Wednesday, October 28, 2009

IP and Tech Law Clinic - 2009 advice sessions now full

The Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic advice sessions for 2009 are now FULL.

We are hoping to offer further free legal advice services in 2010. Keep an eye on the website for more information.

Friday, October 23, 2009

The Future of Data Policy

The Microsoft External Research Division has launched a book entitled, The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Scientific Discovery (2009) edited by Tony Hey, Stewart Tansley, and Kristin Tolle. The book was launched on the opening day of the Microsoft eScience Workshop that took place in Pittsburgh, USA from 15-17 October 2009. The book includes a chapter, 'The Future of Data Policy' (pp 201-208), authored by Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Professor Brian Fitzgerald and myself. The book is licensed under a Creative Common Attribution Share Alike 3.0 United States licence, and can be download in its entirety or by chapter at The Fourth Paradigm.

ANDS guides - copyright and data

To follow on from my copyright and data presentation post -

Professor Anne Fitzgerald and I have produced two short guides for the Australian National Data Service (ANDS): one on Copyright and Data and the other on Creative Commons and Data. The Copyright and Data guide is now available (in html and pdf formats) from the ANDS website, the Creative Commons and Data guide should (hopefully) be available next week.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Presentation: Copyright and Data

This morning I gave a presentation on Copyright and Data as part of QUT's Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support research seminars.

I have licensed my presentation under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence. It is available for download here:

Copyright and Data (.pptx) or Copyright and Data (.pdf)

Together with Professor Anne Fitzgerald, I have also authored a short guide on Copyright and Data for the Australian National Data Service (ANDS). It is available from the ANDS website.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Event: How to Win an AIMIA Award

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) is holding an event on Thursday 22 October entitled, "How to Win An AIMIA Award". The Awards have a Student/Education category. This is also a good opportunity to see examples of Australian interactive media works, how the works are judged nationally and how to create award-winning works with the principles applicable to interactive media work in general. Student-priced tickets are $30.

For more information and to register, visit the website.

Event Details:
Date: Thursday 22nd October 2009
Time: 3.30pm - 5.30pm with networking drinks afterwards
Venue: Central Eagle Street Conference Venue (in the Credit Union Australia building at 175 Eagle St)



Monday, October 12, 2009

Brisbane Creative Industries blog - new post on the IP and Tech Law Clinic

I have just made a post on the Brisbane Creative Industries Blog on the IP and Technology Law Clinic. I won't repost in full here. If you are interested, follow the link.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

A win for QUT student services

Inspired by this recent post by Kate Carruthers, "Customer service and student support - QUT gets it" (and I can confirm that Kaylene Matheson in the law school is, in fact, excellent), I would like to share my own experience of being the beneficiary of exemplary service by QUT staff.

I am currently applying to universities in the US and the UK to undertake postgraduate study overseas sometime in the near future. The application process has at times seemed unnecessarily painful and complicated. The latest in my series of tiresome hurdles was to send my original academic transcript to one of the governing academic bodies in the US. But the transcript could not come directly from me - it had to come from the appropriate person at QUT who could verify the transcript, who would complete forms to that effect and send the forms and the transcript (sealed) to the relevant US address, and who would be available for follow-up if necessary. While I understood the reasoning behind these requirements, I despaired at what I would need to do to fulfil them. I had no idea who the "appropriate person" was and I was reluctant to ask a stranger to jump through the hoops on my behalf - I was, after all, just one student of thousands at QUT. I thought that at least this would take a lot of running around and probably a fair amount of time on my behalf.

I sent an email to the University Registrar, Carol Dickenson, asking for help. I figured I was probably aiming a little high up the daisy chain and Carol was probably too busy, but she seemed like the mostly likely candidate for the "appropriate person". Within only a matter of hours, my request had been passed to Sharron Caddie (Executive Officer, Office of the Registrar), Julianne Paltridge (Associate Director Client Services, Student Business Services) and Joshua Leuner in the Student Centre. I was informed that if I took the relevant forms to Josh, he would complete them for me and post them to the US institution with my academic transcript. I was also informed that QUT would waive the overseas postage fees for me. When I took my forms to Josh, he could not have been more friendly and helpful.

I was immensely impressed with the speedy response and general helpfulness of the QUT staff. They genuinely seemed willing to go out of their way to assist me. They made an otherwise troublesome and tedious process just that little bit easier.