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
single-handedly 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
<https://www.mail.yale.edu/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fislandia.law.yal
e.edu%2Fisp%2Fa2k.html> 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 <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 (
<mailto:simo.bonetti_at_tiscalinet.it> simo.bonetti[at]tiscalinet.it) and
Sudhir Krishnaswamy (krishnaswamysudhir[at]gmail.com). Inquiries may be
addressed to any of the above.

 
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Received on Tue Dec 13 2005 - 08:39:00 EST