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Berkman Buzz: August 1, 2014

The Berkman Buzz is selected weekly from the posts of Berkman Center people and projects.
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Alison Head investigates how college grads "stay smart"

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Many of the young college graduates that we interviewed placed a high value on using blogs for lifelong learning. . .blogs came up over and over again, especially blogs interviewees had vetted for authority. As one graduate we interviewed explained, "I believe in the wiki voice, in crowdsourced knowledge; there are so many topics, anyone can join in, anyone can edit, and over time you get towards to the real truth."

 

From Alison Head's Phase 1 research trends report for Project Information Literacy's large-scale study of college grads and lifelong learning practices in the digital age
About Alison | About Project Information Literacy

Peter Hirtle critiques archival "permission to publish"

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A close examination of the “permission to publish” policies of one typical institution demonstrates that they make little or no legal or policy sense. They can confuse researchers (and library staff) about the nature of the repository’s rights in the material. They can place the repository in the unenviable and unsustainable position of having to assess the legality of the researcher’s proposed use. Requirements for compensation (either directly or in the form of complimentary copies of publications) may negate the repository’s normal defenses against a charge of copyright infringement for its copying.

 

From Peter Hirtle's blog post for the LibraryLaw blog, "What the University of Arkansas controversy can teach us about archival permission practices"
About Peter

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Blogging isn't, and shouldn't be, a crime. @StateDept #FreeZone9Bloggers http://t.co/NmGgitmiCh
Kendra Albert (@KendraSerra)
 

 

Ethan Zuckerman considers collaboration

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It doesn’t lessen [Steve] Jobs to recognize that creative genius comes from collaboration. Letting go of the idea that Shakespeare was a solitary genius writing masterworks in an attic without outside input and accepting that he was a member of a popular theatre company, incorporating the influences and feedback of other writers and actors into his creations makes him more fascinating to me, not less. Since we don’t have much access to the historical details of Shakespeare’s life, it’s easier to see these collaborative dynamics in modern biographies. Jobs may be one of the best examples of the collaborative genius idea, as the solitary genius narrative simply makes no sense in considering his history. We can imagine Shakespeare alone in a garrett or Einstein puzzling out equations alone at a blackboard, but Jobs alone is just an angry vegan too picky about design to furnish his own mansion.

 

From Ethan Zuckerman's blog post, "How do you write a biography about collaboration?"
About Ethan | @ethanz

New Berkman Center initiative, Global Access in Action, hosts inaugural workshop on access to medicines in developing countries

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Global Access in Action (GAiA), a new initiative of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, is hosting a workshop today to assess promising but understudied strategies for increasing access to high-quality medicines in the world’s poorest countries. Approximately 45 participants from the pharmaceutical industry, government, international procurement and donor agencies, civil society, and academia will be in attendance.

The workshop will explore best practices for increasing access to pharmaceutical products in the developing world, with particular emphasis on intra-country price discrimination, a strategy designed to make it possible for pharmaceutical companies simultaneously to market to affluent and impoverished populations at different price points in the same geographic area. Humanitarian licensing strategies – such as innovative partnership arrangements between innovative companies and generics – to market and distribute drugs in poor countries will also be discussed.

 

From the Berkman Center, "New Berkman Center initiative, Global Access in Action, hosts inaugural workshop on access to medicines in developing countries"

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Excellent coverage by @washingtonpost on the many Anonymous operations in Kenya. http://t.co/Qs7XI8ECzI
Gabriella Coleman (@BiellaColeman)

 

Macedonian Authorities Claim Social Networks ‘Have Always Been Blocked’ in University Dorms

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Censorship of freedom of expression by Macedonian authorities is nothing new, but seems to be developing in the small southeast European country. Earlier in 2014, when the residents of a state-run student dormitory in Skopje began an online campaign to expose the horrific living conditions in the dorms, access to Facebook and other websites for the residents of the dorm was cut off.

Albanian-language news portal Portalb.mk was the only media outlet from Macedonia to publicly ask the Ministry of Education and Science for explanation. The ministry claimed that it never blocked access to all of the Internet, but “only to social media in the dorms."

 

From Filip Stojanovki's post for Global Voices, "Macedonian Authorities Claim Social Networks ‘Have Always Been Blocked’ in University Dorms"
About Global Voices Online | @globalvoices

This Buzz was compiled by Rebekah Heacock.

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