Richard Stallman and Copyright

Richard Stallman speaking in Belgium.  I chose this picture because he was wearing a similar red t-shirt in Levin - no evidence of the Pepsi though!
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and free software activist, spoke in Levin, on 7th October 2009. He is also a keynote speaker at the LIANZA Conference being held in Christchurch this week.


He spoke for almost two hours and in spite of the seats in the Salvation Army Complex becoming harder and harder, he kept audience attention throughout. He is also an outspoken advocate for copyright reform and his Levin lecture was directed towards copyright and its impacts.

He states his Four Software Freedoms as follows:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour (freedom 2).

• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this

but in this talk they were expressed as

Freedom 0: being able to use a work – to read it

Freedom 1: to study the work and change it

Freedom 2: to being to lend or give away a copy to friends

Freedom 3: to change the work and give away/lend the changed work

Because we use a wide variety of media in trade libraries and information services, the idea of DRM or ‘Digital Restrictions Management’ also expressed as ‘digital handcuffs is very relevant. DRM takes away our freedoms and in our context may prevent us from making copies from e-books, watching some DVDs except on certain types of technology and from giving away material to other people within international trade.

Although he was obviously preaching the movement’s message, he did put forward some ideas as to how copyright laws could be changed – by changing the period from 50 years to 10 years, and distinguishing different kinds of works based on their contribution to society. In particular ‘works that tell what people think’ category would allow non-commercial sharing of exact copies – this would cover our situation in trade libraries.

I came away thinking about the way we use the © symbol to protect works which we produce in our companies – should we encouraging usage and development with statements like: Please feel free to use this material with an acknowledgement to...

Some of his pithier statements:

Analog holes = eyes

Amazon’s Kindle = the Swindle

Home cooks are kitchen pirates and break all the copyright laws

To attack sharing is to attack society

A TraLIS? What's that?

Diagram: Graeme Siddle. Click to enlarge.

It is a library and information service which serves the needs of people who work at all levels of international trade. This is what it looks like diagrammatically. It may be located in a company, a government organisation or an educational institution.
Central to its success is a person with qualifications and experience in librarianship or information and knowledge management. A trade library and information service staffed by a suitably qualified and expereinced person is able to match a person's information need with appropriate resources in the format that delivers the best result. This may be a book, image or academic peer-reveiwed journal in electronic format.
A TraLIS ideally would include an information portal which presents gateways to evaluated sources of trade information, but a website or information portal alone is not a TraLIS.
It would also include a catalogue which recorded available resources particularly but not exclusively in digital formats. The catalogue software used would make it possible for the TraLIS manager to fully exploit information sources with subject headings, tags and analytical entries. www.ets.kohalibrary.com/ - the New Zealand School of Export Library catalogue using Koha software is an example of how this can be done.
A Trade Library Information Service would also be embedded within an organisation which includes experts such as practitioners in all aspects of international trade, or teaching staff and adjunct faculty. They are living information sources which the enquirer can tap into through links made by the TraLIS manager.

Can you add or expand, critique this explanation?

Looking for Other Trade Blogs

http://fita.org/webindex/browse.cgi/Entering_International_Markets/International_Trade_Blogs_Podcasts_and_Forums

This is a link to the blogs which are listed on the FITA site - most are very specific to trade leads and making links between products and buyers. However it is interesting to see what is happening and the kind of talk going on. The TraLIS blog with its emphasis on the information aspects of international trade seems to be unique. It would be good to be proved wrong.....

Graeme

Kowhai and Repositories

Kowhai at Aokautere Park September 17,2008. Photo taken by Graeme Siddle.

In line with the natural theme which this blog has developed, I wanted to put up a picture of kowhai. This is a photo of flowers on a kowhai in the grounds of Aokautere Park flowering at the moment, but there is also a larger tree in the bush remnant across Staces Road from the School. I don't have a particular connection between kowhai and repositories except that I guess kowhai is a repository of plant dna particular to this place.

I discovered this blog this morning and repositories are a tool which the Director has raised with me. John Mark Ockerbloom says:

At the same time, though, you can't plan the development of a library without thinking about its repositories. Repositories really are essential infrastructure for libraries but not simply as a place to "capture and preserve the intellectual output of university communities" (as a 2002 SPARC white paper put it), or, more pessimistically, as "a place where you dump stuff and then nothing happens to it" (as a 2005 JISC workshop annex put it).

Repositories: what they are, and what we use them for John Mark Ockerbloom post June 26, 2008.

The issue of repositories raises the issue not only of what do we do with the intellectual output of the New Zealand School of Export, but also of what is happening to the particular intellectual output in New Zealand which is related to international trade. Is this just for the National Library of New Zealand to look after, or an institution such as ours?

Graeme

Swedish Vice Minister for Trade opens IATTO Forum in Stockholm

Gunnar Wieslander, the Swedish Vice Minister for Trade who gave the opening address at the 34th IATTO Forum in Stockholm, recognised the importance of people and the knowledge they have and can use. He said 'One under-utilised resource in this context is Swedish entrepreneurs of foreign origin who have contacts and unique knowledge of the business culture, politics, religion and language in th countries where they previously lived. The Government is committing itself to making better use of the expertise of Swedes of foreign origin...'

His full paper can be accessed at http://www.export.ac.nz/news.html and was delivered last week.

Graeme

Other Kinds of Information

The photo right, shows in the middle the small peak called Ahu-a-Turanga. This peak is located on the Ruahine Range between the Manawatu Gorge and the Saddle Road. For those who know, this is the burial place of Turanga and therefore became a place of religious and symbolic significance to the Rangitane people who lived on both sides of the range. A pathway between east and west crossed the range at this point, perhaps used by Maori trading food, and when travellers reached this peak they recited prayers for a safe journey.

Landscape, physical and geographical features are often carriers of information as much as books, CD-ROMs, and files.

Photo taken from Staces Road, Aokautere, 26 March 2008 by Graeme Siddle.

Libraries in the 21st century

In 2005 OCLC published a report to its members entitled Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. Many of the surveyed respondents were speaking of their public libraries. However there is much in the report that is important for specialised library services. On the final page the authors write:

"Libraries will continue to share an expanding infosphere with an increasing number of content producers, providers and consumers. Information consumers will continue to self-serve from a growing information smorgasbord. The challenge for libraries is to clearly define and market their relevant place in that infosphere - their services and collections both physical and virtual.

It is time to rejuvenate the "Library" brand."

Graeme