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Conference Announcement "Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Property: The Ethics of Cultural and Environmental Sovereignty and Stewardship" Information Ethics Roundtable 2007 University of Arizona Tucson, AZ (USA) 23-25 March 2007 __________________________________________________ The Information Ethics Roundtable will hold its Fifth Annual Meeting at the University of Arizona, March 23-25, 2007. Every year the roundtable brings together researchers from several different disciplines (e. g., philosophy, information science, communications, public administration, anthropology, law) to discuss the ethical issues surrounding access to information, information privacy, intellectual property, intellectual freedom, and censorship. In the information age, we tend to focus on the importance of the free flow of information. However, there are some ethical barriers to this free flow, such as concerns about privacy, secrecy, and intellectual property. There is a special concern about the free flow of information when that information is indigenous knowledge or cultural property. Numerous ethical dilemmas arise when indigenous cultural and environmental information is disseminated and used in non-traditional ways. Indigenous peoples often claim exclusive control over access to and use of information created by them, discovered by them, and about them. This information includes cultural information such as traditional stories, songs, rituals, symbols, etc. It includes environmental information about plants used in traditional medicines, crops, etc. It also includes information about the peoples themselves, their history, sociology, biology, etc. Sometimes this information is embodied in physical things such as ceremonial objects, photographs, plants, or human remains. Claims to control this information and the objects that carry it may come in conflict with the scholarly, scientific, artistic, or commercial interests of others in accessing and using this information. This will be the first conference to bring together researchers in Philosophy, Law, Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Public Policy, American Indian Studies, and Library and Information Science to discuss the ethical dimensions of Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Property. The conference will provide an impetus to scholars to develop a better understanding of, and new theoretical approaches to, these issues. This conference will also bring needed attention to these issues among practicing information professionals, who play an important role as information stewards. The conference will address such issues as: - the rights of indigenous peoples to control knowledge that they have discovered or created (e.g., traditional medicines, native symbols, songs, rituals), - the rights of indigenous peoples to control information about themselves, - the ethical dimensions of gathering information about and from indigenous peoples (e.g. through anthropological, biological, or historical research), - the relevance of standard justifications for limiting information access, such as secrecy, privacy, and intellectual property, to questions of indigenous cultural property, - the implications of environmental ethics in relation to questions of indigenous knowledge and cultural property, - how control over physical artifacts of indigenous peoples can have an impact on the discovery and dissemination of knowledge and information (e.g., in archaeological research), - indigenous information stewardship and information professionals (e.g., librarians, archivists, museum directors). For further information about the Roundtable, see our website at: http://www.sir.arizona.edu/ier/ Contact: Kay Mathiesen, Program Chair Information Ethics Roundtable School of Information Resources and Library Science University of Arizona 1515 East First Street Tucson, AZ 85719 USA Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.sir.arizona.edu/ier/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
