14.0302 children; Getty funding of NINCH Guide; Cyberphil-L

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Date: 10/04/00

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 302.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
    
       [1]   From:    Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-       (340)
                     dortmund.de>
             Subject: Children and the Internet - an experiment by Sugata
                     Mitra et. al.
    
       [2]   From:    "David L. Green" <david@ninch.org>                 (176)
             Subject: Getty Trust Funds NINCH GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICE
    
       [3]   From:    Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-        (91)
                     dortmund.de>
             Subject: About cyberphil-L Listserv - courses in
                     Cyberphilosophy
    
    
    --[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 22:15:57 +0100
             From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
             Subject: Children and the Internet - an experiment by Sugata Mitra 
    et. al.
    
    Dear humanist scholars,
    
    [The impact of Internet on human beings is ever increasing..changing the
    world of humanity. Internet is a mediator in person-to-person communication
    patterns, in consuming, booking and banking transactions, in remote group
    activities including pen-pals chatting, entertainment and game playing,
    problems discussion and solving, numerous sorts of cooperation and/or
    conflict..so from a different perspective, Indian computer scientist and
    educator, Dr. Sugata Mitra tried to put his thoughts into action regarding
    the relationship between Internet and Children. Thank you. Your thoughts
    and ideas are welcome on the below text..Best Wishes..--Arun Tripathi]
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    
    Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 14:17:21 +0530
    From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
    [--]
    
    Children and the Internet: an experiment with minimally invasive education
    in India
    Author : Sugata Mitra and Vivek Rana
    Date added : 1999-07-22
    Country : India
    Region : National
    Regional Scope : South Asia and Pacific
    
    Abstract :
    
    Urban children all over the world seem to acquire computing skills without
    adult intervention. Indeed this form of self-instruction has produced
    hackers - children who can penetrate high tech security systems. Is this
    kind of learning dependent only on the availability of technology?
    
    We provided slum children in New Delhi with Internet access in their
    settlement. The paper describes the results obtained in the first month of
    unsupervised and unguided access. It is observed that children seem to
    understand and use the technology fluently. Language and formal education
    do not seem to make any significant difference.
    
    You can read more about the background of this project in the interview
    held in Kuala Lumpur with Dr. Sugata Mitra
    
    Story :
    
    Introduction
    
    Use of the Internet is spreading rapidly in India, as it is in the rest of
    the world. While the users in India are, almost entirely, restricted to the
    affluent in metropolitan areas, it is more than likely that demand for the
    Internet will eventually arise throughout the entire country. In this
    context, there are many apprehensions from academicians and others that the
    ability to access and the quality of training provided will hinder the
    usage of Internet in the subcontinent.
    
    We think this may not be true and report the results of an experiment in
    Internet and computer usage using a "minimally invasive" (we borrow the
    term from surgery!) approach to learning.
    
    What we observed was both strange and wonderful. It may point to a flaw in
    the present views of education that are used for the design of almost all
    forms of instructional materials and systems.
    
    Background
    
    Subcontinental India consists of several countries with a total population
    of over one billion people, 20 percent of the population of the world. Most
    of the area has been repeatedly invaded in the past 3000 years. These
    invasions have originated mostly from Western and Eastern Europe, Eastern
    Asia and, occasionally, from China. This has resulted in a uniquely
    heterogeneous culture that combines races, religions, languages, beliefs
    and values. The education system has continuously grappled with this
    problem of heterogeneity and has undergone many transformations, from the
    early Hindu systems of private education to the centralised universities of
    the Buddhist and Mogul periods to the most recent model, the British
    systems of the early twentieth century. It is in this larger historical
    context that the use of educational technology in the subcontinent should
    be viewed.
    
    The ability to access the Internet is one of the most important factors in
    the use of computers today. In many forums held on the subject in the
    Indian Subcontinental region, We have found people questioning the utility
    of schemes that rely on the Internet. The argument proposed is that there
    are too few people in the region who have access. In my opinion this
    argument is not a good one for deciding on whether or not to start
    activities in this area. We base this opinion on the fact that resources
    have seldom affected the spread of a medium in this region. For example,
    India produces the largest number of films in the world. While it may be
    argued that in a country that is known for extreme poverty, people would
    rather spend on food than on films, in reality this is not the case. Films
    are watched in every corner of India by millions of people irrespective of
    their social or economic status. In fact one might argue that the virtual
    world that is offered by films is sometimes the only relief that the poor
    have from a harsh, and often unbearable, reality.
    
    While telephone connections in India grew from zero to 4 million in 40
    years (1950-1990), cable TV connections grew from zero to 16 million in
    just six (1990-1996). I would once again propose that this is due to the
    value perceived in entertainment over other "essential" items. In a study
    conducted by the Department of Electronics, Government of India, some years
    ago, it was found that many rural areas ranked a colour TV set as more
    essential than, say, clean drinking water. Such is the power of media.
    
    Most lay users perceive the Internet as a source of information and
    entertainment. The cost of acquiring a PC and an Internet connection at
    home is about Rs. 70,000 (US$ 1600). In addition there is a recurring cost
    of the phone bill of about Rs. 10,000 (US$ 135) every year. In a country
    where the average annual income is about Rs. 6000, these amounts are not
    small. The fact that the home PC market is growing at 44% seems to indicate
    again that the economics of entertainment in the region are not clearly
    related to incomes.
    
    We would expect that explosive growth in Internet usage would take place in
    the region, regardless of any other factor.
    
    Previous hypotheses and experiments
    
    One of us (SM) has been working in this area for the last two decades. The
    idea of unsupervised learning was first pointed out in a paper on the use
    of diagnostics (debugging) as a learning tool (Mitra, S. and Pawar, R.S.,
    1982). Of the work done later in this period, two experiments are worth
    mentioning in the context of this paper. Both experiments were based on a
    paper (Mitra, S.,1988) where it was suggested that unsupervised use of
    computers can lead to accelerated learning of skills in children. It is now
    widely felt that children are more adept at modern computing skills than
    most adults, although they seldom want or get formal education in this area.
    
    The first experiment on the use of computers in rural India were conducted
    by Marmar Mukhopadhyay in the village of Udang in the state of West Bengal
    in India (Zielenziger, 1995). Here, a few computers were placed in a school
    and children allowed to use them after minimal instructions. Word
    processing, spreadsheets and database management systems were readily
    learned by both teachers and students who then went on to create a rural
    resources and healthcare database.
    
    The second experiment was conducted as a set of courses for children in
    NIIT Limited, an Indian training company with over 150,000 students. These
    experiments were called LEDA (learning through exploration, discovery and
    adventure) and were based on a publication (Ahuja et al, 1995). The
    structured use of computer games for meeting learning objectives was the
    key strategy. Once again, it was observed over a period of four years that
    skill training would happen automatically in children given enough access
    and motivating content.
    Objectives of the present experiment
    
    The present experiment was conducted to find out whether:
    
    1. Potential users will use a PC based outdoor Internet kiosk in India
    without any instruction.
    2. A PC based Internet kiosk can operate without supervision in an outdoor
    location in India.
    
    Location and construction of an outdoor kiosk
    
    An outdoor kiosk was constructed such that it could be accessed from
    outside the boundary wall of our office in New Delhi. The headquarters of
    NIIT Limited is situated in Kalkaji in the extreme south of the city. The
    office is bordered by a slum, as is the case in many Indian cities. The
    slum contains a large number of children of all ages (0-18), most of whom
    do not go to school. The few who do go to government schools of very poor
    quality (that is, low resources, low teacher or student motivation, poor
    curriculum and general lack of interest). None are particularly familiar
    with the English language.
    
    The kiosk was constructed such that a monitor was visible through a glass
    plate built into a wall. A touch pad was also built into the wall (see
    photo 1). The PC driving the monitor
    
    Photo1: Children examining the kiosk on the first day.
    
    was on the other side of the wall in a brick enclosure (see photo 2). The
    PC used was based on a Pentium, 266 Mhz chip with 64Mb of RAM, suitahle
    hard disk, a true color display and an ethernet card. It was connected to
    NIIT's internal network of 1200 PC's using the Windows NT operating system.
    The kiosk had access to the Internet through a dedicated 2Mbps connection
    to a service provider.
    
    Photo2: Construction of the kiosk housing on the office side of the wall.
    
    Observations
    
    The kiosk was made operational on the 26th of January, 1999. It was turned
    on without any announcement or instruction. A video camera was placed on a
    tree near the kiosk in order to record activity near the kiosk. Activity on
    the CPU was monitored from another PC on the network. This enabled the
    kiosk to be monitored and, if necessary, controlled from within the office.
    One of us (VR) would monitor activity through the day and take notes or
    other actions when necessary. What follows is extracted from his diary,
    with comments added when necessary.
    
    Jan 18th
    In a meeting, the date for Implementing the Internet kiosk was decided -
    Jan 26th 1999
    We would review the status of the project on Jan 25th
    
    This kiosk had to be made in the wall of NIIT - in such a place that the
    people can access the kiosk with out any fear/ hesitation. Therefore the
    wall (about 25 feet from the colony's first house) was chosen and the
    "brick kiosk" came into existence. Just before the construction started, we
    wanted to take the people of the colony into confidence - that a 'kiosk'
    was being put up for their benefit.
    I don't think they quite understood what we wanted to do. As long as it did
    not take up their space, they did not really care.
    
    Jan 26th 1999
    Installed the kiosk by 1:00 PM
    Lot of enthusiasm in the people as to what it is why is it being put up here
    Most of the kids thought it was a video game being put up for free
    
    few questions the kids asked
    Is it a video game?
    What is a computer?
    How will we be benefited?
    But we don't know how to operate the computer!!
    Who will take care of the computer (security etc.)? (Asked by the elders)
    
    None of the questions were answered with any instructional sentence. We
    gave general answers such as "It's a fun machine".
    
    The kiosk was turned onl with www.altavista.com as the home site for them
    to play with and "NO INSTRUCTION " was the key instruction to us. As of now
    keyboard access was not given.
    
    The only instruction (not given deliberately) was the final testing of the
    system with the 'Touch Pad' - the pointing device provided.
    
    Among the first users were the little boys from the colony of the age 6-12
    Initial response to the system was to generally fiddle around with the
    touch pad and since the pointer moves with that - they found it interesting.
    
    The next thing that they learned (don't know how - may be accidentally) was
    to "click" form the touch pad itself.
    
    Later they came to know as to what exactly is "Clickable" on the screen -
    as the pointer changes, from an arrow to a hand shape, when it is on some link
    
    The next thing they could relate to their knowledge was the "channels" icon
    on the browser. As overheard, "go to channels.. there must be TV", and
    similar expressions. Then someone simply tried and reached the channels
    icon and managed
    
    It is important to note that they learned to manipulate and click the mouse
    in a few hours.
    
    Feb 1st
    Launched the kiosk with WIN NT so that more security could be provided to
    the internal network.
    The enthusiasm in the kids is still high and they are trying various things
    with the system.
    
    Next2-3days went the same way. People trying to do various things -
    opening the 'start menu', opening new windows, opening the 'my computer'
    from the desk - opening the other applications
    
    Photo 3: Children teaching each other.
    
    Feb 4th 1999
    We found that one of the slum dwellers is computer literate - Sanjay
    Chowdhary is a BA 2nd year student from the Correspondence College of the
    University of Delhi. He has done a basic course on computers from IGNOU
    (The Indira Gandhi National Open University). Since he is the only one who
    knows computers in the colony , all kids give him great respect. He has
    been found teaching them how to operate the touch pad (the pointing device).
    
    It must be realsed that the "intervention" here is situational. The
    children found the best resource they could.
    Feb 5th and 6th
    People have tried and learned to "shut down" the p/c. Most of my time went
    into rebooting the m/c physically.
    Tired of this I had to change the registry settings in order to stop them
    from shutting down the m/c.
    
    Feb 10th 1999
    In the morning removed some 200 shortcuts from the desktop.
    Later in the day removed some 850 shortcut objects form the desktop this
    shows that someone is really finding it interesting to create these shortcuts.
    The most liked/ visited site are - disneyblast.com , MTVonline,
    Applications - calculator, paint and chat (though they cannot do much with
    chat because they have not been provided with the keyboard.
    But without any doubts the most liked is the 'paint' application. They are
    trying to do things with it. There is no instruction given to them till date.
    
    We spoke to the people of the colony today in order to find out their views
    about the Kiosk. In the day only the ladies are at home. They had some
    reservations about using the computer. " we don't know the language", "we
    don't know how to operate it", and an elderly woman said, "yeh daal roti
    dega kya"(will this give us food?). We tried to persuade them to use it.
    Asked them to try and use it in front of us. There seemed to be much
    hesitation in this too.
    
    We have decided to keep it open 24 hours
    
    The adult women never went anywhere near the PC even until the writing of
    this article (March, 18, 1999).
    
    Feb 11th 1999
    The m/c was shut down by the guards at around 11:00 PM as no body was using
    it. So opening it 24 hours will not make much of difference !!
    
    The first thing in the morning we saw "clock.exe" running on the desktop. A
    number of other windows were also open.
    
    At around 1:00 PM we again found lot of new folders on the desktop. This
    could be handy work of 'a school student or a group of them, who have
    learned to create a new folder, and are enjoying it. !!
    
    Feb 12th 1999
    During the routine health checkup of the m/c I discovered that someone had
    changed the "WINNT256.bmp" - the startup screen for WINNT.
    
    Though the Hindi paper site - www.naidunia.com invoked some interest as
    they wanted to see their horoscope for the day (these were kids of age
    10-12 years), yet I notice that some of them were more keen on using the
    PAINT application.
    12:00PM - just now observed - someone has actually learned maximizing and
    minimizing windows.
    
    Photo 4: A picture created by the children
    
    Feb 15th 1999
    Noticed in the morning that someone had managed to change the Internet home
    page option, from www.naidunia.com to www.webevents.microsoft.com
    Also someone figured out to change the wallpaper setting, as one can change
    the wallpaper to any Internet picture.
    
    Discussion
    
    The observations indicate that these underprivileged children, without any
    planned instructional intervention, achieved a certain level of computer
    literacy. They were able to self-instruct and to obtain help from the
    environment when required. In the author's opinion, this is a common
    phenomenon among urban children. Indeed, most urban parents who have made a
    computer available to their children tend to marvel at the speed with which
    their children are able to master (in the parent's opinion) the
    "complexities" of computing. They often tend to wonder if their children
    are "gifted". The authors have had many occasions to interact with such
    parents and children. The present experiment seems to suggest that a
    similar phenomenon may happen in the case of underprivileged children with
    little or no formal education.
    
    Following is a list of our key observations from this experiment:
    
    1. Once available, the kiosk was used immediately by children (about 5 to
    16 years old). These children had a very limited understanding of the
    English alphabet and could not speak the language.
    2. Children learnt basic operations of the PC for browsing and drawing
    within a few days.
    3. Adults, both men and women did not make any attempt to learn or use the
    kiosk.
    4. MS paint and Internet explorer were the most commonly used applications
    5. Children formed impromptu classes to teach one another,
    6. Children invented their own vocabulary to define terms on the computer,
    for example, "sui" (needle) for the cursor, "channels" for websites and
    "kaam kar raha hai" (its working) for the hourglass (busy) symbol.
    7. Within a month of interaction, children were able to discover and use
    features such as new folder creation, cutting and pasting, shortcuts,
    moving/resizing windows and using MS Word to create short messages even
    without a keyboard.
    8. Children were strongly opposed to the idea of removing the kiosk
    9. Parents felt that while they could not learn the operation of the kiosk
    or did not see its need, they felt that it was very good for the children.
    
    However, it is imperative to repeat such experiments in other locations
    before one can generalise from these observations or come to any conclusion
    regarding the educational benefits of such a non-invasive method.
    
    
    Conclusions
    
    While it is difficult to draw specific conclusions from a single experiment
    of this nature, we felt that the following hypotheses and future action
    plans can be formulated from the observations reported above:
    
    1. It is possible to design PC kiosks that can operate outdoors in tropical
    climates. Such kiosks would have to be protected against heat, temperature,
    dust, humidity and possible vandalism. Schemes for remote monitoring and
    maintenance of software would have to be designed.
    2. Wireless connectivity with the Internet would need to be devised for
    kiosks in other areas that are not physically close to organisations with
    Internet access.
    3. Several experiments need to be conducted in different areas to
    investigate whether self-learning will occur uniformly among disadvantaged
    children.
    4. Other experiments will need to be designed to investigate the effects of
    instructional intervention at selected points of the learning cycle.
    
    
    References :
    1. Ahuja, R., Mitra, S., Kumar, R., Singh, M., Education through Digital
    Entertainment - A Structured Approach, , Proc. XXX Ann. Conv. Of CSI, Tata
    McGraw Hill, New Delhi, pp 187-194 (1995). 2. Mitra, S. and Pawar, R.S.,
    Diagnostic Computer-Assisted-Instruction, a methodology for the teaching of
    computer languages. Sixth Western Educational Computing Conf., Nov. 1982,
    San Diego, USA. 3. Mitra, S., A computer assisted learning strategy for
    computer literacy programmes., presented at the Annual Convention of the
    All-India Association for Educational Technology, December 1988, Goa,
    India. 4. Zielenziger, M. , Logging on in backwater, San Hose Mercury News,
    Monday, June 12, 1995.
    
    
    Contact :
        NIIT ltd.
        Kalkaji,  India
        Phone : +91 11 658 1002
    Contactperson :
        Sugata Mitra
        Sugatam@niit.com
    
    
    Disclaimer: No stories on this website shall be reproduced or stored in any
    other retrieval system without the written permission of the infoDev/IICD.
    Although every precaution will be taken in the preperation and maintenance
    of this collection of stories, neither infoDev, IICD or the submitting
    parties assume any responsibilities for errors or omissions. In addition,
    no liability is assumed fordamages resulting from the use of the
    information supplied in the stories.
    ----
    
    
    
    
    --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 22:16:48 +0100
             From: "David L. Green" <david@ninch.org>
             Subject: Getty Trust Funds NINCH GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICE
    
    NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
    News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
    from across the Community
    October 3, 2000
    
    For further information
    contact David Green
    202-296-5346
    david@ninch.org
    
    A NINCH PROJECT
    
          GETTY TRUST FUNDS INNOVATIVE SURVEY & "GUIDE TO GOOD PRACTICE"
    
                            - Guide To Cover Entire Community -
    
                       NINCH Working Group Selects Glasgow University's
                    Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute
    
                              Guide to be Published Fall 2001
    
    
    The J. Paul Getty Trust has announced the award of $140,000 to the National
    Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) to direct an
    innovative project to review and evaluate current practice in the digital
    networking of cultural heritage resources. NINCH will subsequently publish
    a Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of
    Cultural Heritage Materials in print and electronic form.
    
    The Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute (HATII) of
    Glasgow University, Scotland, has been selected to conduct a survey of
    current practice in the cultural heritage sector and write the Guide, in
    close co-operation with the NINCH Working Group on Best Practices. A
    critical component of the Guide will be a report on a survey of current
    practice. The survey is due for completion in March 2001; the final draft
    of the Guide is due for completion in June 2001; publication is expected to
    be in Fall 2001.
    
    
    BACKGROUND
    The 1999 IFLA/UNESCO report on its "Survey on Digitization & Preservation,"
    noted "the complete lack of consistency" among survey respondents in how
    they prepared for and undertook digitization of heritage materials. As many
    cultural institutions and also many individual faculty go about digitizing
    material for teaching, research, and even preservation, what ground rules
    do they have, what questions do they ask themselves, which information and
    technical standards are they aware of? How can those working in museums,
    libraries, archives, arts institutions, universities, colleges, or in their
    own studies or studios learn from others working in different sectors? How
    can they break institutional barriers in thinking through the wide range of
    potential uses and users of their materials?
    
    NINCH WORKING GROUP ON BEST PRACTICE
    These and other questions were behind the formation of the Working Group on
    Best Practices by the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage
    in January 1999. The Working Group (members listed below) agreed on an
    approach emphasizing principles by extracting generalizable issues from
    existing documented practice.
    
    One of the biggest challenges for the cultural community is not in
    developing or even adopting technical or information standards. Rather, it
    lies in translating and crafting them to a set of practices, governed by
    principles, that are shared and widely deployed across a community.
    
    The goal of the Guide is to create a standard "vocabulary" that can be used
    to read new iterations of specifications in any particular genre or field.
    We will not address specific audiences but will aim to produce a
    generalizable, universal document in which specific concerns or instances
    could be mapped, using a branching structure.
    
    WHY GOOD PRACTICE?
    By adopting community-wide shared good practice, project designers will be
    able to ensure the broadest use of their projects, now and in the future,
    even by audiences undreamed of by the designers. They will be able to
    ensure the quality, consistency and reliability of the information
    contained in their digital resources. They will be able to ensure the
    compatibility of their resources with other resources from other projects
    and from other domains. They will be able to build on the work of others to
    produce digital resources most economically and maintain and manage them
    into the future with maximum cost benefit. Overall, "best practices" can be
    measured by their ability to maximize a resource's intended usefulness
    while minimizing the cost of its creation and subsequent management and use.
    
    PRINCIPLES
    The Working Group drew up a set of core principles that it believes should
    govern the creation of digital cultural heritage resources: 1. OPTIMIZE
    INTEROPERABILITY OF MATERIALS Digitization projects should enable the
    optimal interoperability between source materials from different
    repositories or digitization projects
    
    2. ENABLE BROADEST USE
    Projects should enable multiple and diverse uses of material by multiple
    and diverse audiences.
    
    3. ADDRESS THE NEED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ORIGINAL MATERIALS
    Projects should incorporate procedures to address the preservation of
    original materials.
    
    4. INDICATE STRATEGY FOR LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL RESOURCES
    Projects should plan for the life-cycle management of digital resources.
    
    5. INVESTIGATE AND DECLARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & RIGHTS OWNERSHIP
    Ownership and rights issues need to be investigated before digitization
    commences and findings reported to users.
    
    6. ARTICULATE INTENT AND DECLARE METHODOLOGY
    All relevant methods, perspectives and assumptions used by project staff
    should be clarified and made explicit. From these principles a set of
    evaluative criteria were derived by which to measure current practice (see:
    <<http://www.ninch.org/PROJECTS/practice/criteria-1.html>http://www.ninch.org/PROJECTS/practice/criteria-1.html>) 
    
    
    
    
    SURVEY
    Following an RFP issued by the NINCH Working Group on June 1 1999, NINCH
    has now contracted with the Humanities Advanced Technology & Information
    Institute (HATII) of the University of Glasgow to conduct a survey of the
    field to discover and define exemplary practice and write the Guide, under
    the direction of, and in close cooperation with, the NINCH Working Group.
    The survey will include interviews with practitioners and reviews of
    published guidelines and projects that demonstrate good practice; it should
    also reveal areas for which good practice still needs to be developed and
    documented. An initial small survey will test the face-to-face, telephone
    and mail survey instruments and allow for modification of the Working
    Group's Principles and the Evaluative Criteria. This will be followed by an
    extensive (though not comprehensive) survey of a wide range of production
    sites in the US and of a select few in Europe.
    
    Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute (HATII)
    <<http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/>http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/>
    Founded in 1997, HATII enables teaching and research by Glasgow University
    Faculty in the Arts through the deployment of information and
    communications technology and also engages in an active research agenda of
    its own. Headed by Dr. Seamus Ross, HATII has conducted a number of
    important evaluative studies of the use of digital technologies in the
    cultural heritage sector. It has expertise not only in the full range of
    media (text, image, moving image, sound) but also with different
    institution types (universities, museums, archives and libraries). In 1997,
    HATII conducted an extensive review of the use of information and
    communications technology in the heritage sector and produced a suite of
    guidelines and recommendations for the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).  These
    included guidelines for applicants for funding and strategies for the HLF
    to apply to assess, monitor and review the impact of technology-based
    heritage projects.
    
    
    NINCH Working Group on Best Practices
    
    Kathe Albrecht (from May 24, 1999)
        American University/Visual Resources Association
    Lee Ellen Friedland
        Library of Congress
    Peter Hirtle
        Cornell University
    Lorna Hughes
        New York University
    Kathy Jones
        Divinity School, Harvard University/American Association of Museums
    Mark Kornbluh
        H-Net; Michigan State University
    Joan Lippincott
        Coalition for Networked Information
    Michael Neuman
        Georgetown University
    Richard Rinehart
        Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives/Museum Computer Network
    Thornton Staples
        National Museum of American Art (through 2/1/99)
        University of Virginia Library (from 2/1/99)
    Jennifer Trant  (through May 24, 1999)
        Art Museum Image Consortium
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    --[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
             Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 22:21:43 +0100
             From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
             Subject: About cyberphil-L Listserv - courses in Cyberphilosophy
    
    greetings humanists,
    		
    [HI --On behalf of Prof. Jeff McLaughlin, Ph.D. --Department of
    Philosophy, History and Politics, at University College of the Cariboo,
    Canada..-I would like to forward the "welcome message" from the
    "Cyberphilosophy List" --thought might interest you. We would be
    delighted if you join us and be a part of it. And, the Cyberphilosophy
    Journal is located at (http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/cpj/) with a mission to
    provide an electronic forum for students to exchange thoughts and ideas
    related to the new emerging field of Cyberphilosophy. Thank
    you. Best.-Arun]
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    
    Cyberphil-L is a mailserv list dedicated to the continued discussion of
    philosophy and the internet. This list was originally created in the summer
    of 1998 for students registered in courses in Cyberphilosophy at The
    University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta and at The University College of
    the Cariboo, Kamloops, British Columbia. However, as the field grows in
    significance and popularity, the participants to this list will soon be
    quite diverse.
    
    This list seeks to provide an electronic asynchronous forum for the
    exchange of ideas, arguments and information related to the new field of
    philosophy and the internet. The aim of this list is to foster and
    encourage collaborative discussion, research and exploration of the
    significant impact of the growth of educational, informational and
    recreational technology upon the modern world.
    
    Cyberphil-L participants are encouraged to post queries, comments,
    critiques, research, reviews, suggestions, concerns, insights, issues,
    announcements and potential solutions related to this field of study.
    Discussion participants should primarily be those who are registered in
    courses that are recognized by the list owner. If you are an instructor,
    please contact the list owner before inviting your students to join. If you
    are an interested party but are not a student please recognize that the
    primary intent of this list is as a vehicle for formal and informal (and
    potentially graded) discussion by the registered students. If you, as a
    non-student, wish to contribute to the discussion, you must clearly
    identify yourself and your affiliation.
    
    This list is unmoderated so as to promote the free exchange of ideas.
    However, the listowner and relevant instructor(s) reserve the right to
    invoke penalties as they see fit if the rules of Netiquette and student
    behaviour are violated (in accordance with the rules of conduct stipulated
    by the respective instructors, institutions and computer service
    departments). For further information about acceptable behaviour, please
    visit:
    
    <http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html>
    
    Please note that this list is to be used for academic and educational
    purposes only, no commercial use of this list will be tolerated.
    
    A few notes about using this list:
    
       1) To subscribe:
          Send mail to: mailserv@cariboo.bc.ca
    
          Content of message: subscribe cyberphil-l Firstname Lastname
    
    (Note: Students are responsible for their participation in this list, do
    not unsubscribe until you are instructed to do so.)
    
    
       2) To unsubscribe:
    
          Send mail to: mailserv@cariboo.bc.ca
    
    Content of message: unsubscribe cyberphil-l
    
       3) To send mail to the list:
    
          Send mail to: cyberphil-L@cariboo.bc.ca
    
       4) Reply to message:
    
           Send mail to: cyberphil-L@cariboo.bc.ca
    
       (Or use your 'reply' function. However be sure that your email destination
        is the one that you intended. That is, don't send it to the list if you
        wanted just to respond to the individual in a private reply.)
    
    
    In general:
    TO SEND A COMMAND (E.G., SUBSCRIBE, HELP ETC.) SEND MAIL TO:
    mailserv@cariboo.bc.ca
    
    CONTENT OF MESSAGE: [COMMAND]
    
    TO SEND TO THE LIST (E.G., ORIGINAL POSTING, REPLY) SEND MAIL TO:
    cyberphil-L@cariboo.bc.ca
    
    Netiquette: Please consider whether your reply would be useful information
    or of assistance to everyone on the list. (e.g., simply stating 'Yes, I
    agree' is not very informative!) In such cases it is appropriate to send
    your reply to the e-mail address of the specific individual and not to all
    subscribers. Also, be careful to ensure that your private replies are not
    mistakenly sent to entire list.
    	
    If you have any difficulties using the list, please contact your instructor
    or the list owner personally at the address below. Do not report problems
    (e.g., "I can't unsubscribe!") to all subscribers.
    
    Again, welcome to Cyberphil!
    
    Dr. Jeff McLaughlin, Ph.D.
    Department of Philosophy, History and Politics
    University College of the Cariboo
    
    Voice (250) 371-5734
    Fax (250) 371-5697
    Web: http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/ae/php/phil/mclaughl/home.htm
    Email: Jmclaughlin@cariboo.bc.ca
    Smail: Department of Philosophy, History and Politics
    University College of the Cariboo
    P.O. Box 3010
    Kamloops BC V2C 5N3
    Canada
    ------
    



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