Johannes Britz, Dean of SOIS, participated in a number of Information Studies related conferences this summer. At the annual ALA conference in New Orleans, Dr. Britz was involved in a session dealing with international education in the field of Library and Information Science. At the SCECSAL (Standing Conference of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa Library and Information Associations) conference in Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania, he presented together with Peter Lor and Jacques Du Plessis a paper on African libraries. The paper, entitled From Food Silos to Community Kitchens – Retooling African Libraries, was published in the conference proceedings. Dr. Britz also attended the IFLA meeting in Korea where he served on a sub-committee on education in the developing world. This theme will occupy a central position at IFLA’s meeting next year. Moreover, Dr. Britz gave a guest lecture to the study abroad students about international education in the field of library and information science. Finally, Dr. Britz and Dr. Wooseob Jeong (also of SOIS) met officially with representatives of the Department of Library and Information Science, with whom they explored the possibility of future research and educational collaborations.
Dean Britz: Recent Research Activities
Articles accepted for publication:
Britz, J.J., P. Lor and J. Du Plessis, 2006. “’From Food Silos to Community Kitchens’ – Retooling African Libraries.” Librarianship as a Bridge to an Information and Knowledge Society in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa: Proceedings of SCECSAL XVII, Dar-es Salaam, 10-14 July, 2006.
In this article reasons are explored why the Western library system does not adequately address Africa’s vision for a library, and why it does not meet the local needs for information. With a particular focus on the AIDS pandemic, the role and mission of libraries are revisited as a customized tool that is culturally localized to effectively participate as a proactive disseminator of information, specifically to support the three key public health objectives regarding HIV/AIDS, namely, to have people tested for the virus, to inform those infected about their best options to sustain life, and to improve the efforts to prevent the spread of HIV. A progressive Africanized vision of the role of libraries is proposed – to retool libraries from their current passive roles as the guardians of books, to active, live, and customized disseminators of culturally appropriate information.
Britz, J.J. and P.J. Lor 2006. “Is a Knowledge Society Possible Without Freedom of Access to Information?” Journal of Information Science.
The authors address the issue of governments trying to control in an authoritarian manner access to the Internet. They ask whether an Information Society, and, more critically, a Knowledge Society, can develop in the absence of freedom of access to information, freedom of expression, and freedom to access the digital economy. Against this broad background the authors put forward four pillars of a Knowledge Society: (a) ICTs and connectivity, (b) content and the usability thereof, (c) infrastructure other than ICTs, and (d) human capacity. The authors evaluate the effect of authoritarian governmental control of access and content on each of them. Arguing from an ethical and social justice perspective, they conclude that a more multi-dimensional Knowledge Society cannot develop under such circumstances. Purely pragmatic arguments lead to the same conclusion.
Ollinger, H.N., J.J. Britz and M.S. Olivier 2006. “Western Privacy and/or Ubuntu? Some Critical Comments on the Influences in the Forthcoming Data Privacy Bill in South Africa.” International Information and Library Review.
There is worldwide concern regarding the increasing potential threats to the personal privacy of individuals caused by technologies and governments. In South Africa, the government has responded by designating the South African Law Commission to draft a comprehensive formal privacy legislation to enforce fair data protection principles. The prime influences acting upon the new Data Privacy Bill are the mandate in the Constitution, the EU Data Protection Directive and the Ubuntu worldview. Ubuntu can be described as a community-based mindset in which the welfare of the group is greater than the welfare of a single individual in the group. The authors of this article argue that the influence of Ubunty will be seen in the future Data Privacy Act. However, the EU Data Protection Directive’s influence will be pre-eminent.
Du Plessis, J., J.J. Britz and R. Davel 2006. “Slave or Sibling: A Moral Reframing of the Corporate Knowledge Sharing Community.” South African Journal of Information Management.
Articles under review:Britz, J.J., P.J. Lor and TJD Bothma 2006. “Building Library Leadership in Africa: A proposed Education Initiative.” International Information and Library Review.
This article deals with a proposed initiative to train library managers on the African continent. It is agued that such an education initiative will contribute to the socio-economic development of Africa. Issues addressed in the article include the following: the background to and rational for this initiative; justification for the University of Pretoria as the degree-issuing institution; the delivery mode; outline of the proposed curriculum and expected outcomes of this initiative.
Article submitted:
Venter, S.L., M.S. Olivier and J.J. Britz 2006. “Towards a Model of Responsibility for Proactive Systems.” South African Journal of Information Management.
Computer systems that can act autonomously and adapt to their environments pose questions of responsibility needing to be addressed in practice. Designers cannot fully control their learning systems, and design proactive systems not to be controlled except on a very superficial level. This leads to a "responsibility gap" between what one can hold the designer responsible for and what not. This paper discusses the responsibility gap and argues that it is an inevitable result of autonomous systems. We suggest a model of prospective and retrospective responsibility that applies to proactive systems. This model allows one to shift retrospective responsibility for harm caused by factors outside the programmer’s control to the guilty party or to the proactive system itself.
Accepted conference presentations:Lor, P. and J.J. Britz. “Challenges of the approaching Knowledge Society: Major international issues facing library and information professionals.” Prolissa Conference, Pretoria, South Africa, November, 2006.
First the authors define the term Knowledge Society in opposition to the term Information Society. Then they outline the issues that present challenges to a Knowledge Society. Key characteristics of a Knowledge Society are: 1) ICT infrastructure, (2) content, (3) human capacity, and (4) physical delivery infrastructure. They suggest that the concept of a Knowledge Society is a metaphor that implies a qualitative and value-laden difference rather than quantitative difference from an Information Society. Challenges are presented by the “digital divide,” ethical principles such as freedom, equity and inclusion, the process of disintermediation leading to the elimination of information specialists, and the future of the library as a physical space. The authors maintain that the international LIS community’s capacity for advocacy is limited. IFLA, however, is in the process of consolidating its advocacy work and networking in order to mobilize the resources of its membership.Submitted conference presentations:Ponelis, R.S. and J.J. Britz 2006. “Are Intellectual Property Rights the Answer to Combat Piracy in the Music Industry?” ETHICOMP Conference 2007.
The paper addresses piracy in the music industry. First, a broad introduction to the problem will be discussed, namely how music companies have skewed the balance between the creators and consumers of music and as a result given rise to them being circumvented by means of ever-improving ICTs, to their own and the creators’ financial detriment. Second, the underlying ethical approaches of the stakeholders will be critically examined. Last, having critically examined the underlying ethical approaches giving rise to the situation potential means of resolving this standoff in a fair manner are discussed.
