Dominican University
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
LIS 755: Information Policy
Three credit hours
Spring semester 2007
Thursday, January 11, 18, 25; February 1, 8, 15, 22; March 1, 15, 22, 29; April 12, 19, 26; May 3; 6-9 PM
Instructor:
Edward Valauskas, Crown 313, Office hours 4-6 PM, Thursdays
E-mail:
ejv@dom.edu
An overview of
information policy issues, both intra- and inter-organizational. One major
cluster of topics covered includes the role, the organization, and the effect,
particularly as it concerns productivity, of information services within the
organization. A second major cluster concerns the policy issues relating to
inter-organizational creation and use of information, including economic,
legal, and social issues, and broad policy concerns such as trans-border data
flow and national information policies.
There
are no required textbooks for this class. Readings for each week will be
provided in class. In addition, Internet-based resources will be used in this
course. These resources are identified in the syllabus by specific URLs.
This
course prepares students to take a leadership role in developing information
policies in the public policy arena and in organizations. At the end of the course, students will be
able to:
• Understand the importance of information flow in governments and
organizations, at all levels;
• Consider the issue of "values" in an organization or
in a government and how those values are reflected through information
policies;
• Understand the power and responsibility of information control;
• Understand emerging issues in society and how they relate to
information policy theory and practice; and,
• Identify organizational issues involving information policy and
problem-solving approaches.
Evaluation
All
students are expected to participate in discussions during class meetings, and
complete all readings as a basis for discussion. These discussions, along with
assignments and a project (due at the end of the semester), will be used as the
basis for evaluation.
Assignments: Four assignments will be made
in the course of the course of the semester, related to issues of privacy,
intellectual property, freedom of expression, and the notion of a “commons”.
Each assignment is worth a total of 25 points, so all four assignments in the
course of the semester are worth 100 points or 50% of the total grade for the
course.
Total
available points per assignment= 25 points
Total
number of assignments =4, total available points for all assignments=100.
Project: Due May 3: You have been
appointed by the White House to be the new Secretary of Information. This
position is a new post in the Cabinet, and you will determine information
policy on a national scale. The Senate is quite interested in your opinions and
will hold hearings shortly. Prepare a document, no longer than ten pages
(double-spaced), for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, describing your
views on a national information policy and the challenges facing this new post,
Secretary of Information. This project is worth 80 points, or 40% of your total
grade for the course.
Total
available points for Project = 80 points
In-Class
Discussion:
During formal class sessions, there will be ample opportunity for students to
ask and answer questions and to participate in discussions on a variety of
issues. Your participation in class is worth 20 points, or 10% of your total
grade for the course.
Total
points available for In-Class Discussion = 20 points
No optional assignments are
available.
Syllabus
Thursday, January 11: What is information policy? What is
information ethics? How do personal information policies relate to
organizational, national, and international policies?
Readings:
E.S. Overman and A.G. Cahill, 1990. “Information policy: A study of values in
the policy process,” Policy Studies
Review, volume 9, number 4, pp. 803-818.
Hans
Christian von Baeyer, 2004. Information:
The new language of science. C Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
pp. 3-10.
Renee
Marlin-Bennett, 2004. Knowledge power:
Intellectual property, information & privacy. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne
Rienner, pp. 97-123.
Thursday, January 18: The
notion of a “commons.”
Readings:
Garrett Hardin, 1968. “The tragedy of the commons,” Science, volume 162, pp. 1243-1248.
Elinor
Ostrom, Joanna Burger, Christopher B. Field, Richard B. Norgaard, and David
Policansky, 1999. “Revisiting the commons: Local lessons, global challenges,” Science, volume 284, pp. 278-282.
National
Research Council. Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, 2002. The drama of the commons. Washington,
D.C., National Academy Press, pp. 3-35 (available at the National Academies
Press Web site at http://www.nap.edu/).
Thursday, January
25: Notions of “values” and “commons”:
Overgrazing, free riding, and control. Guest lecturer: Charles C. Valauskas,
J.D., LL.M., partner, Valauskas & Pine
Readings:
Internet Freedom Preservation Act, introduced by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)
and Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) on January 9, 2007.
John Eggerton,
2007. “Dorgan, Snowe Introduce Net Neutrality Bill,” at
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6405757.html
Eytan
Adar and Bernardo A. Huberman, 2000. “Free riding on Gnutella,” First Monday, volume 5, at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_10/adar/
Assignment no. 1: Is there a developing “tragedy
of the information commons”? Or is it simply a problem that the “commons”
doesn’t have a decent business plan? Read the following papers:
Andy Oram, 2005.
“The commons doesn’t have a business plan,” at
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/07/28/commons.html
Harlan
J. Onsrud, 1998. “The tragedy of the information commons,” at
http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~onsrud/pubs/tragedy42.pdf.
Comment
on these papers in no more than five, double-spaced pages, presenting possible
solutions to a potential tragic end to the “information commons.”
This
assignment is due Thursday, February 1 no later than 6 PM. Send your assignment
as an attachment to an e-mail message to ejv@dom.edu
Thursday, February
1: What is
privacy? Is “privacy” specifically defined? What are the relations of privacy
to information policies?
Readings:
Jacob G. Hornberger, 2005. “The Bill of Rights: Unenumerated Rights,” at
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0504a.asp
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), abstract
at http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/149/
Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), opinion
at http://www.justia.us/us/381/479/case.html
Thursday, February
8: Are there different flavors of privacy? Different definitions?
Readings: Christopher Allen, 2004. “Four kinds
of privacy,” at http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/04/four_kinds_of_p.html
Roger
Clarke, 2005. “Introduction to Dataveillance and Information Privacy, and
Definitions of Terms,” at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/Intro.html
U.S. Department
of Health & Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, “Medical Privacy -
National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information,” at
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
Thursday, February
15: Is
there a future for information privacy?
Willis H. Ware,
2004. “Contemporary privacy issues,” at
http://www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/resources/research/comp_and_priv/ware/intro.html
and subsequent parts of this document through Section 15. The Future of
Privacy.
Gilmore v. Gonzales, at
http://www.papersplease.org/gilmore/index.html
EPIC v. Department of Homeland
Security, et al.,
at http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/passengerdata/
This assignment
is due Thursday, February 22 no later than 6 PM. Send your assignment as an
attachment to an e-mail message to ejv@dom.edu
Thursday, February
22:
Historical origins of copyright.
Readings: L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W.
Lindberg. The Nature of Copyright: A Law
of Users’ Rights. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991, pp. 19-46.
Thursday, March 1: An introduction to intellectual property. Guest lecturer: Charles C. Valauskas, J.D., LL.M., partner,
Valauskas & Pine
Readings:
Laurence R. Hefter and Robert D. Litowitz, 1999. “What is intellectual
property,” http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/intelprp/
World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),“What is Intellectual Property?” at
http://www.wipo.org/freepublications/en/intproperty/450/wipo_pub_450.pdf
“Intellectual
property,” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
Thursday, March
15: Legal
boundaries to copyright and intellectual property: Important U.S. Supreme Court
decisions and their effects.
Readings:
Contrast Sony Corp v. Universal City
Studios (see http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/768/ and
http://www.justia.us/us/464/417/case.html) to MGM Studios v. Grokster (see
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1809/ and
http://www.justia.us/us/545/04-480/case.html)
Also
examine
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (see
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1644/ and http://www.justia.us/us/510/569/case.html)
or
Feist Publications v. Rural Tel.
Serv. Co. (see
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1643/ and
http://www.justia.us/us/499/340/case.html).
Thursday, March
22: Future
of intellectual property. Guest lecturer, Marland Webb, corporate attorney,
GATX Corporation, Chicago
In
class distribution of “Bound by Law” comic book created by the Center for the
Public Domain, Duke University School of Law; see
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/
Readings:
“Adelphi Charter on creativity, innovation and intellectual property,” at
http://www.ipcharter.org/adelphi_charter_document.asp
“Geneva
Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization,” at
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/futureofwipodeclaration.html
James
Boyle, 2004, “A manifesto on WIPO and the future of intellectual property,” Duke Law & Technology Review, at
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2004dltr0009.html
International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Committee on
Copyright and Other Legal Matters, 2004. “The IFLA position on the Geneva
Declaration on the Future of WIPO,” at
http://www.ifla.org/III/clm/CLM-GenevaDeclaration2004.html
Assignment no. 3: You are the director of a very
large academic research library. You have been approached by Google to
participate in its Google Print Program. A contact has been provided to you,
similar to Google’s contract with the University of Michigan Libraries (see
http://www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/um-google-cooperative-agreement.pdf). You are
meeting with the university’s legal department in a week and have been asked to
draw up an opinion, no less than five pages, on the contract. The university
ultimately is giving you the decision to agree to the contact, or to make
changes, or to not sign it with Google and seek alternatives.
This assignment is
due Thursday, March 29 no later than 6 PM. Send your assignment as an
attachment to an e-mail message to ejv@dom.edu
Thursday, March
29: What do
we mean by freedom of expression? How does it relate to an information policy
for an organization?
Readings:
ACLU, 1997. “Freedom of expression,” at
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/11178pub19970102.html
Indiana
Historical Bureau, 1995. “Freedom of expression in schools,” at http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/publications/clupfe4.html
Kembrew
McLeod, 2003. “Freedom of expressionTM,” at
http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=24_0_1_0_M
American
Library Association, “Notable First Amendment court cases,” at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/firstamendment/courtcases/courtcases.htm
Thursday, April
12:
Internet’s .xxx: Freedom of expression in URLs?
Readings:
Miller v. California, at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_v._California
“ICANN
approves .xxx STLD,” at http://www.icmregistry.com/
Declan
McCullagh, 2005. “Porn-friendly '.xxx' domains approved,” at
http://news.com.com/Porn-friendly+.xxx+domains+approved/2100-1030_3-5728713.html
Assignment
no. 4: You are
Webmaster for a prominent Internet service provider in the Midwest. Your
corporation is deciding if it should add filters to its service as a means to
reduce risks due to pornography. You have been asked by the board of directors
to write a position paper on the issue, no longer than five pages, with
recommendations for action on the matter. Hint: Examine ACLU, 2002. “Fahrenheit
451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?” at
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/speech/15145pub20020317.html; and, Jonathan
Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman, 2003. “Documentation of Internet Filtering
Worldwide,” at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/
This assignment is
due Thursday, April 19 no later than 6 PM. Send your assignment as an
attachment to an e-mail message to ejv@dom.edu
Thursday, April 19: Academic freedom of expression
Readings: Barbara
Bradley Hagerty, 2005. “Intelligent Design and Academic Freedom,” at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5007508
“Statement
from the Council of the Biological Society of Washington” (on the paper by
Stephen C. Meyer), at http://www.biolsocwash.org/
American
Association for Advancement of Science, “AAAS Board Resolution on Intelligent
Design Theory,” at http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml
Thursday, April 26: Academic freedom of expression
II
Readings:
Ralph Blumenthal, 2007. “Faculty at S.M.U. voices concern about Bush library,” New York Times (10 January), p. A16 and
at
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/us/politics/10library.html?ex=1326085200&en=3170689537c4434c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Scott
Jaschik, 2006. “Scholarly Archive or Ideological Center?” at
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/12/18/smu
“Southern
Methodist University President Responds to Bush Library Concerns,” at
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242613,00.html
Thursday, May 3: Presentations of final projects (Senate hearings on Secretary of
Information).