The International ACM Conference on Management of Emergent Digital EcoSystems (MEDES 2009) is accepting paper submissions. Among the topics covered are Security & Privacy, Open Source, and Digital Libraries. Here for more info about the requirements. Hurry! Papers are due by June 15.
Rutgers University’s legal clinic is in the throes of a legal debate concerning New Jersey’s open-records law. The debate, sparked by a developers demand for disclosure of client information, brings to light questions of transparency, privacy, and the potential diminished legal experience for both clients and student workers.
The reauthorized Higher Education Act requires accountability for the processes by which online students’ identities are confirmed. Educators had feared the language of the recently reworked act would require costly investments in technology that would verify that students were indeed taking their own tests. For the time being, the proposed regulations do not require anything further than secure log-in and password, an official from the U.S. Education Department said.
Google commits to launching ebook program by the end of 2009.
Opportunity Online provided a forum for discussion regarding the nation’s spotty broadband and how this affects access to information
Inaccessibility to details of the inner workings of certain universities’ college sports programs has prompted former U.S. Senator James L. Buckley calls for a revamping of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The call is in large part influenced by these programs liberal interpretation of FERPA, which according to The Columbus Dispatch, allows for the extension of privacy “to athletes who have gambled, accepted payoffs, cheated, cashed in on their notoriety, and even sexually abused others. It is extended to coaches who have broken recruiting rules or committed academic fraud at a time when the average salary for a head football coach is more than $1 million a year [...]”
- compiled by X. Avalos