Access & infrastructure

In Lund

Tomorrow I am off to Lund to participate in the third Nordic Conferences on Scholarly Communication hosted by Lund University Libraries.

Downtown Lund

Here is the blurb

In order to discuss, present and analyse the problems and challenges that arise within scholarly communication Lund University Libraries invite scholars, publishers, vendors, editors, librarians and other interested parties to the Third Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication 24 – 25 April 2006. The conference takes place every second year and aims to be an important contribution to the discussion and to the development within the Nordic countries.

The conference website.

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Political Use of Trees

Using trees to form part of a political protest has almost been synonymous with the green movement. Protesters have hugged or chained themselves to trees to prevent them from being sawn down. Protesters have staged sit-ins in them to demonstrate their point. Part of the Swedish protest movement was staged around some Elm trees in a park in central Stockholm (Kungstrådgården). The Elm Battle (12-13 May 1971) was part of a civil disobedience act. To prevent the building of a entrance to a subway station activists (amongst other things) climbed up into the trees. The planned station entrance was moved.

In central Göteborg today this tree has been painted with the text â??think about the homelessâ?? this is not the first tree to sport this text. When the text on an earlier tree began to fade the notice appeared on this tree instead.

Most groups unable to make their voices heard in traditional media have turned to the Internet to attempt to publicise their cause. This protest is about homeless people and by using the tree as a mediun the message also manages to underscore the lack of technology and basic infrastructure homelessness entails.

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Guaman Poma

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala wrote his 1200-page book in 1615 Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (New Chronicle and Good Government) to convince King Philip III of Spain to reform Spanish rule in South America. The book includes 398 full-page drawings. Its aim was to provide the Spanish king with an Andean perspective on colonial Peru.

The Royal Danish Library has digitised it and made it available online here. Some background about the manuscript by the editor Rolena Adorno can be found here.

The tenth Inka, Tupac Inka Yupanqui (p. 110)

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Digital solidaritet och opinionsbildning

Digital Solidaritet och opinionsbildning

Information ses allt mer som en vara att tjäna pengar på och allt mindre som en social rättighet. Upphovsrätten stärks och patent breder ut sig till det immateriella området.

Politiker och företag ser i ökad omfattning information som ett problem som måste kontrolleras, övervakas och beläggas med sekretess. Samtidigt finns idag möjligheter att samla, kopiera och sprida information i en helt ny omfattning. Informationen blir inte mindre värd för att den används. Tvärtom ökar den i värde.

Det är dags att solidaritets- och rättviserörelser tar hänsyn till allt detta i sitt informationsarbete. Vi måste utveckla en mer solidarisk och gemensam informationshantering och opinionsbildning. Förutsättningarna är bättre än någonsin. Med denna konferens vill vi stimulera den gemensamma diskussionen i dessa frågor.

Ur programet:
Delad information, effektiv information â?? Rasmus Fleischer, frilansjournalist och aktiv i PiratbyrÃ¥n, argumenterar för det rationella med att vara solidarisk pÃ¥ informationsomrÃ¥det.

Fri information i praktiken: Creative Commons och Open Access â?? Mathias Klang, doktorand vid Göteborgs Universitet och projektledare för Creative Commons i Sverige, hjälper dig att befria informationen.

Kampen om informationen â?? Lars Ilshammar, författare och förestÃ¥ndare för Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek, ger oss en övergripande bild av den globala kampen mellan Ã?ppnare som vill frigöra informationen och Stängare som vill lÃ¥sa in den.

Mer information finns hos Världsbiblioteket
När: 15/5, kl. 12:30â??17:00
Var: Solidaritetsrörelsens Hus, Tegelviksgatan 40, Stockholm
Arr: Globalportalen och Världsbiblioteket

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Scientific Publication in Europe

In the report Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets in Europe (full report here), Commissioned by Directorate-General for Research (January 2006) the following recommendations are made:

A1. Guarantee public access to publicly-funded research results shortly after publication.
A2. Aim at a ‘level-playing field’ in terms of business models in publishing
A3. ‘Extended Quality’ rankings of scientific journals
A4. Guarantee perennial access to scholarly journal digital archives
A5. Foster interoperable tools to improve knowledge, visibility, accessibility and dissemination
B1. Promote pro-competitive pricing strategies
B2. Scrutinize future significant mergers
B3. Promote the development of electronic publications
C1. Setting-up an advisory committee
C2. Further investigation

The market for scientific publications has been under development for a long time. Now the situation we have arrived at is warped. The writers apply for grants (often government grants) to research and write. Sometimes the writers even apply for grants to publish their material. When the material is published the libraries (often funded by public money) then pay to buy back the books or subscribe to the journals.

Very often the system implies that public funding pays for access to the same knowledge several times over. This is a subvention of the scientific publishing industry.

In addition to this the university text book industry has grown into a virutal monopoly where the major players control almost entire markets depending upon subject area. Mergers between the companies have created massive media companies that control the publication of university text books. This is reflected in the price of the litterature.

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Silence of Dissent

As early as 2002 the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) have been considered using biometrics to beef up security. SAS state in a press release dated 2002-05-06 that they are evaluating biometrics to improve check-in and embarkation procedures. In the press release (reported here in the Swedish newspaper DI) they refer to the 9/11 attacks (naturally â?? what else?).

On 30 March 2006 the Swedish Data Inspection has given SAS permission (Swedish Press Release) to use fingerprints on domestic flights to ensure that persons handing in luggage are also on the flight. The goal is to have 1.4 million passengers voluntarily leave their fingerprints to a local database. When the passenger begins her flight the information in the database is erased.

Naturally the scheme is a violation of personal integrity. The Data Inspection legitimises its decision by pointing out that the data is only stored for a brief time and that the system is voluntary.

By waving the flag of freedom of choice the Airline company, the Data Inspection and others are practicing the art of spin to a marvellous degree. Any and all complaints against a voluntary system can be easily ignored. The critic can be derided since the system is voluntary â?? if you donâ??t like it then donâ??t do it.

This is, I believe, to miss the whole point.

We have all been taught to defend our rights but the question is then why people do not react when things like this happen in front of their eyes? The reason is that we are prepared to fight the strong foe but we have no defence against the â??Salami Tacticâ??. The Salami Tactic is the opposite of brute force it is hardly even a fight. It entails taking over something slice by slice. Each step in itself so small that it is not worth retaliation â?? Any protest against a slice being taken can again be defended by the freedom of choice argument. The critic is over-reacting. If someone was to attempt to take the whole salami at once reactions would be legitimate. Not to react would be a sign of weakness. To react when someone takes a slice is a sign of a petty mind.

This is the weakness of a strong democracy.

The voluntary nature of this scheme, and indeed others like it, undermines the present rights argument since we cannot fight. The voluntary nature of the scheme is also problematic when this scheme gradually becomes the norm. Then the person wishing to maintain the voluntary status and not participate is seen by everyone as being difficult and relatively socially inept.

There will be no protests, there will be a rush to accept this scheme. Everyone will sing its praises: frequent fliers will sing about efficiency, police about security and the airline will sing about profit. Those who will not sing will sit in embarrassed silence while another slice of our rights is lost forever.

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Standby Power

Question Technology posted this quote from the Economist

STRANGE though it seems, a typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food. For while heating food requires more than 100 times as much power as running the clock, most microwave ovens stand idleâ??in â??standbyâ?? modeâ??more than 99% of the time. And they are not alone: many other devices, such as televisions, DVD players, stereos and computers also spend much of their lives in standby mode, collectively consuming a huge amount of energy. Moves are being made around the world to reduce this unnecessary power consumption, called â??standby powerâ??. (The Economist)

The term standby power used to be called leaking electricity but the term standby is taken to be more correct. This might be a shame since the idea of a leak is something that needs to be fixed. The number of appliances which do not have “real” on/off switches is actually quite large. If you add to this the number of fixtures which need to draw power to ensure that they function when required then the amount of unneccesary power being eaten is very large. In particular when you think about the fact that these appliances are waiting 24/7 every day. (More information on this topic Standby Power Home Page)

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Censorship Swedish Style

As I have reported earlier the Danish Muhammad Caricatures scandal led the Swedish foreign office to close down a website which carried the cartoons.

The scandal is growing so its time for an update. Previously the Foreign Minister, Laila Freivalds, claimed that the actions were carried out by a civil servant acting on his own initiative. This has now changed when she admits that she had knowledge of what the Civil Servant was going to do. The act may even have been carried out under the Foreign Ministers initiative.

Much of the “defence” (moral & political not legal) seems to be that the Foreign Ministry did not (and cannot) order the closing of a website. The Foreign Ministry simply contacted the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and informed them that one of their customers (a right wing party) had copies of the cartoons.

The difference, according to the Foreign Minister, is one of coercion and recommendation. While this difference does exist it is interesting to note that the recommendations made by a private individual, an interest group and the office of the Swedish Foreign Minister will be treated differently. The Foreign Minister (or indeed any Minister) knows this and therefore the act of recommendation cannot be one of simple recommendation.

Additionally the Foreign Ministry (or indeed any other Ministry) does not have the mandate to call up private citizens to make recommendations in matters of freedom of the press and speech.

Naturally the ISP has it in its power to tell the Office of the Foreign Minister to sod off. Politely or impolitely. But it comes as no surprise that a small ISP in a cut throat market is not going to risk publicity or political, social or legal reactions on the part of an unsavory customer worth (in the best case) less than 300 USD per annum.
The conclusion? Internet censorship whether in China or in Sweden works.

I dedicate this picture to the Office of the Foreign Minister for not knowing

the difference between influence and coercion.

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Public Domain Comic

Law books are traditionally text heavy with little or no pictures. Very rarely including humor or light entertainment. Therefore it is great to see what law professors can do when they want to change this!

The Center for the Public Domain have created a cool comic explaining copyright and the public domain. It takes the form of classic horror comics and describes the adventures (or misadventures) of the hero Akiko, the documentary film maker. I thought it was geat! So go look at “Tales from the Public Domain: Bound by Law” by Aoki, Boyle & Jenkins

Read it online or download it here.

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Open Access Grows

Open J-Gate portal (www.openj-gate.com), was launched by Prof. Jean-Claude Guedon yesterday.

Open J-Gate is an electronic gateway to global journal literature in open access domain. It is also a database of journal literature, indexed from 3000+ open access journals, with links to full text at Publisher sites. Open J-Gate Features and Benefits:

  • Open J-Gate indexes articles from 3000+ academic, research and industry journals. More than 1500 of them are peer-reviewed scholarly journals.
  • Links to one million+ open access articles
  • This number is growing with 300000+ new articles added every year. Full-text links are regularly validated.
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