Looking Outward

If our mission is to bring knowledge to the world, should we be digitizing our nonproprietary holdings and offering them to the Net at large? (In tension with "semi-commercial" ventures in which Harvard sells its brand/knowledge? Are we .edu or .com?)

As a growing proportion of the collections of the Harvard libraries and art museums are made available to the world via the Internet—and as the libraries and museums of other universities evolve along similar lines—should these institutions abandon their aspirations to acquire comprehensive (or at least well-balanced) collections of materials, and instead specialize in certain areas, relying on online collaboration for materials not housed within Harvard?

What sort of role should Harvard play in filtering what it shares with the world in digital form?

To what extent should providing information and instruction to non-degree candidates be considered part of the central mission of the University?

What is Harvard's obligation to work for social justice around the world and what does that mean for our digital identity?

Do we have a moral obligation to make use of Internet technologies to share our resources (for instance, our knowledge of how to fight disease) with the rest of the world?

Live Audience Questions:

miladus - 11-16-2002 01:49:16

I am surprised that the Harvard University Press is not included in your conference. Considering all the issues involving copyright, institutional status 9ie promotion, etc.), the press is an important part of the Digital identity, or, at least, it ought to be.

Jason Jay - 11-15-2002 21:50:44

Why isn't icommons available as a tool for students? Why is it limited to faculty? Harvard students could use icommons to build community, whether in student groups, community organizations, or lecture courses that do not use digital tools.

grad student - 11-16-2002 15:42:14

A grad student once commented, he has to pay such high fees to attend Harvard and feels shortchange about the free resources that will be available online to others. If library resources, museum resources, etc are made availale online free to other students and researchers, what's the "value for money" for students attending Harvard.

Jason Jay - 11-16-2002 15:44:30

Should medical insurance companies be given access to digital medical records? If we don't think so, how can we systematically prevent that from happening?

Activist - 11-16-2002 15:08:16

Why does Dr. Komaroff think that the digital divide will be bridged within 10 years? And how can the provision of useful and interesting content, by Harvard and others, be part of making that ambitious goal possible? Too often, it seems that we think that bridging the divide is all about hardware, but it seems likely that adding content and education is an important part of the process.

Veritas - 11-16-2002 14:47:46

We need an organizational premise for this effort to bring together the various schools at Harvard. We need a project into which people who want to share resources and ideas in the digital space. What's the logical extension of this conference?

Heather Cole - 11-16-2002 14:03:03

Only to emphasize a point verged on on Friday -- The University is both a consumer and producer of intellectual property, and we will need high-level involvement of the President and the Deans to ajudicate issues of fair use and fair compensation, in the interests of us all. That's why it is so important that senior members of the University be aware of and involved in IS 2K2! Within faculties, also, as compensated use of digital rights protected materials increases in support of teaching, learning, and research, we need support organizations that facilitate the timely acquisition of rights. Teaching of undergraduates is time limited by length of term, and rightsholders are not well organized to respond to requests. Acorss faculties, cross-registration makes rights acquisition more complicated, too. This has been our experience in providing electronic reserves in the Harvard College Library. Thanks for your attention, Heather Cole