Protecting an uncensored Internet: the global response to SOPA legislation

In late January 2012, Internet companies such as Google, Wikipedia, Flickr and Mozilla Firefox shut down their sites in protest against the introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Millions of internet users took to social media to pledge their disapproval for these laws which opponents claim will threaten free speech and innovation. The power of this public response caused the withdrawal of support from key politicians, defeating the legislation and sending it back to the drawing boards.
This expert panel explored at the legislation and explains why it was introduced, analysed the response from the Internet community and the bigger issues surrounding online piracy and Internet censorship.

Featuring Dr Nic Suzor (QUT researcher in law and technology), Dr Sean Rintel (UQ, social communication technology researcher) and Dr Axel Bruns (QUT researcher in  social media mapping, citizen journalism and online publishing). Facilitated by Mark Fallu (Griffith University).

 
When: Wed 1 Feb 2012, 6:00 pm
Venue: slq Auditorium 1, level 2
Duration: 1:02:20 hours
Download audio: mp3 [60mb]
Windows media (audio): broadband

Griffith Review Lecture: Islands of Identity

It is said no man (or woman) is an island, and humans are communal creatures. For Indigenous Australians, navigating between the mainland – or mainstream culture – and ‘islands’ of traditional culture can be trying, and may even exacerbate mental illness and violence. But how do we define the concept of community and find our place within it?

Join Melissa Lucashenko, award-winning novelist and contributor to Griffith REVIEW 34: The Annual Fiction Edition, in conversation with Paul Barclay for a discussion on native title, land rights and the importance of finding our own islands of home, country and space.

Speakers: Melissa Lucashenko and Paul Barclay
When: Mon 31 Oct 2011, 6:30 pm - 08:00 pm
Where: slq Auditorium 1, level 2, State Library of Queensland
Duration: 1:04:30
Download audio:  mp3 [60 MB]
Windows media (audio): broadband

Survival and resilience

In a media-saturated world, it can feel as if the rate and scale of disasters is straight out of a doomsday movie. Yet behind the headlines there are complex stories of renewal and new thinking on how to rebuild our lives and communities.

Join contributors to Griffith REVIEW 35: Surviving, including author and journalist Matthew Condon, Green Cross CEO Mara Bun, and disaster management expert Professor Sidney Dekker for a discussion on Brisbane’s floods, sustainable recovery and the inspiration of the stories, myths and beliefs that sustain hope in the wake of crisis, moderated by Dr Kate Evans.

Presented by State Library of Queensland and Griffith REVIEW.

Where: slq Auditorium 1

When: 28 March 2012

Duration: 1 hr approx.

Download audio: mp3 56 MB

Further reading on Survival and Resilience [new window  71 kb]

Behind the screen

It’s a new century and everyone’s a critic. As new technology allows us immediate access to a bigger world of film than ever before, and a free platform to express our opinions, is the role of the film critic now redundant or more important than ever?

Join us for our first monthly panel discussion covering all things film with your host, noted film journalist and BIFF organiser Sarah Ward. This month's special guests are Lee Zachariah from ABC TV's The Bazura Project, and local film writer and reviewer Des Partridge.

Where: slq Auditorium 1

When: Thu 22 March 2012

Remix: Culture, Technology, Entrepreneurship

We are witnessing the inevitable transformation of the global cultural sector with the emergence of new technologies, consumer trends and business models. What are the opportunities and challenges ahead of us?

Hear from Peter Tullin and Simon Cronshaw, the London-based founders of CultureLabel.com, who address these fundamental questions. Simon and Peter believe cultural organisations can create new commercial income streams on the strength of what they already possess - great content, great experiences and great brands.

Peter Tullin and Simon Cronshaw of CultureLabel were guests of the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) as part of AbaF's Richard Pratt Legacy Project developing leadership in the arts and cultural sector with support from The Pratt Foundation. Thanks to national tour partner the British Council and in Queensland major presenting partner the State Library of Queensland. Find out more: abaf.org.au

For more info about CultureLabel visit http://www.culturelabel.com/blog/category/remix

When  5.30pm, Tues 17 Apr 2012
Where  slq Auditorium 1, level 2

Further reading

Future pedagogy

In October State Library of Queensland hosted Professor Stephen Heppell from the United Kingdom to talk about future pedagogies. The day was offered as a professional development for Queensland teachers and educators and focused on the transition of year 7 into secondary school, the roll-out of the National Curriculum and the main design challenges for Queensland classrooms. With schools globally re-thinking the concept of a learning space, moving away from an industrial-era model of a classroom to a space able to support new paradigms for learning in a twenty first century, this presentation was a discussion at the heart of this global revolution.

Professor Stephen Heppell has a string of major new building projects worldwide including a 0-21+ academy in the UK and a complete makeover of a national education system in the Caribbean. His research project in 2003 exploring for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and Royal Institute of British Architects in the UK on the impact of new pedagogies on the design of learning spaces kick started a new rhetoric of school design in the UK and beyond.

Connected communities

Right across the world people are using digital technologies, such as mobile phones, the internet and social media, to stay connected with friends and family. Ideally these technologies would help to keep communities strong. However these tools also influence ways of living – some outcomes of which wouldn’t traditionally be acceptable. Join panellists Susan Beetson, Tom Mosby and Professor Simon Kaplan as they consider the effects of this globalised world on community culture and values.

When: Thu 22 Sep, 6.30pm
Where: slq Auditorium 1, level 2
Duration: 00:57:06 minutes
Download audio: mp3 [53mb]
Windows media (audio): broadband

Deepen the conversation - Understanding Floods

Is Queensland different?

We take a light-hearted look at ourselves in this lively debate with a panel including The Courier-Mail’s QWeekend editor and author Matt Condon, historian and ABC Radio National producer Dr Kate Evans, and prize-winning author and historian Dr Raymond Evans.

Part of the John Oxley Library Open Day on 4 Jun 2011

When: Sat 4 June 2011
Where: slq Auditorium 1, level 2
Duration: 59:04
Download audio: mp3 [59 MB]
Windows media (audio): broadband

Liberating digital content: a Right to Information Day breakfast panel discussion

The State Library of Queensland, Queensland State Archives and the Queensland Office of the Information Commissioner provided a free breakfast panel discussion as part of the celebrations marking Queensland's annual Right to Information Day.

Chaired by Dr Nicholas Gruen, the panel discussion addressed the topic 'Liberating digital content: the challenges and opportunities of open government'.

Explore what Government 2.0 and the National Broadband Network will mean for the world of public sector information.  Will it mean unlocking the latent information wealth of the nation - or a loss of control and privacy?

Panel members

• Ann Steward, Australian Government Chief Information Officer of the Australian Government Information Management Office, Dept of Finance and Deregulation
• Janet Prowse, Executive Director and State Archivist, Queensland State Archives
• Rory McLeod, Director, Client Services and Collection, State Library of Queensland
• Dr Paul Campbell, Executive Officer, Queensland ICT Industry Workgroup

Please click on the following links to view the video:

Part One - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEr-0obyrVw
Part Two - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snlPbY3tKA4

The psychology of happiness

What are the humanities worth?

A recent audit of Australian universities revealed an alarming weakness in the quality of humanities and social sciences research. This is symptomatic of a wider malaise in the state of Australian arts and culture. Join philosopher and best-selling author John Armstrong, Senior Advisor to the Vice Chancellor at the University of Melbourne, as he calls for radical reform to the way humanities and social sciences are valued and advanced. Drawing from his essay in Griffith REVIEW 31: Ways of Seeing, John will discuss how we can learn from literature, philosophy and the creative imagination to find new approaches to complex, urgent twenty-first century problems.

Speaker: John Armstrong
When:  Thu 24 Feb 2011 6.30 pm
Where: slq Auditorium 1, level 2
     State Library of Queensland

Duration: 1:10:10 hours
Download audio:  mp3 [68 MB]
Windows media (audio): broadband