[Sigifp-l] Yale ISP A2K Conference -- IJCLP Writing Competition

[Rotenberg, Boris]

apologies for cross-posting
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CALL FOR PAPERS & WRITING COMPETITION

YALE ISP CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE (A2K), APRIL 21-23, 2006

THE YALE LAW SCHOOL INFORMATION SOCIETY PROJECT (ISP) and THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATIONS LAW & POLICY (IJCLP) are pleased to announce their third interdisciplinary writing competition and a call for papers in conjunction with the Access to Knowledge (A2K) Conference taking place on April 21-23, 2006 at Yale Law School. We invite students, scholars, policy makers, activists and practitioners to submit papers for the writing competition and/or for publication by the IJCLP.

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION
In the digital era, most multinational corporations and policymakers are of the view that the current trend characterised by increasing intellectual property rights and corporate control over knowledge best serve society’s interests. At the same time, however, a growing number of commentators believe that widespread access to knowledge (A2K) and the preservation of a healthy knowledge commons are the real basis for sustainable human development. Nonetheless, intellectual property-based approaches continue to singlehandedly dictate global legal norms and shape national legal infrastructures.

The first goal of the Yale A2K Initiative is to come up with a new analytic framework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policies relying exclusively on intellectual property rights. Beyond this aim, the A2K initiative seeks to support the adoption and development of alternative ways to foster greater access to knowledge in the digitally connected environment.

The landmark A2K conference at Yale Law School will bring together leading thinkers and activists on access to knowledge policy from North and South, in order to generate concrete research agendas and policy solutions for the next decade. This conference will be among the first to synthesize the multifaceted and interdisciplinary aspects of access to knowledge, ranging from textbooks and telecommunications access to software and medicines. The A2K Conference aims to help build an intellectual framework that will protect access to knowledge both as the basis for sustainable human development and to safeguard human rights.

Key issues to be considered include, among others:
- the economics of A2K in a digital environment;
- A2K indexes and measurement techniques;
- the limitations to A2K;
- digital libraries and archives;
- government investment in information production;
- government procurement policies;
- open source software;
- the WIPO Broadcast Treaty;
- access to education and scientific knowledge;
- universal service in telecommunications;
- the digital divide;
- digital rights management;
- open access journals.

A full conference description will be available on the Yale ISP's A2K Initiative page at http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/a2k.html.

WRITING COMPETITION
Submissions for the writing competition must be received by noon EST, February 15th, 2006. The author of the best paper, as well as two runners-up will be invited to present their work at a panel during the conference. The author of the winning paper will receive coverage of his/her travel to and accommodations at Yale University for the conference. Selected papers will be announced by April 1st, 2006. The authors of the award-winning papers will automatically be invited to publish their work in a special Autumn 2006 volume of the International Journal of Communications Law & Policy (http://www.ijclp.org) devoted to Access to Knowledge.

JOURNAL PUBLICATION
Submissions for publication must be received by noon EST, May 1st, 2006. The selection committee, composed of the editorial board of the IJCLP, and some of the Yale ISP Fellows, will review and consider all submissions for publication in the special Autumn 2006 volume of the journal, including submissions for the writing competition. Authors will be notified of acceptance by June 15th, 2006.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Papers may be submitted on any A2K-related issue, provided that they lie within the central focus of the IJCLP – communications law & policy. All submissions should be written in English in .rtf or .pdf format. They should conform to academic citation standards, be no longer than 25,000 words, and include an abstract of up to 250 words. Submissions should be e-mailed simultaneously to the lead editors of the IJCLP, Simone Francesco Bonetti (simo.bonetti[at]tiscalinet.it) and Sudhir Krishnaswamy (krishnaswamysudhir[at]gmail.com). Inquiries may be addressed to any of the above.