The government is to explore ways of making all Ordnance Survey maps freely available online from April, in a victory for the Guardian’s three-year Free Our Data campaign. The move will bring the UK into line with the free publication of maps that exists in the US.

Gordon Brown announced the change at a joint event in London today with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, who is now information tsar advising on the handing over of private government data to the public (thanks to Andy W for the link).

Top-down

Hierarchy >poligarchy

Bottom-up

As an example of a ‘bottom-up’ governance structure Zittrain cited Wikipedia which includes a deliberative system to manage thorny editorial decisions. As a top-down system of governance he cited Facebook; although Facebook is beginning to include the community in decisions relating to its structure and functionality. He used the term ‘social governance’ to describe this bottom-up governance approach and suggested ways in which this approach may be designed into a system (through flagging certain tasks that help tap into the ‘reservoir of good will’ of the community). A well-designed system should have mechanisms to ask users for their input.

Although I tend to agree with many of the arguments of Zittrain, I feel there is a tendency to overstate the importance of sites such as Facebook and Youtube to the broader public. Sure they are popular, but this isn’t the British Library, the University of California, or the Library of Congress we are talking about! They are just large and fashionable web sites; a small part of the fabric of our complex lives. And commercial companies will perhaps always act in their own interests; either commercially or ideologically.

I suppose what is needed is some sort of bill of rights/responsibilities that is general to the operation of the Web within a certain geographical region balanced with the specific values of the site in question. There is nothing wrong with sites asserting behaviour norms upon users; but then again governance structures should be transparent and open; not outside of acceptable norms of the broader public sphere. A site should never assert policies that are deemed racist nor discriminatory (perhaps this is Zittrain’s anxiety when he claimed than many sites operate outside of ‘the rule of law’). The relationship between the community and the platform should always be fair and equitable; especially in large user-based sites such as Facebook. In my mind, governance structures, whether online or off, should always be open and transparent.

One of the respondents to the talk, Ian Brown, a Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (and author of the recent report Database state) asserted that the relationship between Citizen and State and Cyberspace needed to be reconsidered. He also claimed (from his experience) that that the issues raised by Zittrain are not well-known in the UK;  especially in senior government levels. As an historian (and not a legal expert), my  scepticism relates to the actual significance of the entire debate.  I suppose that the significance of the debates depends on the importance the public places on systems such as Facebook and their governance structures. I may agree with Eric Hobsbawn that Terrorism is more a perceived threat in the UK that an actual threat (to the state), but then again the public is led to believe otherwise so it now painfully significant.  So if the debates about governance are perceived to be important by the public; then they will become important. So we may have a ‘Facebook Parliament’ in the making deliberating about the rise of rudeness on Facebook . They should start with the Tube system!

(everyone should have a manifesto!)

I am pleased that UCLA has discovered the Digital Humanities. Here is a manifesto that they published from the Mellon Seminar in Digital Humanities (link).

Also, check out UCLA’s  White Paper on the Promise of Digital Humanities Co-authored by Todd Presner (Germanic Studies and Comparative Literature) and Chris Johanson (Classics and Digital Humanities) (link). I will respond to these positions when I get a chance but I need to concentrate on the small picture for a moment as I can’t change the user permissions on our Drupal installation. Damn!

“This is a great development,” said Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). “It will focus resources and talent in a way that should really accelerate progress in areas critical to the research, education, and cultural memory communities. The new emphasis on distributed reliable storage infrastructure services and their integration with repositories is particularly timely. ”

New Products

DuraSpace will continue to support its existing software platforms, DSpace and Fedora, as well as expand its offerings to support the needs of global information communities. The first new technology to emerge will be a Web-based service named “DuraCloud.” DuraCloud is a hosted service that takes advantage of the cost efficiencies of cloud storage and cloud computing, while adding value to help ensure longevity and re-use of digital content. The DuraSpace organization is developing partnerships with commercial cloud providers who offer both storage and computing capabilities.

The DuraCloud service will be run by the DuraSpace organization. Its target audiences are organizations responsible for digital preservation and groups creating shared spaces for access and re-use of digital content. DuraCloud will be accessible directly as a Web service and also via plug-ins to digital repositories including Fedora and DSpace. The software developed to support the DuraCloud service will be made available as open source. An early release of DuraCloud will be available for selected pilot partners in Fall 2009.

Key Benefits of the DuraSpace Organization

About Fedora Commons

About DSpace Foundation

The DSpace Foundation (http://dspace.org/) was formed in 2007 to support the growing global community of institutions using DSpace open source software to manage scholarly works in a digital repository. DSpace was jointly developed in 2002 by Hewlett-Packard and the MIT Libraries. Today, there are over more than 500 organizations worldwide using the software to manage, preserve, and share their scholarly output. To learn more about DSpace and its community of users visit www.dspace.org or contact Valorie Hollister, Community Outreach Manager at val@dspace.org.

Although the author of this blog does not condone the use of police batons for sexual pleasure, the author does believe that Copyright legislation, especially as it manifests itself in the US, does not support artistic endeavours, cultural nor technical innovation.  The balances are all wrong. I particularly recommend the work of Stanford’s Laurence Lessig and the Creative Commons initiative.

Many artists, including my good friend Andrew Garton, advocate the use of Creative Commons as an alternative means to combat the innovation lock-down of corporate bully boys.

And although this history is somewhat simplified (and US centric); do a search on the history of FM radio online.  This tragic history has many parallels with the history of file swapping (link).

The Open Content Alliance is an international alliance of leading academic
and cultural heritage institutions working to build joint digital
collections for free public access. Ms. Marx has been appointed to the
new position of Executive Director in order to expand its activities as
the preeminent center in the world for promoting the creation and open
sharing of digital content.

“Maura’s background in working both inside and outside the library system
will help her communicate with a broad public audience the shape of the
new public library services in this digital age.” said Brewster Kahle,
Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “Her dynamic style,
deep-seated commitment to open principles, and demonstrated success at
implementing partnerships and initiatives in the digital space will be a
powerful combination in taking the OCA to the next level.”

“We are delighted that Maura will take on this leadership role at such an
important juncture for the organization. The Open Content Alliance
represents the largest group of libraries, universities and cultural
heritage institutions in the world supporting a universal digital library
that is truly open, non-profit, and non-exclusive” said Doron Weber,
Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “Maura will help to
turn the OCA into a stand-alone membership organization that will play a
leadership role on the national and global stage. ”

“Over the past three years members of the OCA have made incredibly
important strides toward building a truly open digital information commons
and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead the organization to new
levels of growth and collaboration.” Marx said.

Among Ms. Marx’s first actions will be incorporation of the OCA in the
State of Massachusetts and creation of a Board of Directors. She will
focus on building collaborations across institutional boundaries,
expanding the OCA community and becoming involved in public policy
advocacy efforts.

Ms. Marx began her career in Europe in development for the arts with
organizations including the Guggenheim Museum (Salzburg) and Warner
Brothers. She then worked as an executive in the U.S. technology sector
before coming to the library world. Her accomplishments have included
strategic planning, fundraising, technology planning and public relations
for organizations at varying stages of growth. She is a member of the
Executive Committee of the Digital Commonwealth, the Massachusetts
statewide digital library, and holds degrees from the University of Notre
Dame, Middlebury College and Simmons College. She an be reached at
maura@opencontentalliance.org.

About the Open Content Alliance

The Open Content Alliance is an association of approximately 100 cultural
and academic institutions, working to engage in activities that support
the open sharing of information, including building joint online
collections. It was founded by Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive in
2005 with 12 initial member institutions, and has grown to over 100 today.
The OCA and has collectively provided over 400,000 books for digitization
and contributed them to the Internet Archive’s shared public collections.
Information on member institutions and open content principles can be
found on the OCA web site at http://www.opencontentalliance.org/.

About the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and
other cultural artifacts in digital form. The Archive is a partner to many
large institutions, including the Library of Congress, National Archives
and Records Administration, NASA, Bibliotheque Nationale de France and UK
National Archives, as well as many state and local institutions. Some of
its well-known projects include OpenLibrary.org, nasaimages.org and the
many searchable collections at www.archive.org. The Archive operates 12
scanning centers around the United States and internationally, and
operates a data repository in San Francisco.

About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a New York-based non-profit philanthropy
founded in 1934, makes grants for research and education in science,
technology, economic performance and the quality of American life. In
addition to the Open Content Alliance and the Internet Archive, the
Foundation has supported the Library of Congress, PALINET, SOLINET, the
Boston Library Consortium, the New Orleans Public Library, the Espresso
Book Machine and Wikipedia, among others, as part of its program in
Universal Access to Recorded Knowledge. Information about the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation may be found on the Foundation’s web site at
http://www.sloan.org/.

A draft treaty proposes draconian measures to protect copyright.

THE forces of reaction are fighting back. As they often do, they are carrying out their planning in secret, in the knowledge that if more people knew of their activities they would not be allowed to get away with it (link)

Produced by the Office of Science and Innovation (OSI) e-Infrastructure Working Group, the report – Developing the UK’s e-infrastructure for science and innovation - sets out the requirements for a national e-infrastructure to help ensure the UK maintains and indeed enhances its global standing in science and innovation in an increasingly competitive world (link)

A consortium of humanists, artists, scientists, social scientists, and engineers from universities across the country, HASTAC (“Haystack”) is committed to new forms of collaboration across institutions, disciplines, and communities to promote creative uses of technology. Since 2003, we have been developing tools for multimedia archiving and social interaction, gaming environments for teaching, innovative educational programs in information science and information studies, virtual museums, and other digital projects. HASTAC leaders have served as consultants to U.S. and international organizations and governments on grid computing and cyberinfrastructure. Our aim is to promote expansive, innovative uses of technology in formal education and lifelong learning (link).