iPRES 2009

The iPRES 2009 Conference will be hosted by the California Digital Library at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA on Oct. 5-6, 2009.  Preliminary announcement is available here.

Bots and DMCA

In an interesting legal development, a judge has ruled that a WoW bot was not only a copyright infringement, but constituted a technological circumvention device under the DMCA.  Ars Technica has the story.

The Education Deluge Continues

Apparently it is the week for articles on computer games and education.  Now the Washington Post is getting into the act.

More on Games and Education

An article from Scientific American on computer games and how they might help education.

Experimenting in Virtual Worlds

Interesting article in Linux Insider on academics using virtual worlds as research sites.

Sustainable Digital Preservation

The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access has released their interim report, Sustaining the Digital Investment: Issues and Challenges of Economically Sustainable Digital Preservation. Quoting from the news release regarding the report:

The interim report traces the contours of economically sustainable digital preservation, and identifies and explains the necessary conditions for achieving economic sustainability. The report also synthesizes current thinking on this topic, including testimony from 16 leading experts in digital preservation representing a variety of domains. In reviewing this synthesis, the task force identified a series of systemic challenges that create barriers to long-term, economically viable solutions. Some of these challenges include:

* Inadequacy of funding models to address long-term access and preservation needs. Funding models for efforts that incorporate digital access and preservation are often not persistent – they may be “one time” efforts subsequently abandoned as more critical short-term priorities emerge.
* Confusion and/or lack of alignment between stakeholders, roles, and responsibilities with respect to digital access and preservation. Often, those who create and use digital information are not responsible for serving as stewards to support preservation and access. Consequently, the costs may not be shared, which can lead to inadequate economic models for sustainability.
* Inadequate institutional, enterprise, and/or community incentives to support the collaboration needed to reinforce sustainable economic models. Digital preservation and access require long-range planning and support, as well as agreement on formats, standards and use models, and hardware/software compatibility.
* Complacency that current practices are “good enough.” The urgency of developing sustainable economic models for digital information is not uniformly appreciated. There is general agreement that leadership and competitiveness, if not institutional survival, in the Information Age depends on the persistent availability of digital information, making preservation of that information an urgent priority.
* Fear that digital access and preservation is too big to take on. There is general agreement that in its entirety, digital preservation is a big problem, incorporating technical, economic, regulatory, policy, social, and other aspects. But it is not insurmountable. Digital access and preservation may be as manageable as including a “data bill” as an explicit and fixed part of an institution’s business model. Successes depend on making sustainable digital access and preservation a persistent “line item” on the part of stakeholders.

Continuing its work for a second and final year, the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access will issue its final report in late 2009 proposing practical recommendations for sustainable economic models to support access and preservation for digital data in the public interest.

Games as Art

Interesting article by John Lanchester over at the London Review of Books on games as art.