The Informational Commons at Risk (Working Paper 8)

Conventional wisdom says that we are on the cusp of a Global Information Society, in which new technologies will provide citizens with unprecedented access to information. This is an appealing but flawed vision of the future. Governments are still reluctant to disclose information about core functions. At the same time, neoliberal reforms have caused a diffusion of power across sectors and borders, confounding efforts to promote governmental openness. Economic liberalization has also made it more difficult to enforce corporate disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, technological change has spurred efforts by businesses and citizens to strengthen their control over corporate and personal information. Efforts to defend the borders of the “informational commons” — the domain of publicly-accessible information — will be also be complicated by problems of policy design and political mobilization. Imposing transparency requirements was easier when authority was closely held by national and sub-national governments. The task is more difficult when power is widely diffused.

Creative commons: A convergence model between the ideal of commons and the possibilities of creation in contemporary times, opposed to copyright impediments

The contemporary individual finds on the Internet and especially on the Web facilitating conditions to build a basic infrastructure based on the concept of commons. He also finds favorable conditions which allow him to collaborate and share resources for the creation, use, reuse, access and dissemination of information. However, he also faces obstacles such as Copyright (Law 9610/98 in Brazil). An alternative is Creative Commons which not only allows the elaboration, use and dissemination of information under legal conditions but also function as a facilitator for the development of informational commons. This paper deals with this scenario.

Creative Commons: a convergence model between the ideal of commons and the possibilities of creation in contemporary times, opposed to copyright impediments

The contemporary individual finds on the Internet and especially on the Web facilitating conditions to build a basic infrastructure based on the concept of commons. He also finds favorable conditions which allow him to collaborate and share resources for the creation, use, reuse, access and dissemination of information. However, he also faces obstacles such as Copyright (Law 9610/98 in Brazil). An alternative is Creative Commons which not only allows the elaboration, use and dissemination of information under legal conditions but also function as a facilitator for the development of informational commons. This paper deals with this scenario.

Informational matching

This paper analyzes the problem of matching heterogeneous agents in aBayesian learning model. One agent gives a noisy signal to another agent,who is responsible for learning. If production has a strong informationalcomponent, a phase of cross-matching occurs, so that agents of low knowledgecatch up with those of higher one. It is shown that:(i) a greater informational component in production makes cross-matchingmore likely;(ii) as the new technology is mastered, production becomes relatively morephysical and less informational;(iii) a greater dispersion of the ability to learn and transfer informationmakes self-matching more likely; and(iv) self-matching leads to more self-matching, whereas cross-matching canmake less productive agents overtake more productive ones.

The informational value of incumbency

This paper proposes an argument that explains incumbency advantage without recurring to the collective irresponsibility of legislatures. For that purpose, we exploit the informational value of incumbency: incumbency confers voters information about governing politicians not available from challengers. Because there are many reasons for high reelection rates different from incumbency status, we propose a measure of incumbency advantage that improves the use of pure reelection success. We also study the relationship between incumbency advantage and ideological and selection biases. An important implication of our analysis is that the literature linking incumbency and legislature irresponsibility most likely provides an overestimation of the latter.

Diffusion with delayed informational spillovers

I study the relation between the delay in the transmission of spilloversof information and diffusion. When a firm enters or innovates it benefitsfrom the information it gets by observing past entry. Delays in the processof receiving the information reduce the benefits of the spillover and affectthe entry process.I derive the effects this delay has on diffusion, on the dynamics of priceand cost of entry, and on efficiency. I explain why, when spillovers ofinformation are delayed, a zero profit condition requires an initial set ofentrants bigger than zero. I also illustrate how an S-shaped diffusion curvecan be generated. I show that competitive equilibrium entails a slowergeneration of information relative to the social optimum and how a socialplanner can improve efficiency.

Informational guide for parents of residential children

This paper presents an informational guide for parents of Central Institute for the Deaf residential children.

Direito autoral e tecnologias de informação e comunicação no contexto da produção, uso e disseminação de informação: um olhar para as Licenças Creative Commons

The development of information and communication technologies, in particular, Internet, and its Web 2.0 information environment has led to significant changes in contemporary society as to the ways of producing informational content. Collaboration and remix, favored by the new services and applications resulting from the development of the Web, are practices which contribute for the exponential growth of information producers. An important part of humanity ceases to be a mere consumer of symbolic goods and becomes a member in a society that sees in the collaboration and remix a new form of creation, use and dissemination of intellectual content. However, as such practices involve the production and use of information intelectual content, and are ruled by a legisltion which determine determines under what conditions the author and the user must produce and use the intellectual work. This legislation established for a context prior to the develompment of the Web has created an imbalance in the context of Web 2.0 which needs to be solved in some way so as to provide the required rebalance for the flow of information. This study explores the collaborative Web environment, the scope of copyright law in Web enviroment and the Creative Commons licenses as an alternative for producers and users of information to create, recreate, share, use, reuse and disseminate legally the intellectual production for the benefit of the construction of knowledge.

Package X, informational copies of tax forms.

Description based on: 1981; title from cover.

Informational effects of assessment feedback

This study tested the effects of informational assessment feedback on satisfaction, selfesteem and examiner ratings. 83 participants completed a self-report personality inventory (Millon Index of Personality Styles). Participants of the experimental group were given standardized, informational assessment. Participants in the control group received only general information about the personality inventory. Significant group differences were found for the Feedback Assessment Questionnaire with t (81) = 11.67, p

The John Dewey`s epistemology and informational literacy

The `reflexive thinking` concept is discussed in this article as a means of contextualizing John Dewey`s intellectual legacy. `Reflection` represents a fundamental element for the construction of the necessary competences to information seeking and use, and consequently to individual and collective development. Since the reflexive thinking habit in information literacy is a way of learning, some questions concerning teaching and learning processes are also investigated. The discussion is, therefore, supported by the supposition that reflexive thinking is a cognitive strategy that allows a deeper comprehension of related problems, phenomena, and processes by means of the perception of the relations and the identification of involved elements, as well as the analysis and interpretation of meanings, empowering the information literacy process.

Adaptation on the commons

This paper seeks to understand how software systems and organisations co-evolve in practice and how order emerges in the overall environment. Using a metaphor of timetable as a commons, we analyse the introduction of a novel academic scheduling system to demonstrate how Complex Adaptive Systems theory provides insight into the adaptive behaviour of the various actors and how their action is both a response to and a driver of co-evolution within the engagement.

Organiza????es virtuais no setor p??blico: uma nova abordagem

?? crescente o envolvimento de organiza????es p??blicas e privadas com alian??as e parcerias. No novo cen??rio colaborativo, uma nova abordagem para o planejamento das organiza????es precisa ser desenvolvida, com especial aten????o para o setor p??blico, em cujo ambiente a escassez de recursos pode ser total ou parcialmente suprida pela cria????o ou incremento de redes entre organiza????es e sistemas. A nova abordagem para a coordena????o interorganizacional no ??mbito do planejamento governamental pode resultar em algum tipo de ???organiza????o virtual??? para o setor p??blico, ?? semelhan??a do que j?? ocorre no setor privado. O artigo destaca a import??ncia da reflex??o sobre as implica????es e possibilidades que os conceitos relativos a organiza????es virtuais podem trazer para a coordena????o interorganizacional no ??mbito do planejamento governamental, de forma a contribuir para incrementar a efetividade da a????o de governo, por meio de ambiente informacional cooperativo. Aspectos como cultura organizacional, poder e controle, fronteiras e estruturas organizacionais, confian??a e gest??o cooperativa da informa????o dever??o ser observados no contexto do planejamento governamental, caso se pretenda evoluir na aplica????o do conceito de organiza????es virtuais no setor p??blico

Necessidades de informa????o e compet??ncias informacionais no setor p??blico: um estudo de caso

O texto apresenta parte do referencial te??rico de pesquisa de doutorado, que buscou estabelecer rela????es te??ricas e pr??ticas entre as necessidades de informa????o de uma determinada atividade e as compet??ncias informacionais desenvolvidas para atend??-las. A premissa da pesquisa foi que a atividade estudada, a supervis??o indireta de institui????es financeiras, era intensiva em informa????o e poderia ser estudada como atividade informacional, a partir do uso de par??metros informacionais. Os par??metros utilizados nos modelos te??ricos foram o ciclo e a tecnologia da informa????o e os contextos de comunica????o da informa????o. A pesquisa emp??rica se iniciou com a identifica????o dos fatores cr??ticos de sucesso da atividade, visando a posterior mapeamento das necessidades de informa????o e das compet??ncias dos profissionais supervisores. Os resultados obtidos e sua an??lise permitiram relacionar os fatores cr??ticos de sucesso da atividade ??s necessidades de informa????o dos profissionais de supervis??o indireta e ??s suas compet??ncias informacionais.

Adaption of the Creative Commons approach and the roaming concept to spatial data infrastructures (SDI)

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies