Broadband getting broader: A proposal to connect the masses

On Tuesday, December 2nd, a National Broadband Strategy Call to Action was submitted by an unlikely coalition of

“prominent communications providers, high technology companies, manufacturers, consumers, labor unions, public interest groups, educators, state and local governments, utilities, content creators, foundations, and other stakeholders in America’s broadband future” (quoted from the New America site)

to President-elect Barack Obama and the 111th Congress.

The call to action implores the President-elect and Congress to make the development of a National Broadband Strategy a top priority for the country in 2009.  It describes ‘advanced communications capabilities’ as ‘essential for the 21st century’ and credits the broadband-enabled Internet with enhancing everything from

“innovation, economic growth, job creation, educational opportunity and global competitiveness”

to

“public safety, homeland security, health care, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and the worldwide distribution of millions of products, processes and services”.

The call to action also references the web’s role in increasing civic engagement and economic revitalization in urban, rural, and other under-served areas.

Finally, the proposal cites a broadband strategy as a national infrastructure project akin to the construction of roads and canals in the 19th century and highways, electricity and phone services, and space travel in the 20th.

The National Broadband Stratgey call to action has all the makings of an economic stimulus package that would create jobs, increase opportunities, and improve the standard of living of citizens now and for decades to come.

I wonder how it will be considered alongside out-going FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to deliver ‘free, pornography-free wireless Internet service to all Americans’ and the American Library Association’s appeal for a $100 million library stimulus package.

“Challenges to Libraries… in the Management of Works of Indigenous Communities”

Reactions to the fourth panel of the Traditional Cultural Expression Conference, “Challenges to Libraries and Archives in the Management of Works of Indigenous Communities”, are available at ALA Inside Scoop.

Of particular interest is discussion of ‘knowledge management system[s]‘ that conserve and organize the creations of indigenous peoples within a framework that honors the communities’ practices for access to knowledge.

Groups of people deemed ‘indigenous’, ‘ethnic’, or ‘traditional’ are not the only societies that have rules for who is allowed to know, and what information can be known.  In his essay ‘The Google Dilemma,’ James Grimmelmann outlines five cases in which Google’s homegrown page ranking system determines how users come to know things, and what things they come to know.  In many cases, Google is working in partnership with State agencies to organize information and to determine what kinds of information people can access.

I think that librarians and archivists participating in discussions of how to responsibly collect, conserve, and manage the creations of indigenous communities is a very positive development; I also recognize that there are challenges and concerns relating to these materials that are unique from the other materials with which librarians, archivists, and their patrons work.

However, let’s not, by any means, assume that indigenous communities are the only groups who ‘limit’ access to their materials based on traditionally held values.

Access to information is the cumbersome, loaded phrase that it has become because it means something different in every instance it is used -

from searching Google,

to accessing the tapes of the Zunni storytelling collection.

Furthering the information ownership debate: ALA and the World Intellectual Property Organization

I found this post about the invitational Traditional Cultural Expression Conference to be a provocative twist in the information ownership debate that has arisen around OCLC’s new Policy (see “Final ‘Policy for Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records’ Posted by OCLC”).

I look forward to following the discussion of the first keynote speech, presented by Wend Wendland, who is “head of the Traditional Creativity, Cultural Expressions, and Cultural Heritage Section of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).”  While the dialogue started at the issue of international copyright, it soon

‘leaped from folk art to questions about who owns the rights to ancient human remains and to a definition of “genetic resources”’ .

Even more interesting -

Carrie Russel of the ALA Washington Office sees a need for librarians to be involved with WIPO and to take part in global conversations about intellectual property.  Since the content of this conference seems to be focusing so far on indigenous communities’ expression and creation, Russel sees a role for librarians in helping indigenous communities identify, collect, conserve, and share their intellectual property.  (With a B.A. in anthropology and hopes of earning my MLIS in the near future, this topic is the fulcrum of many of my personal and professional interests.)

I’m a really looking forward to this upcoming discussion: “Challenges to Libraries and Archives in the Management of Works of Indigenous Communities.”