Dean Johannes Britz to Lead First Pan-African Conference in Information Ethics

Dean Johannes Britz of the School of Information Studies of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee has a leadership role in the first ever Pan-African conference of its kind, the African Information Ethics Conference: Ethical Challenges in the Information Age. Co-initiated by Dean Britz and Rafael Capurro from the International Center for Information Ethics and sponsored by the South African Government and UNESCO, it represents the combined efforts of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee School of Information Studies, the University of Pretoria, and the International Center for Information Ethics.

It will be held February 5-7, 2007 in Pretoria with more than 60 participants from several African and European countries and the United States. There will be opening addresses by prominent political figures, including the Secretary General of UNESCO. Dean Britz, originally from South Africa and Dean of the School of Information Studies since 2005, is an ethicist and will be one of the theme keynote speakers with his lecture, “The Challenges of African Information Ethics.”

With a major emphasis on a continuing discussion of a proposed UNESCO Code of Ethics and its implications for minority groups, different age groups, gender, economics, and socio-cultural issues, the conference is organized around twelve themes in three broad topical areas:

TOPIC 1: Foundations of African Information Ethics

• Theme 1: Respect for human dignity - information based rights
• Theme 2: Freedom of expression, Freedom of access to information
• Theme 3: Freedom of access to information (IP legislation, open-access movement, TRIPS)
• Theme 4: Information wrongdoings, information corruption, information injustice
  

TOPIC 2: Cultural diversity and globalization

• Theme 5: Protection and promotion of indigenous knowledge
• Theme 6: Global security, human security, privacy, transparency
• Theme 7: E-Government and related topics
• Theme 8: Cultural diversity and development

TOPIC 3: Development, poverty and ICT

• Theme 9: Using ICT for a better life in Africa: case studies
• Theme 10: Internet and exclusion (socio-political and economic exclusion)
• Theme 11: North-South flow of information and information imperialism
• Theme 12: Brain draining in Africa
  

For more information, please see the conference website: http://www.africainfoethics.org/index.html