Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Patenting the global plant kingdom : a Chinese perspective ; fact or fantasy?

Examines and evaluates the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) in the development of China's innovative research capacity and the Convention for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV) criteria in protecting new plant varieties in encouraging China's creativeness. Argues that whilst UPOV sets up principles and standards that condone uncompensated extraction of plant genetic resources from China to developed countries, TRIPs gives foreigners preferential patent protection in China.

A multidiscipline approach to governing virtual property theft in virtual worlds

The crime of virtual property theft has become a serious problem in virtual worlds in recent years. Players of these games are repeatedly falling victim to this crime, with little or no repercussion for the offender. Virtual property often has a substantial real world monetary value and the theft of such items impacts greatly on victims. The problem of virtual property theft is complex, involving many legal, regulatory and technological factors. As such, trying to address this problem in a single dimension is not sufficient, each factor need to be addressed with a multidisciplinary approach. In addressing this problem, this paper provides a model for describing the issue of virtual property trading and the issues associated with virtual property theft. The paper also proposes an approach for handling virtual property theft based on improvements to laws related to virtual property and theft, improvements to the virtual world software components and better regulation from governments.

Sui generis protection for plant varieties and traditional agricultural knowledge : the example of India

Explores the sui generis protection of intellectual property, particularly patents, in biotechnology and traditional agricultural knowledge under Indian law. Focuses on the impact of amendments to the Patents Act 1970 and of the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 and Biological Diversity Act 2002.

Sui Generis protection for plant varieties and traditional knowledge in biodiversity and agriculture : the international framework and national approaches in the Philippines and India

The so-called ‘biotechnology clause’ of Article 27.3(b) of the WTO-TRIPS Agreement requires from member states protection for plant varieties either via the patent system or via an ‘effective sui generis system’ or by a combination of the two. Many developing countries prefer forms of sui generis protection, which allow them to include exceptions and protection measures for traditional agricultural practices and the traditional knowledge of farmers and local communities. However, ‘traditional knowledge’ remains a vaguely defined term. Its extension to biodiversity has brought a diffusion of the previously clearer link between protected subject matter, intellectual property and potential beneficiaries. The Philippine legislation attempts a ‘bottom-up’ approach focusing on the holistic perceptions of indigenous communities, whereas national economic interests thus far receive priority in India’s more centralist approach. Administrative decentralisation, recognition of customary rights, disclosure requirements, registers of landraces and geographical indications are discussed as additional measures, but their implementation is equally challenging. The article concludes that many of the concepts remain contested and that governments have to balance the new commercial incentives with the biodiversity considerations that led to their introduction, so that the system can be made sufficiently attractive for both knowledge holders and potential users of the knowledge.

The role of traditional knowledge and access to genetic resources in biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia

The article examines international treaties linking trade and environment, their governance models and implementation in the context of Southeast Asia. Particular attention is being paid to the role of intellectual property concepts, customary law and traditional knowledge as incentives for biodiversity conservation and to difficulties in defining the subject matter and communities of knowledge holders. Indonesia’s regulation of traditional knowledge and access to biodiversity is discussed as example. The article concludes that national development goals and interests in royalty collection frequently dominate the discussion and that key concepts are still insufficiently defined to avoid overlaps and conflicts. Genuine local support for the conservationist aims of the models will depend on whether a benefit flow to communities can be ensured and their original role to act as incentives can be realised. International collaboration is important to avoid disputes concerning biodiversity related knowledge held across borders.

IP in Asia

This presentation will start with a brief review of the first phase of this project, which focused largely on the impact on innovation of legal and institutional IP reforms in Asia triggered by the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and by subsequent bilateral or multilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The presentation will then show the emerging issues relevant for the second phase of the project, which in an increasingly diversified IP landscape will lie at the intersection of IP with other disciplines and other areas of law, such as competition law, media law, criminal law, human rights, environmental law and constitutional law.

Plant variety protection and traditional agricultural knowledge in Southeast Asia

This article provides an overview of the emerging plant variety protection (PVP) systems in Southeast Asia. The case studies are from countries that form part of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), mainly Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The focus will be on the intersection between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and popular demands for the protection of the traditional knowledge (TK) of local communities. Factors that fuelled the emergence and shaped the content of the PVP laws were the obligation to comply with art 27(3)(b) of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), aspirations for the development of the biotechnology industry, avoidance of possible sanction under the US ‘Special 301’ procedure, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the role played by the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), technical assistance from UPOV member countries, membership of international biodiversity treaties and demands from civil society organisations for protection of TK. The PVP laws that resulted present an uneasy amalgam of conventional property rights with some aspects of protection of TK. It is very likely that the local communities claiming TK rights will face legal hurdles, in as much as government agencies implementing the law will face administrative and technical complications.

Dematerialised data and human desire : the Internet and copy culture

Since Licklider in the 1960s [27] influential proponents of networked computing have envisioned electronic information in terms of a relatively small (even singular) number of 'sources', distributed through technologies such as the Internet. Most recently, Levy writes, in Becoming Virtual, that "in cyberspace, since any point is directly accessible from any other point, there is an increasing tendency to replace copies of documents with hypertext links. Ultimately, there will only need to be a single physical exemplar of the text" [13 p.61]. Hypertext implies, in theory, the end of 'the copy', and the multiplication of access points to the original. But, in practice, the Internet abounds with copying, both large and small scale, both as conscious human practice, and also as autonomous computer function. Effective and cheap data storage that encourages computer users to keep anything of use they have downloaded, lest the links they have found, 'break'; while browsers don't 'browse' the Internet - they download copies of everything to client machines. Not surprisingly, there is significant regulation against 'copying' - regulation that constrains our understanding of 'copying' to maintain a legal fiction of the 'original' for the purposes of intellectual property protection. In this paper, I will firstly demonstrate, by a series of examples, how 'copying' is more than just copyright infringement of music and software, but is a defining, multi-faceted feature of Internet behaviour. I will then argue that the Internet produces an interaction between dematerialised, digital data and human subjectivity and desire that fundamentally challenges notions of originality and copy. Walter Benjamin noted about photography: "one can make any number of prints [from a negative]; to ask for the 'authentic' print makes no sense" [4 p.224]. In cyberspace, I conclude, it makes no sense to ask which one is the copy.

Introduction: IP and the Asia-Pacific ‘spaghetti bowl’ of free trade agreements

The contributions to this book show the strategies and policies of countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have to grapple with international standard setting in what has been called the ‘spaghetti bowl’ of criss-crossing free trade agreements. The chapters show how intellectual property is just one among many political and economic factors that are used in trade off discussions. It leads to an often considerable further raising of IP standards in those countries that agree to higher protection levels, often for reasons that have little to do with the provision of incentives for technological progress. A more nuanced picture of IP protection in Asia shows the different interests of high protection countries, ‘first’ and ‘second tier’ newly industrialized and industrializing countries and the rather peculiar position of Australia and New Zealand. The chapter introduces the contributions to this volume according to these various groups of countries and of international law and the political economy of the region.

The South African Doctrine of Notice: a comparative law perspective

The doctrine of notice was received into South African law in Cohen v Shires, Mchattie and King (1881-1884) 1 SAR TS 41 by reference to a 17th century Dutch decision and English equity.The reception of the polar star of equity has led to doctrinal problems and differing views as to requirements for the operation of the doctrine ever since. This is illustrated in the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Meridian Bay Restaurant (Pty) Ltd v Mitchell 2011 (4) SA 1 (SCA). The Court mentioned fraud and equity as the doctrinal basis but also accepted the view that the doctrine is an anomaly which does not fit into the principles of either the law of delict or property law.The Court required actual notice (or dolus eventualis) and wrongfulness for the operation of the doctrine of notice. In the following discussion of the decision it is argued that for the operation of the doctrine it should be required that: (a) a prior personal right aimed at the acquisition of a real right existed; (b) a holder of a subsequent personal right was actually aware or foresaw the possibility of the existence of the prior personal right; and (c) the holder of the real right nonetheless infringed upon the prior personal right by concluding a subsequent contract and obtaining registration of the real right in the deeds office.

The development agenda for WIPO: another stillbirth?: A batttle between access to knowledge and enclousure

This paper has been produced as part of the examination in order to obtain a Master degree in Law (LLM), in Intellectual Property, at Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London.

Media piracy in emerging economies

Media Piracy in Emerging Economies is the first independent, large-scale study of music, film and software piracy in the developing world, with a focus on Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia. Based on three years of work by some thirty-five researchers, the study tells two overarching stories: one tracing the explosive growth of piracy as digital technologies became cheap and ubiquitous around the world, and another following the growth of industry lobbies that have reshaped laws and law enforcement around copyright protection. The report argues that enforcement efforts have largely failed, and that the problem of piracy is better addressed as a failure of affordable access to media in legal markets.

Antes de uma fundação, um conceito: um estudo sobre a disciplina jurídica das fundações de apoio na cooperação entre universidade e empresa

A presença crescente de pessoas jurídicas sob o regime de direito privado exercendo funções e atividades desempenhadas por pessoas jurídicas sob o regime de direito público tem apresentado desafios importantes para o estudo do Direito. A atuação das Fundações de Apoio no auxílio às Universidades Públicas Federais brasileiras são um exemplo disso. De um fenômeno espontâneo, timidamente regulado pela Lei n.º 8.958/1994, transformaram-se em um universo diversificado, em que se questiona a sua atuação junto à Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior. Ao desempenhar funções e atividades de auxílio à Universidades Federais, executam recursos públicos orçamentários e de Agências de Fomento. O questionamento da obrigatoriedade destas entidades realizarem prévio procedimento licitatório para contratação de terceiros quando estiverem auxiliando às Universidades Federais, a necessidade de cumprimento das regras de recolhimento de recursos público à Conta Única do Tesouro Nacional e a possibilidade de contratação de pessoal sem concurso público para trabalhar nas atividades de auxílio fazem parte das controvérsias enfrentadas no trabalho. Este trabalho procurou refletir sobre este fenômeno a partir de três frentes, uma proposta de análise do fenômeno fundacional, em que fundações de apoio são compreendidas como organizações de intermediação entre universidade e empresa, um levantamento das principais questões de compatibilização entre o regime de direito público e a atuação das fundações no contexto de auxílio ao desenvolvimento tecnológico das Universidades Públicas Federais e, por fim, o estudo de um caso em que há a compatibilização entre um modelo de fundação de apoio e o regime de direito público, o caso da Fundação de Apoio Institucional ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (FAI) da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Propomos um recorte específico para o estudo do auxílio realizado pelas fundações de apoio, caracterizando-as como organizações de intermediação da cooperação entre universidade e empresa, pois acreditamos que dado o conjunto significativo de transformações no papel desempenhado por universidades de pesquisa no âmbito da produção industrial, uma nova forma de leitura da intermediação é necessária para a compreensão do papel e da missão das Universidades de Pesquisa no desenvolvimento econômico do país. As universidades, além de formadoras da mão de obra especializada e da geração de conhecimento, passam a ser centros de geração de tecnologia, se aproximando da indústria, pois substituiria em parte os antigos departamentos de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de indústrias nacionais, ao mesmo tempo que também desempenharia o papel de fomentadora da geração de empresas de inovação, criando incubadoras de empresas e facilitando o intercâmbio entre seus professores e técnicos e profissionais da matriz industrial dos países. No Brasil, esta transformação se depara com um hiato importante. O país, por meio de suas Universidades Públicas é produtor de conhecimento, com um número significativo de publicações internacionais, contudo, não tem conseguido converter este conhecimento em aplicação industrial, em inovação tecnológica, medida pelo registro de patentes e pela transferência de tecnologia para a indústria. Em segundo lugar, a Lei de Inovação Tecnológica (Lei n.º 10.973/2004) como a primeira tentativa de estabelecer formas de reduzir este hiato, criou instrumentos jurídicos para permitir a cooperação entre Universidades Públicas Federais e Empresas Nacionais, posicionando as fundações de apoio como intermediadoras da relação entre Universidade e Empresa, ao lado dos Núcleos de Inovação. A Lei, por um lado, foi capaz de criar os instrumentos jurídicos para que a cooperação entre Universidade Pública e Empresa Nacional seja lícita, contudo, não enfrentou questões jurídicas importantes, além das questões sobre incidência do regime de direito público na intermediação realizada pelas fundações, também não definiu a função das fundações de apoio na captação e gestão de projetos de tecnologia, ou na gestão da propriedade intelectual e sua relação com os Núcleos de Inovação, ou a participação das fundações na formação de empresas de inovação por meio do processo de incubação de empresas nas Universidades Federais. Foi o Tribunal de Contas da União, como órgão de controle do emprego dos recursos públicos, o principal local de debate sobre as controvérsias jurídicas envolvendo a relação entre Fundações de Apoio e Universidades Federais. Em nosso entendimento, o Tribunal na Decisão n.º 655/2002, iniciou um processo de compatibilização entre a atuação das fundações de apoio e o regime de direito público, ao definir as fundações de apoio ligadas à projetos de desenvolvimento e transferência de tecnologia das Universidades Federais como organizações de intermediação, contudo, retrocedeu no Acórdão n.º 2.731/2008, ao definir de forma ampla o conceito de recurso público e recomendar aos Ministérios da Educação e da Ciência e Tecnologia que proibissem os repasses diretos de recursos de Agências de Fomento à Fundações de Apoio no âmbito federal. O caso da FAI é paradigmático, pois não apenas é um caso que reforça a nossa avaliação de que é possível haver compatibilidade entre o regime de direito público e a atuação das fundações apoio, como sinaliza para soluções de desenho institucional relevantes para a reflexão sobre a regulação das fundações de apoio no âmbito federal. A FAI como uma fundação voltada para a Universidade Federal de São Carlos é capaz de cumprir com as potencialidades de uma fundação almeja contribuir para o desenvolvimento tecnológico de Universidades Públicas Federais, uma vez que funciona como um “outro eu” da UFSCAR, um duplo positivo, executando atividades que se fossem feitas pela Universidade não teriam a mesma agilidade ou até não seriam realizadas.

Understanding e-government technology transfer: evidence from the transfer of a patent management system from EPO to INPI

Drawing upon Brazilian experience, this research explores some of the key issues to be addressed in using e-government technical cooperation designed to enhance service provision of Patent Offices in developing countries. While the development of software applications is often seen merely as a technical engineering exercise, localization and adaptation are context bounded matters that are characterized by many entanglements of human and non-humans. In this work, technical, legal and policy implications of technical cooperation are also discussed in a complex and dynamic implementation environment characterized by the influence of powerful hidden agendas associated with the arena of intellectual property (IP), which are shaped by recent technological, economic and social developments in our current knowledge-based economy. This research employs two different theoretical lenses to examine the same case, which consists of transfer of a Patent Management System (PMS) from the European Patent Office (EPO) to the Brazilian Patent Office that is locally named ‘Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial’ (INPI). Fundamentally, we have opted for a multi-paper thesis comprising an introduction, three scientific articles and a concluding chapter that discusses and compares the insights obtained from each article. The first article is dedicated to present an extensive literature review on e-government and technology transfer. This review allowed the proposition on an integrative meta-model of e-government technology transfer, which is named E-government Transfer Model (ETM). Subsequently, in the second article, we present Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a framework for understanding the processes of transferring e-government technologies from Patent Offices in developed countries to Patent Offices in developing countries. Overall, ANT is seen as having a potentially wide area of application and being a promising theoretical vehicle in IS research to carry out a social analysis of messy and heterogeneous processes that drive technical change. Drawing particularly on the works of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and John Law, this work applies this theory to a longitudinal study of the management information systems supporting the Brazilian Patent Office restructuration plan that involved the implementation of a European Patent Management System in Brazil. Based upon the ANT elements, we follow the actors to identify and understand patterns of group formation associated with the technical cooperation between the Brazilian Patent Office (INPI) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Therefore, this research explores the intricate relationships and interactions between human and non-human actors in their attempts to construct various network alliances, thereby demonstrating that technologies embodies compromise. Finally, the third article applies ETM model as a heuristic frame to examine the same case previously studied from an ANT perspective. We have found evidence that ETM has strong heuristic qualities that can guide practitioners who are engaged in the transfer of e-government systems from developed to developing countries. The successful implementation of e-government projects in developing countries is important to stimulate economic growth and, as a result, we need to understand the processes through which such projects are being implemented and succeed. Here, we attempt to improve understanding on the development and stabilization of a complex social-technical system in the arena of intellectual property. Our preliminary findings suggest that e-government technology transfer is an inherently political process and that successful outcomes require continuous incremental actions and improvisations to address the ongoing issues as they emerge.