Thoughts about copyright

Two events have triggered my expression of thoughts in this blog post. One is a dream that I had about sharing an article on Facebook and finding out that they suspended my account indefinitely as a result of what they called "copyright infringements". The next event was news circulated within my Jamaican library community about the bill before Parliament to extend copyright from fifty to ninety-five years. (I don't know which one is more irritating, although, I figure that the dream came in response to the news).

Let me begin with the dream or the unreal event or what narratology scholar Georgokapoulou (2010) calls the hypothetical story. In the dream, I shared content from a news report on Facebook with quotations and my commentary. A friend reacted to the article and wrote a response. Then my wife was about to write a response, when all of a sudden she said she did not see my online profile any more. That was when I discovered on my attempt to login that Facebook "suspended" my account "indefinitely" for sharing content from the Associated Press that amounted to "copyright infringement". I felt that there was no means to appeal and that I was not warned before they took this action. I further reasoned that an algorithm had done this, as any human being would have seen that I shared only a portion of the text in quotes and added my own commentary to it.

This leads into my next issue, the pending amendments to the Jamaican Copyright Act. I have not completely studied the act but have merely examined at it to confirm what my library colleagues have been discussing. The chief of peeves is this extension of copyright beyond 50 years to 95 years after the death of the author (See section 11-13a of "A bill entitled An Act ", p. 11). This to me is wholly unjust and unwarranted and I hope to advance three reasons why.

1. Unmeritocratic
Giving copyright extension after an author's death does not benefit the author. It likely benefits the family of the author, the publisher or any other entity (individual or institution) that possesses the copyright. As a result, what this act enables is amounting to creating a new privileged class that do not work to earn their wealth but lives off the wealth and royalties of a dead person. This is unmeritocratic and is as just as having a monarchy or landed aristocracy.  In other words, copyright after a author's death is giving rights to individuals and institutions to exploit a dead person's labour and live a life of privilege from such past intellectual labours. At the same time, these privileged individuals and institutions who have not done the intellectual labour to earn from the intellectual work are given the right to restrict others who want to benefit from the same work.

2. Treats intellectual property as superior to physical products
Similar intellectual property like patents last for 25 years (or definitely less than copyright). Yet, patents lead to the creation of more tangible, useful and beneficial products for humanity. Why is it that copyrighted works need to be longer than a patent?

This is especially questionable as popular culture changes and information gets outdated. Hence, I see no reason why copyright should last any longer than patents where a physical product created can be improved and changed for the better over time.

3. A justification for censorship and an unfair monopoly over ideas
Now for this reason, I include the analysis or the example in my dream. For me, copyright amounts to restricting persons or institutions from distributing a work. This is okay while the author is alive, and perhaps even okay for a few years after the author's death in order for family members of the decease to gain some financial support after they have buried their loved one. However, to restrict the distribution of a work for almost a century after the author's death can in no way be seen as a credible way of supporting the family of the author, but as creating an unfair barrier of entry for others to share and distribute the author's work. It forces a monopoly over the author's intellectual property by a few. This is contrary to a free market logic and to a democratic ideal where individuals and institutions are free to exchange and share information and ideas unrestricted by the state.

Given these reasons, I oppose any copyright limit extension. In my opinion, after an author's death, no one individual or institution should be given any right to benefit from the work of the dead author and monopolize the distribution of their ideas for any amount of time over 25 years.

References

"A bill entitled An Act to ammend the copyright act" (2015, April 2). Retrieved from http://www.japarliament.gov.jm/attachments/339_The%20Copyright%20%28Amendment%29%20Act,%202015.pdf

Georgakopoulou, A. (2010). Reflection and self-disclosure from the small stories perspective: A study of identity claims in interview and conversational data. In D. Schiffrin, A. De Fina, & A. Nylund (Eds.), Telling stories: Language, narratiev and social life. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Caribbean libraries as facilitators in the governance process

This post is based on my own local experience, from which I draw lessons for libraries, but mainly for libraries in developing countries. This post attempts to address 2 questions:

1. How national libraries can demonstrate their value nationally and in a relevant way to a nation's governance process especially in informing and educating citizens about national issues?
2. How national and public libraries can use Facebook and other social media to engage their citizens in education on national issues?

Recently in Jamaica, there has been a debate about a proposal regarding the development of some islands belonging to the state (If you are interested in this subject see the news reports from Jamaica Gleaner on the subject). Since most of the information that I have been getting on the islands was from the mass media, I began to think it would be nice for me to see pictures of the islands under discussion, the Goat islands, that were not filtered by the mass media. Unfortunately, I was unable to access adequate images of the islands involved using Google Search, Pinterest or even Flickr. Unlike other parts of Jamaica, the Great and Little Goat islands are not well known sites and do not seem to be very well documented via photographs. Even the Wikipedia entry on the subjects at the writing of this post reveals very little information (See entry for Great and Little Goat island). This is where I began to wish for my public library and national library to step into the national dialogue.

I imagined that if my libraries (public or National) would post on Facebook or other social media (blogs, Flickr, Twitter) pictures and information sources (or quotes from them) in order to help people be better educated about these islands, this would be very useful in helping the nation be more informed to participate in the debate. So on August 28, 2013, I inquired of  National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) on its Facebook page if the NLJ could post a photo of the islands with accompanying information. On the 29th of August 2013, the NLJ obliged me by posting this photograph of a map of the goat islands on its Facebook page as well as a historical fact. But it did not stop there. By September 1, 2013, the Jamaica Observer, one Jamaica's leading printing press published some historical facts compiled by the NLJ in the article "The legend of Goat Islands". Then on September 3, 2013 the National Library posted on its Facebook page a current photograph from the Jamaica Gleaner along with another historical fact.


The event narrated here is an important illustration of how Caribbean national and public libraries can play a role of providing neutral and historical information for democracy and in the interest of the public to inform the national debate. Already, just glimpsing at the Facebook page comments on the photos shared by NLJ, I see many Jamaicans conducting information seeking, asking other questions as well as attempting to process the value of the islands. This is a clear example of what Benjamin Franklin stated about libraries in his autobiography:

libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges. (Nix, 2012).

Only that this time, substitute "Americans" with "Jamaicans" and "colonies" with "nation". Another aspect to this, is the use of social media by libraries to engage citizens and provide this information to the public as well as facilitate this conversation in this social virtual information space.


Reference:

Nix, L. T. (2012). The Library Company of Philadelphia. The Library History Buff. Retrieved from http://www.libraryhistorybuff.com/librarycompany.htm

The legend of Goat Islands (2013, Sep 1). Jamaica Observer. Retrieved from http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/search/the-legend-of-goat-islands_14970538

Jamaica's contribution to LIS scholarship: A distant memory

Last week when I browsed the Annual Reviews of Information Science and Technology, I realised that in the  index/indices of the early volumes, I could find Jamaica. As I moved to the more current volumes, Jamaica disappeared from the indices/indexes. Our glory days in LIS have faded and are now a distant memory.

I remember the story told to me by a retired librarian that in the early days of librarianship in Jamaica, Jamaican librarians were well respected in the international LIS community. We were the first nation to host and plan the International Association of School Librarian conference, as well as supplied one of its President and founding officer, Amy Robertson. In addition, when we went to international conferences, the retired librarian told me, and persons heard Jamaica, all Jamaican librarians could stand tall, as everyone greeted us with respect and admiration.

I further remember a Jamaican student on the exchange program with a Canadian university, telling me that her professors asked her what has happened to Jamaica's scholarship in the field of LIS. The student told me that they had high expectations for the nation's LIS scholarship and has been wondering what has taken place to slow our productivity and influence to date.

Also of mention is Jamaican-born librarian, Dorothy Collings, who contributed to the development of the field of comparative librarianship. Collins suggested that North American librarianship training is not sufficient for tackling the problems and situations of global librarianship (Jackson, 2001). As a result of her own experiences and background, Collings drafted and developed courses on Comparative Librarianship and later became an authority on the matter (Jackson, 2001). Collings’ contribution to the development of the concept of comparative librarianship is cited in a number of studies (Jackson 2001, Bliss, 1993; Lor, 2008).

I ponder now that there is great work to be done in the Caribbean region, but am mindful about how governments are cutting funding to libraries and other information institutions. In short, I see need for a renaissance in LIS.

References:

Bliss, N. J. (1993). The emergence of international librarianship as a field. Libri, 43(1), 39–52. DOI: 10.1515/libr.1993.43.1.39, //1993 Published Online: 19/10/2009

Jackson, W. V. (2001). “The Pioneers: Dorothy G. Collings (1911-1991).” World Libraries, 11(1 & 2), Retrieved from http://www.worlib.org/vol11no1-2/jackson_v11n1-2.shtml

Lor, P. J. (2008). Critical reflections on international librarianship. Mousaion, 26(1), 1-15.

Trickster folkloric characters and my evolving thesis idea

I read an excerpt that I find interesting especially as I consider folkloric characters such as Anansi, Sly Mongoose and Doctorbird as possible options for the AI conversational agent.

"Trickster has particular purposes within cultural stories as educator and teacher. The trickster typically teaches by making mistakes so listeners can hear the stories and learn from the mistakes so they do not have to make them themselves. Trickster typically has some human and some superhuman characteristics and possibly some animal characteristics as well that allow him to get into situations that otherwise would not be possible thus allowing stories to consider complex cultural, emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual domains." (Iseke-Barnes 2009)

Interesting ideas. I never saw it that way. I saw Anasi stories as teaching us the qualities of deception and deceiving other people which I felt ingrained corruption and 'conmanship' in the African diaspora.

My discovery that Native Canadians (or the Indigenous people of Canada) also have trickster stories also makes my thesis idea more relevant to not only Jamaica, but to Canada as well. Hopefully I can establish that AI conversational agents based on one's cultural stories may be effective in the online world in transferring knowledge and information, and in helping people make sense of their activities or world.



Reference:

Iseke-Barnes, J. (2009). Unsettling fictions: Disrupting popular discourses and trickster tales in books for children. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies,

Applying Linguistics to Library and Information Studies

By doing the course: Language technologies for Libraries and Beyond at my university got me interested in Linguistics and what it has to offer in libraries and information studies. I will basically summarise my thoughts based on what I have been exposed to in my course.

The area of applied linguistics and natural language computing is a relatively new area for library and information science (more so for information science than libraries). However there are a number of natural language processing applications that are useful to libraries including information extraction, automatic summarisation, computer assisted language learning, speech recognition, question answering systems and dialogue systems. So applied linguistics, and in particular, the computing of language is definitely an area that could be considered as an attractive course.

Applied linguistics could also be used in examining library service (reference query) transactions, plus studying problems of how language impedes or facilitates access to information. Development of ontologies is another area of relevance to libraries and to information science in particular.

Regarding my thesis idea, I Wanted to explore as my thesis the idea of using a Folkloric artificial intelligent conversational agent to provide business/government information to micro-enterprise owners. Still immature but I am trying to talk with potential advisers to help me refine it. The folkloric character - Anansi - and perhaps other Jamaican characters like Sly Mongoose, Doctorbird, Patoo Owl are some of the characters that I am considering using.

Regarding the artificial intelligent conversational agent, I am just using existing systems that attempt to simulate conversation with people, by pattern matching algorithms and extracting output responses from pre-populated databases of rules and responses.There are two systems that allow one to  freely develop a computer-based agent that simulates dialogue with human beings: http://site.mycybertwin.com/ and http://www.pandorabots.com/botmaster/en/~182d3afe91fba45b3cc71bda~/home.

I want to use such agents to provide information, perhaps providing a new way to access government documents through natural language query, that will reduce the hassle of interacting with unpleasant civil servants, using phone lines or waiting for response to emails. Not to mention the other issues with locating relevant documents or information within the documents.

Why business information services for the National Library of Jamaica?

The recent National Library of Jamaica Act 2010, specifies that in carrying out its function it must:

I note specifically, the idea of economic development, which comes about when Jamaican can produce goods and services for sale. This idea also takes into consideration the need for job or employment creation. It is further noted that entrepreneurship is responsible for the creation of jobs and employment opportunities. hence it is impossible to have economic development if entrepreneurship is not harnessed and businesses not developed. As such, it is one of the paramount priority that a business information service be delivered for Jamaica's economic development, and it is thereby the mandate of the National Library of Jamaica to provide this.

In another post, I hope to take this argument further.

Work cited:

National Library of Jamaica Act. Act 33 of 2010. 31 Dec. 2010. JAMLIN Jamaica Libraries & Information Network. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://www.nlj.gov.jm/jamlin/341_The%20National%20Library%20of%20Jamaica%20Act,%202010.pdf>