Bellingcat provides a workshop for people with no experience using the command line. The idea is to gain essential skills that will open up the possibility of using a range of other digital tools toward open source investigative work. You can find out more and sign up from this page. This command line workshop is scheduled for 9 May 2024.
Much Better Ways of Studying
Paul Penn’s article, How to Study Effectively (Psyche Magazine) provides insights on why common study techniques fail us. Research shows that cramming doesn’t work well for gaining knowledge before a test but there are other techniques that do work.
Continue reading “Much Better Ways of Studying”19th Annual Concordia Library Research Forum
The 2021 Concordia Library Research Forum will take place on the 27th and 28th of April. There is an excellent lineup of presentations and posters (like always) addressing library or archive research (completed or in-progress).
Continue reading “19th Annual Concordia Library Research Forum”Proctorio Legal Aggression
A Learning Technology Specialist at UBC was rightly critical of Proctorio so the company is suing him. Considering the ethical, technical or other transgressions of automated test proctoring/surveillance tools like Proctorio, it’s worth thinking about how this situation is unfolding. He’s set up a GoFundMe campaign for some support and if successful, proceeds would go to the BC Civil Liberties Association.
There’s a good blog post, In Defence of Ian Linkletter, which explains the situation.
I think it’s worth noting, in Linkletter’s message about the suit, he explains: “This kind of lawsuit, in which a company like Proctorio sues an outspoken critic like me, is sometimes referred to as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation: or “SLAPP”. SLAPP lawsuits are a threat to freedom of expression.” [emphasis mine]
Think about Algorithmic Test Proctoring
Read Shea Swauger’s article, Our Bodies Encoded: Algorithmic Test Proctoring in Higher Education. It identifies deep concerns about algorithmic test proctoring. Right now, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing everyone to quickly adapt to different ways of doing things, students are facing their final exams. Within universities, I know many people at all levels that are working incredibly hard to find ways to support students and help them successfully complete what they set out to do. Students ought to inform themselves on this issue and listen carefully to all of the options, which the university is providing them.
Continue reading “Think about Algorithmic Test Proctoring”Creative Commons Certificate Program
If you have an interest in learning more about the Creative Commons and open access licensing issues. This year, the Creative Commons began offering an online certificate program, which helps you learn about all things CC. It started as a sort of beta offer but has matured. The certificate originally targeted educators and librarians, which got my interest so I signed up certificates.creativecommons.org
Continue reading “Creative Commons Certificate Program”Using CC Licences for Collections & Remixes
This short presentation helps distinguish the idea of a collection of work versus “remixing” and adapting work. This presentation is available as a LibreOffice odp file here.
What Makes a Creative Commons Licence and How is it Useful?
If we open a Creative Commons licence up, what do we find? Here’s a brief Prezi presentation that gets into the guts of CC licences or a PDF download.
Some Tips on NC, SA, & ND attributes in Creative Commons Licences
Here are three things about various attributes that can be found in Creative Commons licences, which I find are not necessarily obvious, but good to know (details on the CC site).
First, when a CC licence has a NonCommercial (NC) designation, it means, roughly, that employing the work for a commercial use is not permitted. But it’s not quite that straightforward. The work’s creator wants other people to use the work (according to whatever permissions they’ve granted) but does not intend anyone acquiring the work through its Creative Commons licensed version, to profit from it.
There’s an interesting distinction though between use and user. You can’t make a blanket assumption about the use of the work based on the person or organization using it. Even a for-profit company for example, could use an NC designated work for a variety of things so long as they’re not selling it for profit (which would then qualify as commercial use).
The ShareAlike (SA) designation results in something like a viral impact. When someone licences a work with SA then other people that for example make something new with it, also have to release their new work with an SA designation in kind. This is beneficial in that those adopting it, potentially increase the availability of new works and ensure that work continues to be shared (nourishing the commons). This is akin to the requirements in Free software licences like the GPL, which have contributed to an extremely large Free and open source software ecosystem.
And finally, if the NoDerivatives (ND) aspect is present in a CC licence, it’s actually more permissive than it might sound. It does not prohibit making derivatives entirely. The Creative Commons pus a lot of emphasis on the commons, an effort in large part to increase what we can all share access to. So in that sense, ND has more to do with the act of sharing a derivative than of making it. That’s to say, you can make a derivative work of an ND-licensed work but you don’t have the permission to distribute that derivative.
Open Access Week 2018
International Open Access Week spans 22 – 28 of October this year. It’s a great time to find out more about open access initiatives that you can both benefit from and participate in.
Open Access enables people to learn from a much greater commons of research and knowledge than would otherwise be possible. It’s a movement very much inline with the missions of libraries and with the research life cycle. Without open access we’re left with a scholarly ecosystem dependent on a few powerful commercial interests. Those commercial interests tend to control or prevent access except for the parties able to pay the most. A detriment to access-to-knowledge and research. Continue reading “Open Access Week 2018”
Briefly, about Copyright Law & CC Licences
Copyright gives the people that create various works, certain legal controls over those works. As the name suggests, it limits copying (thus various forms of usage) to those authorized to do so. Depending on jurisdictions, it also codifies things such as moral rights.
The Creative Commons licences simplify an author’s ability to authorize copying and use of their work. CC licences leverage the control that copyright establishes and an author can use these licences to, in a sense, automate control. Rather than negotiate requests from every party that wants to use, derive new works, or copy the work, an author can clearly state what they’d like to be able to happen with the work upon expressing it to the public. Then anyone can use it as the author has intended.
Continue reading “Briefly, about Copyright Law & CC Licences”