Posts from — July 2004

Serious Games Summit DC. Serious Games Summit DC October 18-19 Washington DC http://www.seriousgamessummit.com Serious Games are applications of interactive technology that extend far beyond the traditional videogame, including: training, policy exploration, analytics, visualization, simulation, education and health and therapy. These applications are allowing immersive… [miscellany is the largest category]

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i find this fascinating…….

Why doesn't Academia understand Industrial Work?. 20 Jul 2004: “If we want to, in Bryan's words, close the gap between academic and industrial work, such that a better understanding for industrial problem is the result (which could lead to improved paper acceptance rates, among other things), than industry will need to be more pro-active in making researchers aware of what the problems are that they need to solve, on short as well as long term. Industry has a chance to drive the research agenda as long as it is willing to open up and show what the real [RootPrompt -- Nothing but Unix]

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“The gap between industry and academic work has grown to be large.”

not sure that i agree.

ITU-T and Internet Governance.

Houlin Zhao, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector's (ITU-T) Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, gave a talk on Internet Governance at ITU Telecom Africa. The ITU-T maintains a website on ITU-T and Internet Governance which is also linked to from the ITU Internet Governance Resources site.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

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more itu stuff.

More on Google indexing of OAI-compliant archives. Kinley Levack, A Giant Leap for Academia? Google Ventures into DSpace, EContent, EContent, July/August, 2004. Excerpt: “DSpace is open-source software designed to assist colleges and universities in creating, managing, and maintaining digital repositories. There are currently about 125 schools using this software, but no tool existed that enabled searching across repositories instead of just within them. [PS: Untrue, but these tools are not as popular or comprehensive as Google.] Enter Google into DSpace. Google and 17 partner schools have joined forces on a pilot program to enable searching among DSpace repositories….Although both sides have been tight lipped about the project, representatives from DSpace have commented that the agreement with Google is not exclusive and that they are open to working with other search engine companies or even developing their own technology. Plans with Google continue to move forward, though, and if all goes well with the pilot, then Google may launch the program under its Advanced Search section within the next few months.” [Open Access News]

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this is fairly interesting, google is covering oai.

Interesting survey of blog readers by Blogads [Joi Ito's Web]

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interesting enough…..

ITU/BDT Arab Regional Workshop on IPv6.

ITU/BDT Arab Regional Workshop on Internet Protocol Version-6 (IPv6) in Tunis 20-22 July 2004.

[ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]

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this is fairly interesting…..

it was a pretty good day, Bill Dutton gave us his perspective on the information society and access issues by looking at the world internet project, Nimrod Koslowski gave an interesting perspective on security and the securitizing mode of governance that is taking over the interent, and finally, i gave my presentation about my work and received some good comments about it.

Online encourages other connections. IWire reports that Keith Hampton is interviewed in Spectrum magazine, about his new findings on local neighbourhood internet use. Keith revealed some of this evidence at an iSociety seminar back in April. The main conclusion hightlighted is that “rather than… [Designing for Civil Society]

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interesting findings, i'll await confirmation from other studies. i still think that it can go either way.

Helping the Terrorists. This post is completely self-interested. I fly a lot. I think the idea of having air marshals on board airplanes is sensible and notably increases my safety. I was horrified and astounded to read in the NYT today that these guys have a dress code that make them stand out so that anyone can spot them. There are no words to describe the lethal stupidity at work here. [ongoing]

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well, i can't say i ever really cared. usually though, they are the ones standing way in the back trying to keep awake the whole flight…. or so i think.

“Universities have obligations to developing countries”. Ronald Phillips and three co-authors, Intellectual Property Rights and the Public Good, The Scientist, July 19, 2004. Excerpt: “For developing countries, access to new products, particularly drugs and seeds, is often a question of life and death. The market power inherent in intellectual property may restrict access by poorer consumers. Furthermore, coordination problems and the transaction costs involved in negotiating terms of access to patented innovations invariably raise the cost of producing and distributing inventions in developing nations. One example is 'golden rice,' which is enhanced for beta carotene (provitamin A). It provides hope for alleviating the severe vitamin A deficiency that causes blindness in a half-million children every year. Extensive patenting has hampered delivery of this rice to those in need; forty organizations hold 72 patents on the technology underlying its production. Problems with access to golden rice and essential medicines have stimulated debate on the obligations of American universities to facilitate the provision of goods for the public benefit. A recent symposium at the University of Minnesota addressed this question.” [Open Access News]

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interesting argument……