Sep
Presentation to Ethics in Science and Culture Conference – Belgrade
Filed Under (General) by elearning4bradford on 28-09-2009
It was a great honour to return to Belgrade and attend this important conference on ethical aspects of research. I was warmly welcomed by my colleague Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Vranes organiser of the conference and also by Prof. Dr. Ljiljana Markovic vice-dean of the Faculty of Philology. I was honoured to be asked to chair the Friday afternoon session, having only just arrived from the airport minutes before, this was rather challenging but thanks to the excelent translation skills of the conference team and the wonders of technology, I think I did a good job. The session had its focus on intellectual property rights and copyright generally. Of particular interest was the discussion of Google’s role in the digitisation of materials. The venue – the Hall of Heroes – being a large-scale auditorium made an excellent space for discussion.
On the following day I presented my own paper on the Ethical issues associated with the development of the Bradford College virtual research environment. It was well received and there was a lot of interest in the technology and in the organisation of the research process. A fuller version will be published in the conference proceedings.
Prof. Markovic’s presentation raised some important issues concerning the ethics of recording cultural heritage. The conference was closed by Prof. Vranes who provided an excellent interpretation of the wider ethical implications of increased use of technology, the rising force of globalisation and the perceived diminishing importance of local heritage, she did this through the lens of information literacy and librarianship and received much support from the audience and the closing plenary.
I have learned a lot and there is much to consider from the papers presented.
