Two Conference Announcements

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Message-Id: <v0213050dae8d8c11731e@[192.100.21.23]>
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 14:45:53 -0500
To: ninch-announce@cni.org
From: david@cni.org (David Green)
Subject: Two Conference Announcements

NINCH ANNOUNCE
October 18, 1996


Two Conference Announcements, including Calls for Papers:

1. "Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property"
   Harvard University,  January 23-25, 1997

2.  "Museums and the Web"
    Omni Los Angeles Hotel and Centre,  March 16-19, 1997

================================================================

            John F. Kennedy School of Government
        Science, Technology and Public Policy Program

                             and
             Center for Business and Government

                     Harvard Law School

          Center for Law and Information Technology

                Council on Library Resources

             Coalition for Networked Information


"Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property"

                     Harvard University
                Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
                     January 23-25, 1997

           Announcement and Final Call for Papers

Harvard University is hosting this symposium to broaden and
deepen understanding of emerging economic and business
models for global publishing and information access and the
attendant transformation of international information
markets, institutions, and businesses. By refining and
publishing the work presented at the symposium, our goal is
to provide planners and managers in the public, private, and
nonprofit sectors with a practical framework for developing
program strategies and assessing the efficiency and
competitiveness of new information markets and institutions.
The symposium and book will address:

-- How will pricing be affected by different technological
factors and market environments? What are likely long-term
scenarios for different pricing models?

-- What will be the relationships between classic production
costs, transaction costs, and the economic value of
intellectual property?

-- How will different pricing practices for
telecommunications and Internet services affect the pricing
of information?

-- What will be the effect of bundling or unbundling of
information services? How will opportunities for bundling
and unbundling change?

-- How will changing cost structures and other factors
affect the allocation of rights between authors and
publishers and other intermediaries?

-- How will markets for complementary products and
services, including advertising, affect the pricing and use
of information?

-- What are the policy implications of different pricing
models? How do these reflect policy values associated with
different kinds of information?


Background

The rapid growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web is
transforming the way information is accessed and used in
business, education, and the home. New models for
distributing, sharing, linking, and enhancing information
are appearing, often embodied in software or information
infrastructure.

The Internet and the World Wide Web are characterized by
explosion of information along with an explosion of new
tools for navigating information. No change is more dramatic
than the shift to user-initiated retrieval for text-based
information formerly distributed in the form of physical
objects by publisher-initiated manufacturing and delivery.
Although a similar shift may be underway for sound and
video, the considerable differences in delivery and storage
requirements between text, images, sound, and video may
dictate different cost and pricing models.

As production and distribution costs decline, transaction
costs and the value of intellectual property may assume
greater prominence. On the other hand, standardization and
software may reduce transaction costs over the long run.
With barriers to entry reduced by the Web and related
technology, information markets may become extremely
competitive, reducing margins and possibly lowering the
market value of some forms of intellectual property.

Competition for attention intensifies as companies extend
their marketing, sales, and support functions into the
Internet. Especially useful or entertaining information may
have greater value in attracting customer attention in an
increasingly competitive marketplace for information. It has
been argued that information may be valued less as
intellectual property and more in terms of the access it
provides to other markets and the value it adds to
relationships. As a practical matter, copyright may be
overshadowed by the growing use of contracts as a means of
both securing value and defining expectations in continuing
relationships.

Some proprietary positions in simple distribution chains are
likely to erode as a result of disintermediation and intense
competition. Reduced production costs and pressure to avoid
residual transaction costs may force vendors away from
complex pricing models. For example, usage-based pricing may
give way to subscription pricing. Such dynamics will lead to
new business models and, in small markets where users are
also producers, may lead to new institutional arrangements
for managing life-cycle costs of information.

Similarly, as production costs decrease, the costs of
information may be assimilated by the underlying
infrastructure or assumed by advertisers and other
interests. This trend may be seen in the pricing of online
services and in the massive volunteering of content on the
World Wide Web. This applies to context and other forms of
value, inasmuch as the Web, including client software and
servers, enables editorial and navigation functions
traditionally performed by publishers and libraries to be
performed increasingly by individual authors and users.

Cost analysis in this environment may hinge on
identification and evaluation of critical bottlenecks --
with the understanding that many technological limitations
may be short-lived. Congestion may lead to new methods of
supplementing point-to-point transmissions, such as caching,
mirroring, and satellite broadcast. These new mechanisms
raise intellectual property and interconnection questions
that may addressed as both business and policy issues.

Network congestion and the demand for Internet telephony and
other real-time services may hasten the implementation of
type of service priority at the network level. This in turn
would facilitate marketing of quality at the server and
other levels, especially if vertical bundling proves
successful. If so, vendors may be tempted to package and
price to many dimensions of value. Conversely, simple
pricing models may have surprisingly strong appeal, as they
have had in the analog environment.

Sequential distribution windows for motion pictures
illustrate the potential for simple price differentiation in
a environment with many distribution alternatives, and price
differentiation is now playing an increasingly important
role in the marketing of software and databases. There may
be public policy arguments for price differentiation, not
only for reasons of efficiency but to enable some of level
of access for those who cannot afford it under standard
terms, just as public libraries have offered access for
those who could not afford to buy.

*****

The project emphasizes the sharing of insight among scholars
and practitioners with different skills and backgrounds.
Papers should be written in a clear, non-technical manner
(technical appendices are permitted) for a mixed,
interdisciplinary audience that will include publishers,
librarians, economists, lawyers, and policy- makers.

Prospective authors should submit short abstracts for review
and comment as soon as possible. Extended abstracts or
outlines should be submitted by November 11, 1996, to ensure
consideration for the program. Acceptances of abstracts and
outlines are conditional pending receipt of a satisfactory
draft by January 15, 1996. Papers and supplementary material
will be published as a volume in the Project's series with
the MIT Press. Copyright assignment is not required, and
parallel or subsequent publication of individual papers in
journals is encouraged.

Please send paper proposals and requests for subsequent
announcements to:

Nora O'Neil
noneil@ksgrsch.harvard.edu
Coordinator, Information Infrastructure Project
John F. Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-496-1389; Fax: 617-495-5776

Program committee:

Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford/MIT
Esther Dyson, EDventure Holdings
Brian Kahin, Harvard
Jeffrey Mackie-Mason, Michigan
Paul Evan Peters, CNI
Hal Varian, UC Berkeley


*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************



CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

MUSEUMS AND THE WEB
MARCH 16-19, 1997
OMNI LOS ANGELES HOTEL & CENTRE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Organized by
Archives & Museum Informatics

(This message has two parts: Expression of Interest and Call for Papers)

        ------------------------------------------------------

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
It has only been a short three years since the appearance of the first
museum web sites. Today there are hundreds of museums with a presence on
the World Wide Web. The nature and purpose of these sites varies greatly
and we believe that museums have much to learn from each other and from
developers who have been using the Web for other applications.
To provide an opportunity for learning, Archives & Museum Informatics
will host the FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO
MUSEUMS AND THE WEB, to be held March 16-19, 1997 at the Omni Los Angeles
Hotel & Centre, Los Angeles, California.

If you would like to be kept informed of the program as it develops, or
learn more about opportunities to exhibit or speak, please complete the
form below and fax or email it to us.

Name:
Street Address:
City/Postal Code/Country:
Phone:                   Fax:
E-mail:
URL:

Send me more information. I am interested in:
Attending /  /       Exhibiting /  /       Sponsoring  /  /

* Proposals will be selected based on their quality and attention to
topics of interest to you. Tell us what you most want to know about
Museums and the Web:



* We will offer half and one day workshops before the conference. Tell us
about topics of special interest to you and/or instructors from whom you
have taken exceptionally valuable workshops in this area:



* We will host continental breakfasts for groups with common interests to
get together and share ideas. Tell us the types of Special Interest
Groups you would be interested participating in:

        ------------------------------------------------------

CALL FOR PAPERS

PROPOSALS ARE BEING ACCEPTED UNTIL NOVEMBER 30, 1996 TO:
- Present a paper;
- Organize a session (2-4 speakers); or
- Teach a workshop (1/2 or full day).

PROPOSALS SHOULD INCLUDE:
- The title of the proposed event and an abstract which clearly
states the specific contribution it will make;
- Full identification of the presenter(s), including title, postal
  address, phone, fax, email, and URL.

Proposals will be reviewed by the conference advisory committee and
participants will be notified of acceptance by December 15, 1996.
Accepted papers will be published (on the WWW and/or in print) and
abstracts will be made available through the conference Web site in
January 1997.

TOPICS MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE DEFINITELY NOT LIMITED TO:
   I. Applications of Web Technology
- Educational Programming: K-12 Outreach on the Web.
- The Museum Digital Community: Electronic Volunteers, Virtual
  Members, Remote Audiences.
- Professional Resources on the Web: Web Peers, Virtual Support
  Networks, Professional Organizations, etc.
- Museum Public Relations via an Institutional Web Site.
- Museum Exhibitions on the Web.
- Higher Education and Museums on the Web.
- Income Producing Activity and the Web.
- Imagebases, Multimedia, and Publishing.
- The Concept of the "Museum" in the Digital Age

  II. Organizing for the Networked Society
- Staffing, Training, and Professional Development.
- Budgeting, Managing, and Maintaining a Web Presence.
- Museum Intranets - Leveraging the Technology for In-house
  Benefits.
- Consortia, National, and International Projects.
- New Technologies & Opportunities for the Near Future.
- Standards, Architectures, and Long-term Strategies.
- Design Issues: User Interfaces, Navigational Aids, and Site
        Structure.
- Copyright and Licensing: Protecting and Providing Museum
  Property.
- Access & Accessibility: Resource Discovery, Metadata, and Domain
  Naming.

SEND PROPOSALS BY NOVEMBER 30, 1996 TO:
David Bearman, Conference Chair, dbear@pgh.net
or fax them to Archives & Museum Informatics at 412-683-7366

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