Working Groups

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Session 1

UNIVERSITY Agenda for Fair Use

Time: Working Group Session 1, 11:00a.m.-12:45p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 100

"Fair use" is a key part of the social bargain at the heart of copyright law. Copyrights give the privileges of property to creators so as to reward their efforts; fair use carves out of those privileges certain exceptions so as to assure the vitality of ongoing cultural production.

Many users of copyrighted material, however, are confused about their entitlements under the fair use doctrine. There has therefore arisen a movement to help particular "use communities" clarify their own norms in regard to fair use. The recently-published Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use [centerforsocialmedia.org/fairuse] has already been of immense value to the film community in clearing permissions and in reducing the cost of "errors and omissions" insurance for the artists involved.

The time has come for a similar document to be produced to help college classroom teachers articulate their sense of what is fair and reasonable when it comes to educational use of proprietary material.

This working group will focus on how best to go about creating such a statement. Participants will be urged to bring their own practices and puzzles into the discussion for, at the end of the day, the norms of this use community will have to arise from the classroom experience and the ethics of its members.

Facilitators

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

How universities can support open access

Time: Working Group Session 1, 11:00a.m.-12:45p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 101

The ways in which professors, academics and students and professionals release their work into the world are changing. The old models of scholarly publishing, in which most work is turned over to a publishing company just to be purchased back by the Universities from which it originated, are challenged as the printing press is replaced by digital distribution. How can Universities advance open access (OA) models of scholarly communication through OA repositories and OA journals?

Facilitators

  • Stuart Shieber, Welch Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University
  • Peter Suber, Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College and Open Access Project Director at Public Knowledge

Participants

  • Michael Fisher, Editor-in-Chief, Harvard University Press

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

Progressing UNIVERSITY General Counsels on Intellectual Property Issues

Time: Working Group Session 1, 11:00a.m.-12:45p.m.

This working group has been CANCELLED

How are General Counsels at Universities advancing academia into the digitized age and how, as lawyers for Universities, do they view intellectual property issues? In what ways do Universities and their General Counsels need to be on the cutting edge of shared resource and knowledge promotion? How does this counter the position to keep Universities from being sued?

Facilitators

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

  • How are universities similar to and different from for-profit businesses and what are the implications for their rights as owners and users of intellectual property?
  • How is intellectual property defined?
  • How does the internet change models of authority (social, intellectual, hierarchical)? What does this mean for Harvard, the most "authoritative" -- because best known? -- univesity in the world.
  • How are universities similar to and different from for-profit businesses and what are the implications for their rights as owners and users of intellectual property?

Connecting UNIVERSITY to Basic Education

Time: Working Group Session 1, 11:00a.m.-12:45p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 107

What is University's role in guiding elementary education? Through empowering and enabling local teachers and volunteers throughout the world through collaborative development of teaching materials with luminaries in various academic disciplines, we can connect University to all children in the world, offering children who may not necessarily have access to traditional systems that lead them to University the chance to connect nonetheless. With a project such as One Laptop per Child, and its initiative to facilitate a universal library, University can connect in more direct and actionable ways to the basic education movement, and address the needs of local students and teachers across different cultures.

Facilitators

Participants

A Few Notes on the Harvard PITF Program

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

UNIVERSITY and its Library

Time: Working Group Session 1, 11:00a.m.-12:45p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 102

Librarians are the navigators of knowledge and access at University. As search and content companies further engage in the realm of University and its Library, how do the roles of library, librarians, and library tools evolve, particularly into digital space? With libraries embracing new content delivery services, creating their own digital taxonomies and resources, and negotiating new relationships with users and vendors, what are the implications for our greatest repositories of knowledge? New tools for mining, mashing up, and networking knowledge are evolving everyday, so how do libraries interface with copyright issues while still forwarding the mission of scholarship? Is there a conflict?

Facilitators

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

  • What's the appropriate balance between library ownership of content versus rental of content?
  • What is the library's role in advocating for fair use and other approaches to an increasingly restrictive copyright environment?
  • In fact, what should librarians be advocating for in general?
  • How much control is it appropriate for libraries to exert over vendor choices in an effort to maximize access for themselves and their patrons, both faculty and students?
  • If we didn't have a library, what would we build?
  • What exactly are librarians expert in?
  • How can librarianship usefully become a distributed function?
  • Libraries : Knowledge :: Live theater : entertainment?
  • What is the role of librarians in the age of "good enough" knowledge?

The Digital Identity of UNIVERSITY

Time: Working Group Session 2, 1:45p.m.-3:30p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 107

With digital tools such as message boards, social networks, and search engines making University and its clients’ identities more public than ever, navigating the integrated media landscape for students and other members of University has become increasingly difficult. In a world where anonymous postings can have lasting effects on the professional and personal lives of students, and when University clients and their digital identities can be expressions of the University as a whole, this workshop will focus on how we begin to navigate this space and how we form the digital identity of University.

Facilitators

  • John Clippinger, Berkman Center for Internet & Society Fellow
  • Chris Kelly, Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook
  • Anthony Ciolii, AutoAdmit

Participants

  • Jarret Cohen
  • Critt Jarvis, Co-Founder and Lead Architect, Conversation Base LLC
  • Matthew Battles

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

  • Do we need a method for editing our past? *That* is the google question.
  • Is Harvard's mission noble? Is Harvard's expression fair? How can nobility express itself in a digitally networked world?

Resources

UNIVERSITY and the RIAA

Time: Working Group Session 2, 1:45p.m.-3:30p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 102

Suits brought against members of University by the RIAA bring up issues revolving around the role and identity of University and copyright. Universities are being asked to absorb financial and non-monetary costs of the record companies' enforcement. Is this enforcement also compromising student privacy? Does this limit access to genuine educational resources? How do we provide opportunities for new creative expression through digital mediums?

Facilitators

  • Wendy Seltzer, Berkman Center for Internet & Society Fellow
  • Doc Searls, Berkman Center for Internet & Society Fellow
  • Lewis Hyde, Berkman Center for Internet & Society Fellow

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

Resources

Open Access at UNIVERSITY – OpenCourseWare and Beyond

Time: Working Group Session 2, 1:45p.m.-3:30p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 101

MIT’s OpenCourseWare, along with numerous other University-lead open access learning initiatives, has revealed the world’s thirst for open access knowledge and learning. What have we learned from previous efforts, and how and in what ways can Universities harness the potential of making their course material open access? How do we give knowledge, once put online, a sense of “life” – how do we make it “living” knowledge to be shared and developed with learners around the world?

Facilitators

  • Anne Margulies, Executive Director, MIT OpenCourseWare
  • Marshall Smith, Director, Education, Hewlett Foundation
  • Elizabeth Stark, Founder Harvard Free Culture Club, Harvard Law School 3L
  • Joel Thierstein, Executive Director, Rice University Connexions

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion

  • How do we create open access journals that are fiscally sustainable?
  • Do extension schools dilute the brand of a university?
  • Should that even matter?
  • If successful, will anyone take the degrees seriously?
  • Will normal graduates resent extension students?
  • What are the financial and the business models for making a vision of openness possible and sustainable?
  • Will becoming more open threaten the standing of the University (as the traditional view would hold) or would it enhance it?
  • In what way does Harvard University's concept of openness resonate with the ideas of justice and morality?
  • What role will (and what role should) the libraries and museums play in defining how open our universities should be?
  • How do we fund research to maximize openness, but still make it possible for interested corporations and governments to participate?
  • How do we maintain and guarantee the quality of information as openness increases?
  • If you were to create a trustworthy "open" organization (or an organization to which you entreat openness) what would this type of organization look like?
  • How should we define openness, particularly in opposition to some concept or definition of closed?
  • It is fine and good for Harvard, a multi-billion dollar organization, to advance this vision of openness. But what about the small firms?
  • How open or closed should Harvard university be? What is the most interesting issue in relation to this?
  • What role do OpenCourseWare systems play in this endeavor to harness the Internet as an open facilitator and distributor of University knowledge?
  • What do you feel about openness in classrooms in the for-profit center and impact of this on government and academic arenas? Who should be responsible for the openness of the net?
  • Will Harvard consciously and productively define its future position on 'openness' or be dragged there by the rest of the world?
  • How does the university's budget allocation and procurement process create incentives for greater openness?
  • How do you balance benefits and rights of enrolled/paying students and 'open' university participants?
  • Who should pay for the content in open education?
  • Is open education elitist?

IRC Chat

UNIVERSITY Relationship Building – Power, Funding and Transparency

Time: Working Group Session 2, 1:45p.m.-3:30p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 200

The relationships between University and the primary funders of knowledge creation--business, philanthropy, and government--are growing increasingly complicated. How does the open access movement change those relationships? What steps need to be taken to build more fruitful bonds? How can the diversity of interests within University best be accommodated?

Facilitators

  • John Wilbanks, Executive Director, Science Commons
  • Christopher J. Mackie, Associate Program Officer, Mellon Foundation

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting points for discussion

  • What would it mean to create an "open funding relationship" between University and funders? Would it make any practical difference?
  • How can funders best encourage openness and transparency within University?
  • How can University best encourage openness and transparency among funders? Among other not-for-profits?
  • Whose openness? Which transparency? What devils lurk in the details?

Social and Cultural UNIVERSITY Communities Online and Off

Time: Working Group Session 2, 1:45p.m.-3:30p.m.

Location: Pound Hall Room 100

How can University sponsored events leverage their reach, build communities and keep the conversations going after the conference ends? Using as a case study the Dred Scott conference held by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice in April, we will discuss how history relates to the present and future. We will consider how the internet and new technologies can help universities as they work to convene social and cultural gatherings (as opposed to purely academic).

Facilitators

  • David Harris, Managing Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
  • Dan Gillmor, Center for Citizen Media
  • Darby DeChristopher, Harvard Law School AV

Participants

Questions from the website / Starting Points for Discussion