“Collaboration, across time and space, is the fundamental method of scholarship, and without it we can do nothing of value.”[4]
This section of the Consultation Paper explores six topics:
Repositories of human wisdom and knowledge
A networked world: new ways of seeking, understanding and using information
Disruptive change: university engagement with the Net Generation society
The changing nature of scholarly [...]
Universities and libraries have both been characterised as the gatekeepers of knowledge.[5] The library, as the custodian of published knowledge, was both metaphorically and literally at the heart of its university, providing the fundamental infrastructure of scholarship. Publication[6] of a scholar’s work was the essential foundation for the creation of new knowledge. If scholars did [...]
The Net Generation[9] is a term coined to refer to a social demographic that coincides with widespread access to Internet-related technologies. These technologies allow simple, fast access to vast amounts of online information, and the ability to communicate and collaborate easily and cheaply.[10] Of most interest in the current discussion are some related social trends [...]
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.”[21]
In his presentation at the launch of the Information Futures Commission, Richard Katz outlined the very rapid pace of technological progress and its disruptive effects on society.[22] He spoke of looking back 20 years and comparing the excitement some of us felt at playing “Pong” to [...]
“Our ways of thinking and knowing, teaching and learning are undergoing a sea change, and what is emerging seems both rich and strange.”[24]
Research practice is changing. Research problems increasingly require interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, and collaboration spanning organisational and national boundaries is becoming commonplace. E-research — large-scale, distributed, national or global collaboration in research facilitated [...]