aligned with their users and environment. We present three TEL case studies that demonstrate these ideas, and show how an ergonomic analysis can help frame the problems faced in a useful way. In particular we propose using a variant of ergonomics that emphasizes the expression, communication and use of knowledge within the system; we call this approach Knowledge System Ergonomics.”
URL : http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21354/

SWORD v2.0: Deposit Lifecycle : SWORD is…

SWORD v2.0: Deposit Lifecycle :
SWORD is a hugely successful JISC project which has kindled repository interoperability and built a community around the software and the problem space. It explicitly deals only with creating new repository resources by package deposit ­ a simple case which is at the root of its success but also its key limitation. This next version of SWORD will push the standard towards supporting full repository deposit lifecycles by using update, retrieve and delete extensions to the specification. This will enable the repository to be integrated into a broader range of systems in the scholarly environment, by supporting an increased range of behaviours and use cases.
URL : http://sword2depositlifecycle.jiscpress.org/files/2010/07/SWORDv2.pdf

No-Fault Peer Review Charges: The Price …

No-Fault Peer Review Charges: The Price of Selectivity Need Not Be Access Denied or Delayed :
Plans by universities and research funders to pay the costs of Open Access Publishing (“Gold OA”) are premature. Funds are short; 80% of journals (including virtually all the top journals) are still subscription-based, tying up the potential funds to pay for Gold OA; the asking price for Gold OA is still high; and there is concern that paying to publish may inflate acceptance rates and lower quality standards. What is needed now is for universities and funders to mandate OA self-archiving (of authors’ final peer-reviewed drafts, immediately upon acceptance for publication) (“Green OA”). That will provide immediate OA; and if and when universal Green OA should go on to make subscriptions unsustainable (because users are satisfied with just the Green OA versions) that will in turn induce journals to cut costs (print edition, online edition, access-provision, archiving), downsize to just providing the service of peer review, and convert to the Gold OA cost-recovery model; meanwhile, the subscription cancellations will have released the funds to pay these residual service costs. The natural way to charge for the service of peer review then will be on a “no-fault basis,” with the author’s institution or funder paying for each round of refereeing, regardless of outcome (acceptance, revision/re-refereeing, or rejection). This will minimize cost while protecting against inflated acceptance rates and decline in quality standards.
URL : http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21348/

REPORT ON OPEN REPOSITORY DEVELOPMENT IN…

REPORT ON OPEN REPOSITORY DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING AND TRANSITION COUNTRIES :
This study was conducted with the cooperation of eIFL.net, the University of Kansas Libraries, the DRIVER project and Key Perspectives Ltd. The aim was to create an inventory of current digital repository activities in developing and transition countries at both the infrastructure and services level. This is the first attempt to collect such data about digital repository activity in developing and transition countries and we hope this will serve as important resource for promoting open access and repository development in these regions. This report was produced in the framework of the eIFL-OA advocacy program supported by Open Society Institute and the Wellcome Trust.
URL : http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/docs/report-on-open/downloadFile/file/Evaluation_report_on_IRs_June.pdf?nocache=1278394604.42

Digital economy rankings 2010 Beyond e-r…

Digital economy rankings 2010 Beyond e-readiness :
“The top performers in the 2010 digital economy rankings—led this year by Sweden (1st), which dislodged the perennial e-readiness leader, Denmark (2nd), by a narrow margin—demonstrate a high degree of connectivity and score well on all fronts, from the quality of their business and legal
environments to social and cultural drivers of digital progress, the existence of sound public policy on
ICT, and the levels at which consumers and businesses actually use digital services. This underscores
our long-standing premise that progress towards a fully digital economy requires concerted action
across all the areas addressed in the rankings.
As in past years, the quantitative evidence suggests that the digital divide is narrowing. Where 5.9 points (on a 1-10 scale) separated the top-ranked country from that of the bottom ranked in 2009, that differential narrowed to 5.5 points in our 2010 study. Likewise, the gap between the first and last countries in the top half of the table narrowed to 2.4 points this year from 2.8 one year ago. This
is partly due to the aforementioned modifications to our rankings model which, in “raising the bar”,
have had a larger dampening effect on the scores of top-tier countries than on those in the lower tiers.
However, given the increased attention to fast-growing emerging markets by global businesses seeking
growth in the recovery, investment levels and wealth levels—and as a result levels of digitalisation—
are likely to rise even more rapidly, and the divide may indeed continue to narrow.
The divide is eroding in another way, one which cannot be as precisely measured by comparative
scores. Innovative digital practices and applications are arguably being conceived and put in practice
in the emerging world faster than in the developed world. Simply put, there are no alternatives but to
become “more digital” with whatever assets are available. Mobile data tools and services are one area
where the emerging world equals or outpaces the developed world in usage habits; the use of ICT as
a platform for building capacity in education services is another. There is always variance, of course,
and room for improvement. But the digital economy rankings demonstrate that there are many ways to
harness the power of the Internet to improve economic prospects and the lives of people.”

URL : http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/EIU_Digital_economy_rankings_2010_FINAL_WEB.pdf

World Social Science Report 2010 : Socia…

World Social Science Report 2010 :
Social science from Western countries continues to have the greatest global influence, but the field is expanding rapidly in Asia and Latin America, particularly in China and Brazil. In sub-Saharan Africa, social scientists from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya produce 75% of academic publications. In South Asia, barring some centres of excellence in India, social sciences as a whole have low priority.
URL : http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/reports/world-social-science-report/

Diffusion des documents et données numériques pour la recherche des fonds scientifiques des sciences humaines et sociales :

Les fonds documentaires et plus largement les données sources pour la recherche dans les Sciences humaines et sociales (SHS) ont commencé à prendre le tournant du numérique, de plus en plus de données, servant à faire de la recherche en SHS, sont nativement numériques.

Il s’agit de mettre en œuvre une importante politique de conservation et de diffusion numérique des fonds, acquis la plupart du temps sur fonds publics depuis plus de 40 ans. Cela implique de la numérisation, de la redocumentarisation, de développer des accès multiples tout en assurant l’interopérabilité des données et en plaçant ces fonds dans le web de données.

Depuis 2005, les choses ont évoluées dans le bon sens, mais l’informatisation des fonds documentaires reste faible, il s’agit maintenant d’atteindre une masse critique, de gérer un passage à l’échelle supérieure afin de positionner les données des SHS dans l’extension du web que sera dans quelques années le web de données. Le web à 20 ans, il est devenu l’espace la diffusion des publications scientifiques (revues, sites, ouvrages, colloques, etc.) qui ont été les premières à l’utiliser comme vecteur de diffusion massive.

Mais, pour le moment, il reste relativement vide de « données brutes » : il est temps d’inter-connecter les publications et fonds documentaires, mais aussi les fonds entre eux, afin de construire des espaces de données plus larges, mondiaux, dans le cadre de l’open access quand cela est possible afin d’offre aux scientifiques de demain des corpus de données numériques, documentés, accessibles, interopérables et pérennes.

Cette note expose le potentiel, les réalisations en cours et trace des perceptives opérationnelles et fonctionnelles pour la mise en œuvre d’un projet de conservation et de diffusion numérique des fonds documentaires et des données « brutes » de la recherche en SHS.

URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00494227/fr/