Category: events/conferences

unstable platforms

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MIT 7 Unstable Platforms

Summary and Podcast here

Day 1: Forum 1

David Thorborn – Moderator: Emergence of technology are challenging our perceptions of art, academia, etc/ We are entering a disorienting future – mobile technology, understanding authors and the works they make is challenged by virtual technology. Profound forms of transformation created by technology. Edison envisioned ways for use of film before film appeared and this is instructive and comforting. There is a ceaseless transformation with rise and fall of technology that profoundly transform what is being transmitted. Printed book itself refined by generations and developed over decades of work and stability. Emergence of profoundly new ways and new systems for artistic and other forms of imaginative expression is remarkable in this world.

What’s the future impact on audiences and ways to communicate on unstable platforms.

The future of narrative. Public spheres. Visions and nightmares. Read More …

The UNESCO Global Forum

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The UNESCO Global Forum: Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses (16 -17 May 2011) .  The Forum will address University rankings in light of their impact on policy and decision-making at institutional, national and regional levels. Organized in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.

If you’re not familiar with UNESCO’s education portal, please visit it.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/higher-education/

ethics by no other name

mtadros

When he was young, her husband, she said, who loves to tell the story of how it all began for him,  lied to newspapers and told them he wrote for other newspapers  and they never checked. Eventually because he was good, he was hired by one and is now a happily ever after journalist.

This was the message at a commencement speech of a reputable university.  Because it is a commencement speech, many believed students were not really paying attention in their celebratory mode.  The problem, however, is that this particular speaker was much closer to their age and was an ‘artist’ who was recognized by quite a few of them. Read More …

ncmr2011: wikileaks panel

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At National Conference for Media Reform – Boston 2011
Panel: Wikileaks, Journalism and Modern-Day Muckraking

Christopher Warren: If Wikileaks is considered a source rather than a media outlet, it is left unprotected by journalism rights. Dangerous repercussions. If we allow Assange to be tried, it is a threat to every individual who practices journalism or even doesn’t practice it to criticize anything. Journalism is changing fundamentally in the world. There is a continued fear in US media after 9/11.   But until the media realizes that they need to inform the public and be impartial then media will not be doing its job. What does our response to wikileaks say about us as journalists and our sense of the craft? Weaknesses of American journalism been shown by response to WikiLeaks.

a2k4: freedom to innovate

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Moderator: Nahla Rizk, AUC

Edward Felten, Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy

Information technologies: how do we use technology and provide active engagement with the technology to help people know how to engage. How did people build their technology? by ripping it apart and learning it – tinkering with technology. Then have a community with whom they can talk and work on the product. It is a social activity that engages people in the technology.

How can public policy encourage that? success of open source technology. Is OS technology an alternative business model to proprietary software? yes. It is a space that provides ability to tinker.

As for mobile phones which is the primary mode of access to ICT in much of the developing world. There is tension bet open and closed models and that is seen everywhere. Open source provides tech playground but offers also opportunity in becoming collaborative and engaged. But there is a tension over this kind of tinkering in the intellectual properties movement.

It is possible to reconcile open source and intellectual property. Some sort of protection for tinkering is important. We can foster competition. When you make technology accessible then it makes sense to the setting it is in.

Read More …