When most academics are pushing for open access of research and when one goal of ICT's for development is aiming to get materials into the hands of those least able to afford such, it seems very strange that these materials default to conventional practice.
Also, academics understand that most individuals and institutions are only selectively interested in materials. To have to purchase an entire volume for select materials, vetted or no, seems counter-intuitive to the purpose of this research. In fact, in the academic community in general, the purpose of research is to seek knowledge and not to burden such a quest by social activism. The spirit of CIRN is not one of traditional scholarship and thus this publication highlights the schizophrenia prevalent within this community of "academics".
As with most open access journals and publications, where there is a "cost", particularly for review, the burden should fall upon those who are publishing or their institutions and not on those seeking the knowledge. As I have noted elsewhere, much of what evolves out of this "academic"exercise needs legitimization in the publish/perish community in order to attempt to rationalize legitimacy for the "sub-discipline". That need should not be superimposed on the community which is potentially to benefit and is outside of the traditional academic world.
Furthermore, it is clearly understood that the purpose of a f-t-f conference transcends didactic presentations which could easily be transmitted via other vehicles more effectively, as the Internet clearly has proven with its variety of vehicles from lists to blogs and wiki's. Thus the costs and the benefits of holding such a meeting should also be burdened on the participants and not on those who are only recipients of the didactic materials.
One certainly hopes that, with a growing maturity, CIRN's members can separate the demands of the traditional academic requirements for scholarship with the legitimate goals of community activism. In either case, the growth of the open access movement within and outside of The Academy should not be deliberately ignored to the detriment of fellow academics as well as the world outside of the Ivory Tower.
sincerely,
tom p. abeles
Gurstein, Michael wrote:
(Sorry for any duplication)
The Community Informatics Research Network (http://www.ciresearch.net ),
held its 2004 Inaugural Conference and Colloquium with the theme,
'Sustainability
and Community Technology: What Does this Mean for Community
Informatics?', at the Monash Centre, Prato, Italy, 29 September - 1
October, 2004.
Proceedings are now available for purchase.
The CIRN 2004 Prato Conference proceedings (ISBN 0-9581058-3-9) include
all the refereed and non-refereed papers from the academic,
practitioner, and PhD streams.
There are 48 papers in the two volumes coming to more than 600 pages of text and graphics, with contributions from many countries. The Proceedings are an excellent resource for your organisation's research, teaching, and practical activity in community informatics.
Additional information (including the table of contents, list of authors and introduction) available at http://www.communities.org.ru/prato/
Proceedings CD:
In addition to the all the conference papers being reproduced as
bookmarked PDFs, the proceedings CD contains: -- MP3 sound files of the Conference Opening and keynotes from Don
Schauder, Laura Ripamonti, Erica Rosalen and Mike Gurstein, as well as
their accompanying powerpoints.
-- 200+ Prato photos taken by participants -- Inaugural Issue of the Journal of Community Informatics
-- CIRN Brochure
-- CIRN Cape Town 2005 Announcement.
Publishers of the book are the Centre for Community Networking Research, School of Information Management & Systems Monash University and Community Informatics Research Network, Inc.
The book has been desk-published in Russia by the Centre of Community
Networking and Information Policy Studies (CCNS).
To order and purchase a copy of the proceedings please go to
www.ciresearch.net/proc2004.htm.
As the number of copies printed is limited, you are encouraged to order promptly. Priority will be given to e-payments via Paypal. If you have not used Paypal before, please follow the instructions carefully, as refunds will include an additional cost of transfer fees.
**** If you require a purchase order or are only able to pay by international bank transfer, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] as soon as possible to expedite arrangements.***
The cost of the two volumes and CD is AUD 76 (approximately EUR45,USD58) plus AUD 17 (approximately EUR10, USD 13) postage and handling per set.
Estimated surface mail times within Europe are two weeks, North America four weeks, and up to two months for other countries. Current CIRN members will receive a 10% discount on the volumes.
We invite you to purchase additional copies for your institution, and to distribute the information below to colleagues. As there are only a limited number of copies available for purchase, please encourage them to do so quickly!
Best regards,
Anna Petrova
: Centre of Community Networking and Information Policy Studies (CCNS)
: St. Petersburg, Russia : http://www.communities.org.ru
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