Abstract

The early modern internet: how social software and semantic web technologies will help scholars move beyond digital incunabula
The term 'incunabula' is used by historians to refer to books that were developed very soon after the printing press was introduced. One of their characteristics is that, though they were printed, they were often designed to look as much like manuscripts as possible. Today we put content online and try to make it look like printed books or journals. We are creating the incunabula of the Internet.

Learned societies played a critical role in the transformation from 'manuscript culture' to 'print culture' in Early Modern Europe. This switch, though radical, was not as straightforward or as quick as most imagine. It took centuries to develop many of the publishing conventions that we now take for granted. The 'print culture' that we are familiar with now was the result of countless 'small revolutions'.

The first 'small revolution' in online journal publishing is over. It ended years ago when virtually every important scholarly journal had been made available online as PDF files. But over the past few years,the making of a new revolution have been forming.

Scholarly publishers are just beginning to think about ways in which they can move beyond digital incunabula and make use of the new generation of social software tools, semantic web technologies and data mining techniques in order to redefine the 'publication'.

The impact of information technology innovation on higher education
Higher education has undergone tremendous change, with an explosion in the number and type of students, as well as in research volume. The expanded availability and use of information technologies is at the heart of much of this change. How can university leaders plan for technology change in an environment where secure access to information and content is expected to be ubiquitously provided? This session will examine how best to provide service and support to an expanded customer base while protecting institutional and personal information and assets.