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Toronto libraries and museums hook up

Published June 27th, 2007 in Community, advocacy, information commons, other | No Comments »

There’s been a lot of discussion lately in Toronto about the ROM, and not just about the opening of the controversial Libeskind designed crystal explosion on the north side (which after watching it grow and evolve through its baby to childhood to adolescent and finally adult crystal form, I am now a fan.)

The other hubbub concerns giving the public a way in while the museum bursts out of its walls. From the demise of free Fridays, and then the increase of $5 Fridays to $10 Fridays, admission prices have become less affordable. $20 for adults, $17 for students and seniors, $14(!) for children 5-14 yrs. As a student living downtown Toronto, I can assure you that I’ll be going in for the ‘free 90 minutes before closing’ deal (expanded from 60 minutes to bump up their allotment of free minutes). Like libraries, museums are civic spaces meant to inform, educate, democratize and inspire the public. So what gives?

Leah Sandals over at Spacing Wire writes in a few great pieces on both the blog and the Sunday star that discusses the museum environment, the successful plans in other cities that give free access to culture institutions, and Toronto’s plan to give away free passes through 24 selected branches at the Toronto Public Library.

TPL posted a link to the “Museum and Arts Passes” program today after officially announcing the program this morning. Twenty-four Toronto Public Library branches that fall in what the city refers to as 13 priority areas are slated to provide the passes. (It would seem that downtowners really are expected to slip in just before closing as the branches are in the burbs.) It would of course be ideal if the passes were available across the board. Or better yet, if there was a free admissions situation like the successful UK museums policy. However, it’s a good move to take a chunk out of cultural elitism by finding an audience and increasing traffic through the public library to boot.

The collaboration also includes the Art Gallery of Ontario, Bata Shoe Museum, Gardiner Museum, Royal Ontario Museum and Textile Museum of Canada. (And a corporate sponsor which I won’t mention here).

The Harper government cut significant funding to museums in the fall, but there’s not much in the media about the issue beyond a few paltry articles (see previous post) like this one that discusses how the recent influx of private funds have put cultural institutions in a tight spot in relationship to our current government. The Canadian Museums Association notes that despite targeted spending on specific projects by the feds, the MAPs cuts still need some advocacy work. No doubt this unstable funding environment makes our public institutions more susceptible to seeking sponsorship deals, and gives an entryway into our public institutions for a corporate mentality.

-PC-

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Adios WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, or, Ding, Dong, the Witch is (Pretty Much) Dead!

Published June 27th, 2007 in A2K, WIPO, broadcasting treaty, information commons, other | No Comments »

Just when it seems that international intellectual property agreements are making the world a narrower place than ever to live in, some good people come along and remind governments of why the information commons might be worth protecting, after all!

A meeting of WIPO people took place June 18-20, 2007 and while participants were supposed to finalize a basic proposal for a Broadcasting Treaty, they didn’t get very far. According to James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International (KEI):

Technically, the subject of the Broadcasting Treaty will continue to be on the agenda of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, but with a fairly tough hurdle before it can move to a diplomatic conference — after there is agreement on the objectives, scope and object of protection, topics for which there is no agreement in sight.

Please read the short news stories below — they provide some much-needed coverage to a media issue that had little coverage prior to the collapse of the negotiations last week.

Many, many thanks are due to Manon Ress, James Love, Thiru Balasubramaniam, and other activists at Knowledge Ecology International and in the A2K movement.

-SIO

**********


Piracy collapses broadcasting treaty
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: June 24 2007 17:21 | Last updated: June 24 2007 17:21

…developing countries in Latin America and Asia, led by Brazil and India, have opposed the push by European and African governments for broad new rights that would protect television programmes from unauthorised retransmission for up to 50 years.

Critics say the proposed new rights would overlay existing copyrights, restrict access to programme content that is now in the public domain, prevent legitimate private copying for personal use, and stifle technological innovation.

U.N. broadcasting treaty talks suffer setback
Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:09AM EDT

Efforts to clinch a long-sought international broadcasting treaty have suffered a setback from lingering disagreements over signal piracy and the Internet, a top U.N. official said on Monday.

WIPO Broadcasting Treaty Dead…For Now
Michael Hedges - June 25, 2007

“Several country delegations began to ask deeper questions about the rationale for the treaty, and examined ways to limiting the scope and nature of the treaty,” said James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International, reviewing Friday’s wimpy finale. “In the end, the
broadcasters demanded too much, and made too few concessions, for the treaty to move forward. Delegates at WIPO were no longer willing to ignore issues of access to knowledge, or the control of anticompetitive practices.”

Talks on global broadcast treaty fail
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 22, 8:27 AM ET

The treaty fell victim to disagreements over issues such as whether protection against piracy should cover only traditional broadcasting methods — meaning cable, antenna and satellite signals — or whether it should include retransmission over the Internet, he said.

European countries wanted to give broadcasters rights over any content they transmit — even if they did not originally produce the content. That type of rights-based treaty is opposed by electronics and telecommunication companies like Intel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., as well as librarian groups and consumer advocates. They say it would stifle technological innovation and could prevent people from playing legal music or films over their home networks.
…
The biggest loser in this episode is WIPO. Failure to bring the Broadcasting Treaty to a Diplomatic Conference reflects badly on SCCR members and very badly on WIPO General Secretary Kamil Idris. Several developed nations, the United States included, find their constituents better served within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty. Traditional media will continue to chase “free-riders” but international treaties have broad stakeholders evermore diligent in defending common sense content and distribution rights.

Yay!

Tell Canadian government to support Access to Knowledge

Published June 18th, 2007 in A2K, WIPO, information commons, international trade agreements, open access, public domain, social responsibilities | No Comments »

*Scroll down for news about the London Public Library’s decision to implement internet filtering*

Not that I want to interrupt the letter you’re writing to the LPL board of directors, but as luck would have it, this would be the week that Canadian representatives decided to make life difficult at the World Intellectual Property Organization Development Agenda meetings in Geneva.

Fortunately, Michael Geist reports a positive update today on his blog.

Update: Reports this morning indicate progress with inclusion of the access to knowledge language. A welcome development, though Canada should be leading on these issues, not aligning itself against the developing world.

Apparently the Harper government needs a wake up call. If the Access to Knowledge issue is new to you, have a look at the Wikipedia community’s summary of A2K/Access to Knowledge. It also includes a long list of organizations active in the A2K movement.

The CIPO mission statement is also worth a look. I’m not seeing anything about Canada’s role internationally.

Keep up to date on IP news through IP Watch and Sarah Bannerman

via the CLA discussion list a la Heather Morrison

-PC-

It’s easy to implement Free and Open Source Software

Published June 11th, 2007 in Community, F/LOSS, information commons, open access, progressive librarians, public domain, public libraries | No Comments »

To add on to Sabina’s earlier post … now that Siobhan Stevenson’s call for keeping the public domain in public libraries has cracked into the public domain itself through First Monday, it’s time to talk turkey.

First, let me wax poetic for a moment and say that isn’t it great to be a part of a profession that shares information amongst each other, just because we want to? It will never cease to warm my heart. Second, our commitment to information sharing means that private interests from Gates and vendors alike, with their prepackaged sales pitches and honourary Harvard degrees, can’t measure up to the library community’s capacity to educate and inform the public, critically. It’s what we do.

That said, when terms such as Free and Open Source Software and Community Informatics arrive on the scene, they may not make the best first impression. FOSS and CI at first seem like brash guests at the party. They talk over your head, interrupt and confuse the humble and loyal guests, eat too much finger food and then question your menu choices, all while being nervy enough to recommend a better place for you to get your veggies.

Humph. So much for an invite back. However, if techie terms such as these crash the party again and continue to be so obtuse and unreachable, I urge you to see past their initial lack of manners and see them as the bold and renegade newcomers that they are, and simply in need of a guiding hand from some of the more experienced kids on the block. (And hey, they’ve got a solid point when it comes to buying more organic and locally grown food.)

If I were to have a standing list of block party invitees to mentor these newcomers into our midst, who would be on it? First, I’d make it a potluck. Second, I’d invite the ppl with whom FOSS and CI are already good friends and regularly exchange recipes.

The usual suspects are of course:

Jessamyn West. Pimp your Firefox. Watch a video on installing Ubuntu. Make friends with Wikipedia.

Sarah Houghton-Jan. Too many ideas to mention.

Aaron Schmidt . Great blog title, appreciated the Gmail Greasemonkey tip.

Erica Olson. Another great blog title, probably helped me stay in library school at a moment of weakness. Includes some in your face techie goodness.

The Team at Lifehacker. (Still getting acquainted).

Casey Bisson. From whom there is recommended reading: Open Source Software and Libraries; LTR 43.3

And for a few Canadian based suspects

Richard Akerman - Science Library Pad.

Dean Giustini - Open Medicine.

Jeff Trzeciak and Amanda Etches-Johnson, both at McMaster University, conducting reference interviews through Second Life and using an Endeca powered catalogue. added June 13.07

… this list is a work in progress. Any suggestions?

-PC-

Stop direct-to-consumer drug ads in Canada

Published June 6th, 2007 in freedom of expression, health, information commons, other, public domain, social justice, social responsibilities | No Comments »

Oy, librarians! No doubt you’ve already heard. But in case you haven’t, the push for direct-to-consumer advertising in Canada is marching on. However, if you like acronyms, it’s DTCA.

CanWest Global Communications Corporation stands to increase its profits should a lawsuit they are waging in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ succeed. While the public health system is strained under the weight of increasing costs that are largely the result of pharmaceutical expenses, CanWest seems to be thinking to themselves … why should Pfizer get all the cash? How can we get a piece of this action?

I say “they” because a corporation such as CanWest Global is not an individual. It is a group of individuals. If you’ve seen The Corporation, you will know the importance of this distinction. Despite this, under the law corporations are viewed as having the same rights as individuals. This lawsuit is claiming that CanWest Global’s right to freedom of expression is being violated. Does a corporation have this ‘right’? Meaning, do they have the ‘right’ to ‘freely express’ an advertisement on behalf of another multi-million dollor corporation, especially when they stand to profit from airing that ad? What about a corporation’s moral responsibility to society? Or the responsibility of the people who run that corporation?

Still reading? Back to direct-to-consumer advertising. The basic skinny is that it is legal in the US and New Zealand, Canada not so much. It gets muddy. Canadians have been exposed to drug ads through the American media, and in Canada ads for over the counter medications are permitted, as are ads that don’t recommend a drug for a specific condition. Americans and New Zealanders are exposed to the “feeling X? ask your doctor and buy Y” kind of marketing. According to the Toronto Star, US spending increased 10x over the course of 11 years, from 1994 -2005. Open Medicine, the British Medical Journal, Toronto Star, a recent CBC podcast, the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the CMAJ all have good information describing how direct-to-consumer advertising impacts health spending. No one seems to be a fan.

Direct-to-consumer advertising is not ‘free speech’. Advertising messages are carefully constructed bids to pitch products. They are created by talented, creative and well-compensated advertising teams. Legalizing direct-to-consumer advertising would permit profit-seeking corporations to compete with public health interests and public (as in your tax) dollars. As librarians, we can inform/remind the public that for safe and effective medical and health information, ads are not credible sources given that they are rife with branding strategies and backed by well-funded market research. Even if some ads are deemed ‘legal’ and hit the airwaves, they are in fact not ‘health information’. Unfortunately, the research suggests their impact is still huge.

Your Media notes that it is not safe to assume that it will be easy to prove that CanWest Global does not have a case. So you may be thinking, what can a librarian do in a situation such as this. Let’s consider some options …

First, whether you are a health librarian, academic librarian, public librarian, or special librarian - make your patrons aware of this issue:
a) CanWest Global is attempting to encroach on the public’s rights and they/we have a right to be informed about it
b) from an media/information literacy standpoint, DTCA exemplifies what NOT to use for informative purposes.
c) Tell your patrons about this film: Big Bucks, Big Pharma
(’c’ added June 10.07)

While I’m all for seeking alternative sources to health information, DTCA stinks. Freedom of expression being the wonderful thing that it is, you can exercise yours by talking to your Member of Parliament, sending a dirty note to the CRTC, and ccing whatever you do to the CanWest Global turkeys.

Oy, that was long. Thanks for hanging in there.
-PC-

“Philanthropy” Revisited: How We can Ditch the Gates Foundation in One Easy Step

Published June 6th, 2007 in advocacy, information commons, other, progressive librarians, public libraries, social responsibilities | No Comments »

Siobhan Stevenson, faculty at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies, has published a paper in First Monday entitled “Public libraries, public access computing, FOSS and CI: There are alternatives to private philanthropy“. Great read!

I had the great fortune to read her University of Western Ontario PhD thesis (The post-Fordist public library : from Carnegie to Gates) in which she lays out her critique of Gates and Carnegie-style philanthropy. Great thesis — interlibrary loan that baby if you get a chance. It’s only 125 pages long, too: good and succinct. She also has an article in the Winter 06/07 issue of Progressive Librarian entitled “Philanthropies Unexpected Consequences: public libraries and the struggle over free v. proprietary software”. Do you see the theme in her research?

Here is the abstract from her First Monday paper:

In January 2007, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) announced its second multi–year technology grant program for America’s public libraries. The purpose of Phase II, Keeping communities connected: The next step is to help public libraries sustain the public access computing infrastructure laid down during Phase I. Now, as then, the goal of the program is to bridge the digital divide. But it is a digital divide as defined by Bill Gates and not the public library community. Situating Gates’ philanthropy within a critical policy frame, this paper considers two alternatives to Gates’ problem definition of the digital divide, and how knowledge of these might benefit those communities served by public access computing (PAC) services as found in public libraries. The two specific alternatives considered come from the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and Community Informatics (CI). Significantly, both social movements promote the potential of free and open software as an important part of any solution. Finally, the public library literature is reviewed for patterns in the community’s use of FOSS, and the argument is made for its use in the delivery of PAC services.

First Monday is just super.

-SIO

Open Medicine journal and access to health information

Published June 2nd, 2007 in health, information commons, open access, progressive librarians | No Comments »

Open Medicine’s first issue of peer reviewed medical literature is available online. Dean Giustini of UBC Library and the Google Scholar Blog has been a key player in bringing this new publication to life, and writes about it on both his blog, and now the Open Medicine blog as well. The journal was created in response to an editorial fiasco at the Canadian Medical Association Journal, with the intention of removing pharmaceutical industry influence over the production and dissemination of medical information.

Open Medicine is such a great title. It speaks to the need for not just open access to information, but also an open dialogue on how medical information is conceived, constructed, communicated, digested and negotiated. And while the open nature of the Internet provides an opportunity to level the playing field for patients, it is merely the first step to patient empowerment (not that anyone at OM has made an argument for technological utopianism). Pearl Jacobson notes in Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, power dynamics between patients and physicians are a key aspect to whether access to information will translate into actual patient empowerment on the ground.

Any open dialogue in the health library field that discusses what it means to ‘open medicine’ would best include a look at the term ‘consumer’. Does a term with free market connotations belong in the discourse of a public system? ‘Consumer’ suggests that patients have free will and ultimate control within the physician-patient encounter, which according to Jacobson’s review is often not the case for a myriad of reasons. Recently on the PLG listserv, there was some excellent discussion and commentary on how language that expresses capitalist values and norms are not transferable to the field of librarianship. The term ‘customer’ was used on the CHLA listserv recently, and while I’m not familiar with the context from which it originated, it made me uneasy. Is there room for open dialogue on this subject in health libraries? What are the implications of a discourse that involves ‘consumerizing’ health information?

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June 8 | 2007
Excellent article discussing Open Medicine, and the issues in medical publishing in general.
via Becky at the Clinical Evidence, Searching Tidbits and other Minutiae Blog

-PC-

Friday Fun Link - The Internet Library of Early Journals (June 1, 2007)

Published June 1st, 2007 in Friday Fun Link, copyright, information commons, open access, public domain | No Comments »

The Internet Library of Early Journals is a digitized collection of journals from the 18th and 19th centuries.

(via MetaFilter)

- JH

Information technology and politics | Podcast

Published May 12th, 2007 in alternative media, information commons | No Comments »

The fabulous public broadcast station Television Ontario | TVO posts podcasts to, among other great shows, the lecture series Big Ideas. (And they’re available via RSS feed, MP3 file or iTunes).

Dr. Darin Barney, McGill professor of communication studies and Canada Research Chair in Technology and Citizenship, speaks via the UofT Hart House lecture series on (what else but) the relationship between technology and citizenship. He poses an argument for the politicization of technology.

Have a listen to Dr. Barney’s talk, entitled One Nation Under Google .
Read the 2007 Hart House Lecture blog by the same man here and get more info from the Hart house Lecture website here.

-PC-

Friday Fun Link - “The Hole in the Wall” - A Digital Divide Experiment in India

Published April 27th, 2007 in Community, Friday Fun Link, information commons, literacy, open access, public domain | No Comments »

An Indian physicist puts a PC with a high speed internet connection in a wall in the slums and watches what happens.

What he discovered was that the most avid users of the machine were ghetto kids aged 6 to 12, most of whom have only the most rudimentary education and little knowledge of English. Yet within days, the kids had taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the Net. Some of the other things they learned, Mitra says, astonished him.

Strong evidence in favour of the $100 laptop? I think so!

(via Reddit)

- JH

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