CITIDEP NEWS - 31 October 2000

CITIDEP - Research Center on Information Technologies and Participatory Democracy
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CITIDEP NEWS - 31 October 2000
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Summary: Colloquium "Public Libraries and New Technologies"; ICPPIT99 Book presentation, "Public Participation and Information Technologies 1999"; VideoConference Forum Lisboa - U. Massachusetts; Television Interview/documentary on CITIDEP; CITIDEP-Mexico Seminars.

1 - Colloquium

October 11-13, 2000, took place in Lisbon, Portugal, the Colloquium "Public Libraries and New Technologies: How to fight info-poor exclusion?", jointly organized by Lisbon Municipality (Culture Department) and CITIDEP, with more than 350 registered participants and 45 communications, among which 10 international guest speakers (France, UK, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Mexico, USA).

Communications from CITIDEP: Alejandro Natal (Colegio Mexiquense), Mel King (MIT and Tent City, USA), Pedro Andrade (U. Coimbra, Portugal) and Pedro Ferraz de Abreu (MIT, USA); as well CITIDEP friends Anne-Catherine Fritzinger (Bibliotheque Marseille, France), and Susan Stuebing (Twynstra Group, Holland). Ana Reis prepared a presentation on CITIDEP Citizenship Kit Project, but could not attend.

At the Colloquium opening session, the Mayor of Lisbon, Joao Soares, after mentioning his long-time friendship and collaboration with CITIDEP President, Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, expressed his strong support to the initiative and the Municipality's commitment to a strategic cooperation with CITIDEP on its drive to use new technologies to fight social exclusion, of which the work in progress towards building a new, modern, central public library for Lisbon was a good example. The President of the New University of Lisbon, Sousa Lobo, holding ICPPIT99's Book in his hand, praised the academic quality of this joint CITIDEP - DCEA/UNL publication, and expressed also the interest in pursuing the cooperation between CITIDEP and the New University of Lisbon, in line with initiatives like the past ICPPIT99 Conference, the book, and present Colloquium. Besides the interventions of the organizers, Manuela Rego (CML Culture Dep. Head) and Pedro Ferraz de Abreu (CITIDEP President), spoke also at the opening Mel King (Emeritus MIT and CITIDEP Science Council) and Maria Calado (City CouncilWoman for Culture).

The Colloquium was videotaped and CITIDEP is considering a limited edition on CD by 2001. Communications sent by participants up to the end of November 2000 will be published in a "non-frills" Proceedings.

As it was to be expected in this kind of meeting (no referee selection), there was a wide variety of presentations, with different depths. In general, interventions were well received, and all guest speakers made very interesting presentations. Thanks to an active participation of guest speakers like Mel King and others, the Colloquium's program was extended with an informal round table discussion. All international guest speakers were also invited to a formal Municipality dinner, and to an informal CITIDEP dinner party, which was very animated.

More information can be found at http://www.citidep.pt/act/ebiblio2000.html

Organization (CITIDEP): Pedro Ferraz de Abreu.

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2 - Book presentation:

At the same occasion, it was formally presented the book "Public Participation and Information Technology 1999", in the sequence of the International Conference on Public Participation and Information Technologies (ICPPIT99) jointly organized by CITIDEP and DCEA-FCT-UNL (Dep. of Environmental Science and Engineering of the New University of Lisbon), past October 1999. Spoke at the presentation Joao Joanaz de Melo (DCEA-FCT-UNL Faculty and CITIDEP Science Council), Sousa Lobo (President of UNL), Mel King (MIT Emeritus Professor and CITIDEP Science Council) and Pedro Ferraz de Abreu (CITIDEP President). The book was well received, and 14 people bought it on the spot. The Portuguese Ministry of Education bought 100, for Universities, Research Centers and Libraries.

The book will include a CD-ROM (in press) with a HTML version of the book and "videobites" of the Conference sessions and VideoConference with MIT - DUSP, and costs, CD included, 5 000 PTE (25 Euro). All ICPPIT99 registered participants and guests will receive it without further costs (included in registration), as soon the CD-ROM is ready (November). You can order any number of copies to this email (mailto:citidep@netcabo.pt,citidep@netcabo.pt), and soon on-line at http://www.citidep.pt/icppit99/order.html .

If you know of any person or Institution whom may be interested in this book, please send the name / contact and full address to us. It is important that we build a quality target list, ASAP. Thank you.

More information can be found on http://www.citidep.pt/icppit99/

Organization (CITIDEP): Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, Joao Joanaz de Melo, Susana Gois, David Santos.

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3 - VideoConference:

As part of the Colloquium program, CITIDEP, together with Lisbon Municipality and the University of Massachusetts, organized this 13 October a live videoconference between the Forum Lisboa and Healey Library at U. Massachusetts/Boston.

Boston side:

* Welcome - Timothy Sieber (UM/B e CITIDEP Science Council) and Marie McHugh (Simmons e
CITIDEP-USA Committee)
* Introductions - Daniel Ortiz, Director, Healey Library * Opening Remarks - William Bulger, President, University of Massachusetts * Remarks - James Matarazzo, Dean of the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, Simmons College
* Presentation - Ann McLaughlin, Director, Quincy Public Libraries, "The Mission of a Public Library: New Strategies for Modern Library Services"

Lisbon side (panel):

* Moderator - Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, MIT and CITIDEP, USA and Portugal

* Anne-Catherine Fritzinger, Marseille Public Library, France * Barbro Bolonassos, Public Library of Stokolm, Sweden * Frank Thissen, Director of Academy of School of Libraries and Information of Stutgart, Germany
* Luis Sa', Director of Library Division of Lisbon Municipality, Portugal * Mel King, MIT Emeritus Professor, Tent City Center and CITIDEP, USA * Mieke ven den Besselaar, Association for Public Libraries NBLC, Holland * John Dolan, Adjunt Director of the Libraries of the City of Birmingham, UK

The Videoconference, after a technical scare (20 minutes late connection), was a live, interesting one hour discussion with both sides well engaged in question/answer/comment dialog, after an outstanding presentation by the speaker and relevant introduction remarks from Boston side.

Portuguese Television filmed the videoconference, and interviewed CITIDEP President minutes before.

CITIDEP-USA Committee will send additional information on this first formal CITIDEP cooperation with U.Mass. On Lisbon side, all feedback we received from panel participants and audience members was extremely positive, non-withstanding technical difficulties.

Organization (CITIDEP): Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, Marie McHugh, Timothy Sieber, Ana Reis, Susana Gois.

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4 - Television Interviews:

In the sequence of the Colloquium, and in particular the videoConference, the Portuguese Public Television (RTP2) requested an interview with Mel King and Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, to talk about CITIDEP and its projects. Of particular interest to them was a demonstration of the IMS software prototype, developed for CITIDEP project "Intelligent Multimedia System for Public Consultation in EIA" and part of research at MIT, DUSP (check http://www.citidep.pt/ims/eindex.html for details on this project). A Television crew filmed a demonstration during an interview at CITIDEP lab site at Alto dos Moinhos (courtesy of our colleague Carlos Ramos, Aquiforum and CITIDEP). We believe it is their intention to do some kind of documentary on CITIDEP, and we will keep portuguese fellows posted when we have news on broadcasting schedules.

The television reporter expressed a particular interest on the "Citizenship Kit" project (http://www.citidep.pt/act/citikit.html), whenever we reach the stage where we can show a demonstration.

Organization (CITIDEP):Orlando Goncalves, Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, Susana Gois, Carlos Ramos.

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5 - CITIDEP - Mexico Seminars:

Our colleague Alejandro Natal presented to CITIDEP President a proposal towards the formal constitution of CITIDEP-Mexico Chapter, beginning with the organization of a Seminar Series at the Colegio Mexiquense on "Civil Society and New Technologies", based on two research areas: "Sociedad Civil y Informacion", headed by Alejandro Natal, and "Tercer Sector y Nuevas Tecnologias de la Informacion", headed by Prudencio Oscar Mochi Aleman. The proposal was accepted, and CITIDEP Science Council will soon be invited to comment on the research plan, which will be published at CITIDEP Web site. Meanwhile, please direct all inquiries to Alejandro Natal (mailto:anatal@cmq.colmex.mx).

Organization (CITIDEP): Alejandro Natal.

==== End of CITIDEP NEWS - 31 October 2000 ====

CITIDEP Bulletin Team
http://www.citidep.pt/eindex.html

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