Organisational and Social Informatics Research Group - Special Event

Tuesday 15th August, 2006

Invitation (pdf, 397kb) | (pdf, 3.04mb)

Research Seminar

From Duyfken to Digital: Paper and Digital Semiophores

• Audio now available http://www.mulo.monash.edu.au/infotech/2006-08-15_15-34.ram (RealPlayer needed)

Presented by Professor Eric Ketelaar

Abstract: In 1606 the Dutch crew of the Duyfken were the first Europeans to set foot on what became known as New Holland, and is now Australia . Since then lands, people, and goods have been continuously transformed into "a flat surface of paper", generating what Bruno Latour calls 'immutable and combinable mobiles'. They are "semiophores" getting meaning by the dialectic between the visible and the invisible. A dialectic which has got a new significance in the digital world, due to the "disappearance of the original". Or, as James Booth states in his recent book Communities of Memory , a dialectic which brings forth "the call of the trace" that every community of memory is forced to respond to.

Eric Ketelaar is Professor of Archivistics (Archival Science) in the Department of Mediastudies (Archive and Information Studies) of the University of Amsterdam (since 1997). He is currently serving as Acting Head of the Department of Mediastudies. He is a Honorary Professor at Monash University, Melbourne (Faculty of Information Technology). Educated as a lawyer and legal historian, he received his LLM (1967) and LLD (cum laude) degrees from Leiden University. His previous functions were Assistant Lecturer of Legal History at Leiden University, Secretary of the Archives Council, Director of the Dutch State School of Archivists, and Assistant to the General State Archivist. In 1980 he was appointed Deputy General State Archivist. Four years later he moved to Groningen to become State Archivist of that province. He was General State Archivist (National Archivist) of The Netherlands from 1989-1997. From 1997-2001 he was part-time Inspector General of the State Archives Service of the Netherlands and subsequently General Counsel to the National Archivist. From 1992-2002 he held the chair of archivistics in the Department of History of the University of Leiden. He has served the International Council on Archives (ICA) in different capacities over a period of twenty years and in 2000 ICA elected him Honorary President.

Book Launch

Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law: Regulatory Models, Participant Relationships and Rights and Responsibilities in the Online World

Written by Dr Livia Iacovino

Launched by Professor Eric Ketelaar

Abstract: Distributed networks such as the Internet have altered the fundamental way a record is created, captured, accessed and managed over time. Law and ethics provide the major sources of regulatory controls over participants in such networks.

This book analyses the interrelationship of recordkeeping, ethics and law in terms of existing regulatory models and their application to the Internet environment. It proposes an Internet model based on the notion of a legal and social relationship as a means of identifying the legal and ethical rights and obligations of recordkeeping participants in networked transactions. Medical, business and governmental relationships within communities of common interest based on trust illustrate the practical application of the model. As legal relationships have their basis in the law of obligations found in common and civil law systems, as well as archival science, the model has a broad-based application. The relationship model also provides a unique ethical and legal approach to property, access, privacy and evidence. Most importantly, the book provides an interdisciplinary approach to Internet regulation, which contributes to closer ties between those who research, teach and work in fields of ethics, law and archival science.

The book is based on Livia's PhD which won the Faculty of Information Technology Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal in 2003. This medal is awarded annually to the doctoral student in each faculty judged to have presented the best thesis in that year. It is also the first book written by an Australian to have been published in the prestigious international series, ' The Archivist's Library'. Published by Springer, the book is available for purchase.

Note: A discount of 20% off the book's normal retail purchase price is being offered by the publisher to anyone who orders it at the launch.

Dr Livia Iacovino is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow and a Principal Researcher in the Enterprise Information Research Group and the Records Continuum Research Group, in the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University . She has taught in the recordkeeping courses of the Faculty, and developed the legal and ethical curricula. Her research is focused on interdisciplinary perspectives of archival science, law and ethics; in particular ownership, access and privacy of networked electronic records. Livia has collaborated internationally as a Co-Chair of the Policy Research Group, International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) Project, and as a consultant with the International Records Management Trust. She has been a Chief Investigator, for Electronic Health Records: Achieving an Effective and Ethical Legal and Recordkeeping Framework, an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, together with the Faculty of Law, Monash University and the School of Law , Deakin University . Livia's awards include the Australian Society of Archivists Mander Jones Award 1999, and the Monash University Mollie Holman Medal of Excellence 2003 for her PhD thesis published in 2006 as, Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law: Regulatory Models, Participant Relationships and Rights and Responsibilities in the Online World.