arcadia@cambridge Events
Current news and events
Arcadia Seminar: 1st December 2009 "Scholarly Publishing 2.0 Squared" , Dr Doug Clow
Abstract:
How is Web 2.0 – and now Web Squared – changing scholarly publishing?
There are dramatic changes underway in the world of publishing, which have profound implications for scholarly activity. These changes are in essence quantitative (more, faster, cheaper) rather than fundamental ones of type, but the quantitative shift on this scale is in itself qualitative and transformatory. The proliferation of information and information sources make the assessment of quality and importance ever more important, and to more people. New forms of scholarly publishing have emerged, and are developing rapidly, including academics’ use of social networks and blogs, the Open Access movement, and Open Educational Resources (OER).
In this seminar, Doug Clow will explore these issues, and sketch out an organising vision of this rapidly-changing landscape, discussing the implications for authors, reviewers, editors, publishers, librarians, funders, readers, and all those with an interest in what scholars do.
About the speaker
Dr Doug Clow is a Lecturer in Interactive Media Development at the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (OU). His work includes the Knowledge Network (a controlled-access publishing system for sharing expertise within the OU), and OLnet (a project funded by the Hewlett Foundation to increase the quantity and quality of research on Open Educational Resources). He is an Editor of the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, which has pioneered public, open review of journal articles since 1996. He keeps a blog at http://dougclow.wordpress.com and uses Twitter as @dougclow.
This talk is part of the Arcadia Project Seminars series. Please notify mh569@cam.ac.uk if you plan to attend.
Time: 6pm
Location: Wolfson College, Roger Needham Room
Arcadia Seminar: 24th Nov. "The Problem of Reading Lists" , Huw Jones, UL
Reading lists are the area in which academic workflows, student needs and library services interact most directly. They act as a bridge between two of the University’s most important assets – academic expertise and library resources. They are fundamental to undergraduate learning and to library collection development. To date, there have been many attempts to solve the ‘problem’ of reading lists, with limited success.
I will examine if there is a problem with reading lists, and what the nature of that problem might be. Are the real issues to do with cooperation and collaboration between bodies involved in pedagogical support? If so, what is the solution, and where might it lead us in the future?”
About the speaker
Huw Jones is System Support Librarian at the University Library, offering services, support and training to libraries across Cambridge. He has a particular interest in developing interfaces which take advantage of advances in technology to facilitate new ways of working.
Having studied history at Manchester University, he worked in a range of libraries in Manchester and Cambridge before joining Electronic Systems and Services at the University Library in 2004. He has since developed a range of integrated online services for librarians, and worked on various projects from data duplication to user education.
From April to June 2009, Huw held an Arcadia Fellowship to investigate issues surrounding the introduction of a reading list system in Cambridge. His findings (published in a report available at Reading Lists in Cambridge: A Standard System?) will form the basis of this seminar.
This talk is part of the Arcadia Project Seminars series. Please notify mh569@cam.ac.uk if you plan to attend.
Time: 6pm
Location: Wolfson College, Old Combination Room (OCR)
Past news and events
Arcadia Seminar: 3rd Nov. "Thinking Like a Dandelion: Cory Doctorow on copyright, Creative Commons and creativity"
This is the opening talk in the Arcadia 2009-10 Seminar series.
Tuesday, 3rd November, 6pm at the Umney Theatre, Robinson College, Cambridge. Please email mh569@cam.ac.uk if you are planning to attend.
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York Times, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He is a Visting Senior Lecturer at Open University (UK); in 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.
His novels are published by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. His latest novel, New York Times Bestseller LITTLE BROTHER , was published in May 2008, and his latest short story collection is OVERCLOCKED : STORIES OF THE FUTURE PRESENT . In 2008, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called CONTENT : SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY , CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE (with an introduction by John Perry Barlow) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called CORY DOCTOROW ’S FUTURISTIC TALES OF THE HERE AND NOW . His next novel is MAKERS , due from Tor Books/HarperCollins UK in October, 2009.
He co-founded the open source peer-to-peer software company OpenCola, sold to OpenText, Inc in 2003, and presently serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Participatory Culture Foundation, the MetaBrainz Foundation, Technorati, Inc, the Organization for Transformative Works, Areae, the Annenberg Center for the Study of Online Communities, and Onion Networks, Inc.
In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called him, “The William Gibson of his generation.” He was also named one of Forbes Magazine’s 2007/8 Web Celebrities, and one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders for 2007.
The title of his seminar is taken from a recent interview in which he described his distinctive approach to publishing his work and disseminating ideas.
Arcadia project reports
Two Arcadia project reports are available on the web.
- Foreign language learning in Second Life and the implications for resource provision in academic libraries - by Stefanie Hundsberger.
- Reading Lists in Cambridge: A Standard System? - by Huw Jones
Arcadia project reports
Two Arcadia project reports are available on the web: IRIS Report by Lizz Edwards Waller and M-Libraries - Information on the move report by Keren Mills.
Slides from Patrick Carmichael's Seminar
Slides from Patrick Carmichael's Seminar - "Supporting Early Career Researchers and Building Research Communities in Education" can be found at http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/Carmichael_Arcadia_Seminar.ppt
Scholarly Networking podcast available now
Laura James seminar podcast is available now.
You can download this podcast (mp3 audio files) to your computer. To do this, right click on the podcast link and choose "Save Target As...", "Save Link As...", or a similar option. Mac users may need to hold CTRL and click, then select "Download Linked File". You should then be asked where to save the file on your computer.
21 April - Arcadia Seminar: Scholarly Networking by Dr Laura James
Speaker:Dr Laura James (CARET)
Location:Wolfson College.
Date and time:Tuesday 21 April 2009, 18:00-19:15
All welcome but RSVP to arcadia@lib.cam.ac.uk
The university experience, whether teaching, learning or researching, has always been built around interactions between people, and the network of people one meets. CARET is investigating many aspects of scholarly networking, including supporting and enhancing these real world connections online, and the ways in which academic networking differs from social networking (whilst drawing on the viral and compelling nature of consumer social tools). Dr James will present various parts of this work including design personas drawn from user research into the ways that academics at all levels communicate today, which are informing user-centric design of scholarly networking concepts. In addition, she will touch upon business models for sustainability of academic networking systems and the different organisations who might host them.
About the speaker
Dr Laura James manages people, projects and operations at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge, and leads the CARET projects about scholarly networking. Her background is in high tech research and development, and she has worked at AT&T Labs in the US and UK , designing and prototyping cutting edge internet-connected wireless devices and systems. Dr James was the first employee at AlertMe.com (a consumer electronics company, producing connected home technology) and lead the engineering design team there through from idea to shipping product. She holds Masters and PhD degrees in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. Dr James was a NESTA Crucible fellow in 2007, and is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Engineering Leadership Award and Executive Engineer programmes.
James Boyle lecture podcast available now
James Boyle lecture podcast is available.
You can download this podcast (mp3 audio files) to your computer. To do this, right click on the podcast link and choose "Save Target As...", "Save Link As...", or a similar option. Mac users may need to hold CTRL and click, then select "Download Linked File". You should then be asked where to save the file on your computer.
First Arcadia Lecture: March 12th - Professor James Boyle (Duke University) on "Cultural Agoraphobia and The Future of The Library"
Speaker:Professor James Boyle, Duke University
Location:Lee Hall, Wolfson College.
Date and time:Thursday 12 March 2009, 18:00-19:15
Abstract
In his new book 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind' James Boyle argues that we have a bias that makes us unduly skeptical of open networks, systems and methods of production. The success of non proprietary systems -- ranging from open source software to Wikipedia and the open Internet itself -- fills us with surprise. He calls this bias "cultural agoraphobia." In a world where all texts were tangible, the institution of the library stood for the proposition that a certain degree of openness was good; that a place that allowed free access to knowledge by every citizen was one of the defining institutions of a liberal society and culture. How will that principle change or evolve in the digital world? Will it survive at all? What is the future of the library in a world grappling with cultural agoraphobia?
About the speaker:
James Boyle is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School and founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Professor Boyle is also the Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons, and the co-founder of Science Commons. He serves on the board of the Public Library of Science and on the advisory board of Public Knowledge. In 2003 Professor Boyle won the World Technology Network Award for Law for his work on the public domain and the "second enclosure movement" that threatens it. He is the author of 'Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society', and the editor of 'Critical Legal Studies, Collected Papers on the Public Domain and Cultural Environmentalism @ 10' (with Larry Lessig.) His more recent books include 'Bound By Law', a co-authored "graphic novel" about the effects of intellectual property on documentary film, 'The Shakespeare Chronicles', a novel, and 'The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind' which was published in 2008 by Yale University Press. He writes a regular online column for the Financial Times's New Economy Policy Forum.
Seminar:Dr Frances Pinter on "A Publisher's perspective on the Future of Academic Publishing in the Digital Era"
Following the publication of Lawrence Lessig's 'Remix' in October 2008, Bloomsbury Academic will be publishing research in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences. Publications will be available on the Web free of charge under Creative Commons licences. Simultaneously, physical books will be produced and sold around the world.
Dr Pinter's seminar presentation will draw together many of the different publishing issues (and the contexts in which they arise) that are challenging publishers during this transition period. and try to make sense of how the various factors impact on one another. She will present some new business models designed to be both open and sustainable.
About the speaker:
Frances Pinter is Publisher of Bloomsbury Academic, a radically new scholarly imprint which was launched in September 2008.
At the age of 23, Dr Pinter was the first woman to establish her own publishing company in the UK. She also founded the environmental studies imprint Belhaven Press and acquired the humanities imprint Leicester University Press. She has extensive international experience as an entrepreneur and leader in the commercial and non-profit sectors. Among other things she has: established companies, and advised others how to set up new operations and transform existing ones; acted as consultant to Creative Commons; worked with George Soros to devise multi-million dollar programmes supporting publishing and education in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism; and conducted research on alternative licencing practices in developing countries.