The Information Commons: a public policy report

This report describes the history of the information commons, presents examples of online commons that provide new ways to store and deliver information, and concludes with policy recommendations. Available in PDF and HTML versions.BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE at NYU SCHOOL OF LAW Democracy Program, Free Expression Policy Project 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor New York NY 10013 Phone: (212) 998-6730 Web site: www.brennancenter.org Free Expression Policy Project: www.fepproject.or

The Information Commons: a public policy report

This report describes the history of the information commons, presents examples of online commons that provide new ways to store and deliver information, and concludes with policy recommendations. Available in PDF and HTML versions.BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE at NYU SCHOOL OF LAW Democracy Program, Free Expression Policy Project 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor New York NY 10013 Phone: (212) 998-6730 Web site: www.brennancenter.org Free Expression Policy Project: www.fepproject.or

Discussing international perspectives on Open Learning in Brazil: educational politics and pedagogical principles

This paper aims to present some of the new tendencies in Open Learning in the context of international online higher education. These tendencies work as a basis for a discussion of the role of e-learning in online higher education in Brazil. The use of open source technologies and the constant search for quality and innovative pedagogies in the teaching and learning process constitute a new trend in international distance education. The main concern nowadays seems to be with ‘quality’ and ‘widening participation’, which result in initiatives such as ‘Open Educational Resources’. In Brazil, the creation of the Brazilian Open University (UAB) would appear to be consistent with these tendencies. The challenge now is to be able to set up a system that attends to national needs while being open to international tendencies. This paper aims to explore some of these issues, and also to present the most recent freeware technologies used for the purpose of enhancing open learning initiatives

Freedom of science

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of "freedom of science"("academic freedom")for the advancement of society and mankind, which, however, is permanently endangered by powerful organisations, groups and individuals, who in pursuit of their one-sided interests are seeking to constrain information about the truth. As a broad term, freedom of science embraces freedom in research, learning, teachingand publication. All of these activities should be dedicated to identifying the truth and learning about the truth. Design/methodology/approach – Three theoretical approaches are of importance for framing issues related to freedom of science, which in this paper are integrated into the framework of mindset agency theory: freedom is a value; "freedom" is claimed by agents who pursue specific interests (goals), which might constrain others; and individuals are agents who are interacting with each other within a social system–cooperation, ignorance or conflict. Findings – Freedom as a value is at the core of intellectual autonomy. Intellectual autonomy is a necessarycondition for innovation and advancement of knowledge. The observable modes of interaction/coexistenceamong researchers are influenced by individual research goals and by the researchers' access to resources, which may be deliberately constrained by opponents or other researchers as competitors. Research limitations/implications – For further research, which is beyond this paper, the authors can refer to: analyses of challenges of "academic freedom" – in terms of ethics, protection of individual humanrights, political pressures and conflicts of interests; the issues of truth, i.e. the impact of fake news andcreation of "alternate facts"; and the relation between academic freedom and employment (academic tenure) inpresent-day societies. Owing to lack of space, this paper cannot deal with the danger emerging from powerful organisations or powerful individuals, who are challenging freedom of science. Social implications–If there is no freedom of science then social progress is constrained. If there is no access to right data, decisions will be wrong. Originality/value – So far, a comprehensive cybernetic model was not published, which supports systems thinking about scholars and teachers (inter)acting in research organisations

A META-ANALYTIC REVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA STUDIES

Social media such as social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, Wikis, are increasingly and widely used in our daily lives. In the information system (IS) discipline, social media have become a hot research area and draw the attention of many scholars. The paper systematically reviewed social media studies published in Association for Information Systems (AIS) listed top 20 journals from 2009 to 2013. The publication time, journal preferences, research objects and research topics are discussed. Generally, the current social media studies including four areas, namely user, management, technology and information. Each area has distinct focuses and topics. By thoroughly analyzing the research topics, the authors formulate our projections and recommendations for future social media studies