Hi all,
Re. below, are a couple of recent references from Current Cities that might
be of interest to you and/or your colleagues:)
Have a nice weekend,
Leo
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McIver, Jr., William, William F. Birdsall, and Merrilee
Rasmussen. "[40]The Internet and the Right to Communicate"
[41]First Monday 8(12) (1 December 2003)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/mciver/). - The
authors assert that the emergence of the Internet challenges
traditional conceptions of information rights, because it opens new
territory that does not fit easily into the parameters that govern
traditional media outlets. But the debate about information rights
on the new medium tends to happen in a piecemeal fashion, governed
by various stakeholders or professions with an interest in the
process. They see a need to craft a more holistic framework that
encompasses the entire spectrum of information rights, and the
right to communicate in particular. To explore this concept, they
define and differentiate between 'hard' and 'soft' laws. Hard laws
are statutory and legislative, while soft laws are less binding,
and exist in the form of charters, declarations and guiding
principles. They examine how the right to communicate can be
implemented in realistic terms, arguing that a grass roots movement
is necessary to push society to create a process for defining
information rights.
Gurstein, Michael. "[24]Effective Use: A Community Informatics
Strategy Beyond the Digital Divide" [25]First Monday 8(12) (1
December 2003)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/gurstein/). - The
author assesses the huge industries, both intellectual and
cultural, that have sprung up to comment on the "digital divide".
He evaluates the various concepts underlying the idea of this
schism and its effect on the populace, and argues that it is mostly
a marketing vehicle for technology firms and Internet service
providers. He presents an alternative approach, which is to focus
on "effective use." This idea is based in community informatics
theory, which defines the Internet as a new force in culture and
society that is not easily measured by conventional means. He
argues that instead subsidizing technology providers, it would be
more effective to tie the debate about the digital divide to
real-world issues like health care delivery, the environment and
concrete economic injustices.
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356
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Leo J. Deveau, M.Ed., MLIS
9 Chestnut Avenue
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
B4P-1V7
"The map is not the territory."
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
"If your job bores you, it will bore us."
-Mark Bernstein
My directory of links can be found at:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ljdeveau/Homepage.html
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