Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament – Tools for Democracy
Parliaments in a democracy must be efficient in their operations, transparent in their actions and have strong ties to their citizens.
This second booklet in the new Office for Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy (OPPD) series offers a roadmap for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) managers and other parliamentary officials responsible for overseeing ICT to assist them in the planning and development of computer and communication systems to support their respective legislative assemblies.
The Future of Interoperability Standards…
The Future of Interoperability Standards in Education – System and Process :
“In January 2010, JISC CETIS organised a working meeting to bring together participants across a range of standards organisations and communities to look at the future of interoperability standards in the education sector. This paper summarises the views expressed by delegates at the meeting and presents relevant background information on present and future models for collaboration between open and informal communities and the formal standardisation system with particular reference to the current issues and barriers in specification and standard development and adoption processes. This summary also presents a series of suggestions on the possible directions of future interoperability standards in education.”
URL : http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2011/01/11/new-cetis-white-paper-the-future-of-interoperability-and-standards-in-education-%E2%80%93-system-and-process/
Access to knowledge in the age of intell…
Access to knowledge in the age of intellectual property :
“The end of the twentieth century saw an explosive intrusion of intellectual property law into everyday life. Expansive copyright laws have been used to attack new forms of sharing and remixing facilitated by the Internet. International laws extending the patent rights of pharmaceutical companies have threatened the lives of millions of people around the world living with HIV/AIDS. For decades, governments have tightened the grip of intellectual property law at the bidding of information industries. Recently, a multitude of groups around the world have emerged to challenge this wave of enclosure with a new counterpolitics of “access to knowledge” or “A2K.”
They include software programmers who take to the streets to attack software patents, AIDS activists who fight for generic medicines in poor countries, subsistence farmers who defend their right to food security and seeds, and college students who have created a new “free culture” movement to defend the digital commons. In this volume, Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski have created the first anthology of the A2K movement, mapping this emerging field of activism as a series of historical moments, strategies, and concepts.
Intellectual property law has become not only a site of new forms of transnational activism, but also a locus for profound new debates and struggles over politics, economics, and freedom. This collection vividly brings these debates into view and makes the terms of intellectual property law legible in their political implications around the world.”
URL : http://www.zonebooks.org/pdf/ZoneBooks_A2K_.pdf
REPORT OF THE ‘COMITÉ DES SAGES : “For …
REPORT OF THE ‘COMITÉ DES SAGES :
“For centuries, libraries, archives and museums from across Europe have been the custodians of our rich and diverse cultural heritage. They have preserved and provided access to the testimonies of knowledge, beauty and imagination, such as sculptures, paintings, music and literature. The new information technologies have created unbelievable opportunities to make this common heritage
more accessible for all. Culture is following the digital path and “memory institutions” are adapting
the way in which they communicate with their public.
Digitisation breathes new life into material from the past, and turns it into a formidable asset for the individual user and an important building block of the digital economy. We are of the opinion that the public sector has the primary responsibility for making our cultural heritage accessible and preserving it for future generations. This responsibility for and control over Europe’s heritage cannot be left to one or a few market players, although we strongly encourage the idea of bringing more private investments and companies into the digitisation arena through a fair and balanced partnership.
“Digitising our cultural heritage is a gigantic task that requires large investments. According to a study, in total some €100bn will be necessary over time to bring our complete heritage online. This type of effort needs time and the investment will need to be carefully planned and co-ordinated in order to get the best results.
We think that the benefits are worth the effort. These benefits are in the first place related to the wider access to and democratisation of culture and knowledge, as well as the benefits for the educational system – both schools and universities. Other major benefits lie in the economic sphere
and concern the development of new technologies and services for digitisation, for digital preservation and for interacting in innovative ways with the cultural material. The digitised material can in itself be a driver of innovation and be at the basis of new services in sectors such as tourism and learning.”
URL : http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/reflection_group/final-report-cdS3.pdf
Research Communications Strategy : “Thi…
Research Communications Strategy :
“This report is in two distinct, but connected, sections. They address a common theme: the scope of current OA practice and the opportunities it offers for innovation in scholarly communication methods.
*Section 1 takes as its starting point the apparent reluctance of individual academics fully to embrace OA, and suggests that the potential offered by OA for various kinds of added value might be an effective tool in advocacy.
*Section 2 considers the relation of OA to services such as Mendeley, and wonders whether our established view of OA as a way to distribute traditional research outputs more efficiently might come to seem outmoded in the face of new, non-traditional ideas about how to conduct and disseminate research.”
URL : http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/502/
Les services pour les archives ouvertes: de la référence à l’expertise
Auteur/Author : Emma Bester
En vingt ans, les archives ouvertes sont devenues des dispositifs significatifs de la communication scientifique dans de nombreux domaines. L’attention se porte aujourd’hui vers le développement de services avancés pour les archives ouvertes.
L’étude présentée ici se propose, après une première partie sur les principaux enjeux associés au développement de services pour les archives ouvertes, de dresser dans une seconde partie un état de l’art des services actuellement disponibles sur les archives ouvertes.
Les sept dispositifs sélectionnés, répondant à des critères de fiabilité, de masse critique et de couverture géographique, typologique et disciplinaire, ont été étudiés au travers d’une grille d’analyse fonctionnelle.
Outre les fonctionnalités premières d’alimentation, de validation, d’identification, de consultation et d’accession aux références et/ou documents, cette étude distingue les fonctionnalités émergentes ou services innovants de personnalisation, de publicisation, de contextualisation des références, de communication et de collaboration entre usagers.
Partant du constat que les services associées aux archives ouvertes se déportent peu à peu des seules références et/ou document pour mettre la figure de l’auteur au cœur des données d’information, la troisième partie de l’article interroge plus spécifiquement cette dimension servicielle.
On discute notamment l’opportunité d’exploiter ces dispositifs pour renouveler les circuits de mise en visibilité et d’appel à contribution des évaluateurs, rapporteurs ou experts d’un domaine scientifique.