We have been asked by the administration to change our name to Pratt SILS Student Association Blog and to post a legal disclaimer, to make it even more clear that we are offically independent from the Pratt-SILS administration –in case the disclaimer on the About page is not enough.
Apparently, if you Google Pratt SILS the first link that comes up is dead –thanks to the new pratt.edu. If you are looking for the school, the first link that actually works is the Pratt-SILS Blog. I noticed that last night, and realized that we had become, accidentally, the face of Pratt-SILS.
In some ways, I thought that seemed right…
Nevertheless, the first post that your see over Google is the popular “Poma-Swank drama” entry. Is this the best face to show to the public? (Nevermind that the real face Pratt-SILS is showing currently looks like this:)
Since we have become, by default, the entry point into Pratt-SILS, are we under an ethical obligation to now change our name to distinguish ourselves from the school administration?
- Is the Pratt-SILS Blog violating any copyright laws that you can see?
- Is there anything else controversial about this blog?
- Should we change our name?
Please comment!
I have temporarily suspended access to the controversial post because I am at work, and distracted, and can not come to a conclusion over what is the ethically correct thing to do. What do you think?
Hastily,
Becky
Afterthought regarding the name of the Blog: Because the Pratt SILS Student Association receives funding from the Pratt administration I am disinclined to state a formal affiliation with SILSSA, since doing so would make us less, rather than more, independent.
10 responses so far ↓
kpetric // February 22, 2007 at 8:08 pm |
Becky, thanks for your post. I’m sure all of us can come up with a solution so that the blog remains independent and we can post whatever we deem useful. I encourage people to contact you, off-blog if necessary, to express their views. I will do so as well. Thanks for all of your and everyone else’s great work!
–Ken
mwcirrito // February 22, 2007 at 10:22 pm |
We can’t control what comes up as a result of a Google search, can we? I think you’ve made it abundantly clear that this blog is student-run and independent of both Pratt and the SILS administration. I agree that stating a SILSSA affiliation puts you/us in a position of being more “official” rather than less.
No, I don’t think you’re violating copyright, as you aren’t using the Pratt logo or appropriating material from the school’s website (that I’ve noticed).
As for the Poma-Swank controversy – well, it DID happen and there are some interesting emails related to it and how it was handled by the Dean and by Professor Poma-Swank. The students didn’t make it up, but posted it (for the second time) in a public forum. No crime in that.
If it reflects poorly on the school or the Dean, perhaps they and she should reflect on that rather than try and censor an independent student blog.
jeremy hunsinger // February 23, 2007 at 8:59 am |
I agree with the prior poster, the inability of the administration to manage its affairs on the WWW has no affect upon you.
Personally, I would not put SILSSA as related to the blog unless they are paying you or there is some other direct relationship. Once you enter into a relationship of dependence, I would think that you will lose editorial control. If your blog is part of silssa, then they can vote to replace you, if you take money, they can fire you. Stay independent.
I do not see that there is any copyright violation on the blog, if someone says there is, I suspect they are trying to bully you. The only copyright that may have been of issue was the reposting of materials from the list, where the author of those materials owns the copyright. If they want to enforce that, that is fine, don’t repost the materials, just link to them and describe them.
I see no ethical obligation either, perhaps you could enlighten us as to the nature of that claim? The relationship between student and school/department, does not have any ethical obligations that I know of in the direction of student to school, the ethical and fiduciary claims go the other direction except where made explicit such as in the student handbook. The school has a responsibility on the other hand to you, to serve your needs, to protect your rights, and to help you become what you came to school to become. The students have, as best as I can tell, those responsibilities as described int he student handbook. There is also the question of having an obligation to knowledge, as current and future librarians…
To me, the event that has been removed from this blog… was a public event, it happened on public lists, and was described as such. I don’t think the School has any claim to it beyond a claim to their actions and postings. To me, it has a place here because it affects students.
kpetric // February 23, 2007 at 10:13 am |
I have spoken to a few people with copyright experience and as long as we are not hosted on a Pratt or SILS server and not accepting money from any organization affiliated with Pratt they see no problem with what we are doing. They did, like most of us, question the appropriateness of the SILS administration’s response.
I agree that we have enough disclaimers and we don’t need anymore, but I don’t really understand exactly what they mean by “legal disclaimer”. Maybe the Dean or someone else there should post a comment. I think we should put the Poma-Swank comments back up. Its a great way to steer people to all the great stuff on the blog!
Jessica // February 23, 2007 at 2:57 pm |
This is probably stupid, but could the copyright issue be related to the syllabi? Can a syllabus be copyrighted?
I’m enjoying the blog so far, keep up the good work!
Jeremy // February 23, 2007 at 4:07 pm |
Everything that is an original work in the U.S. is copyrighted by the creator, that is the default. So yes, syllabi are copyrighted, at least by the authors, but also probably by pratt, however, as a member of the pratt community, you have a right to see these, i think, though I’m not sure about reposting them, th at would depend on pratt policy, and on the faculty’s preference. It is unclear.. who owns the copyright on syllabi at pratt, but I’d guess that it reverts to the faculty member.
Alicia // February 24, 2007 at 3:50 pm |
I have spent the past day and night pouring over the blog trying to determine what the controversy was about. Of course being a librarian in training I did my research. I looked up other schools blogs and blogs in the profession and found ours to be quite similar. For the purpose of this post I’m considering the Poma-Swank topic to be a non-issue because it’s been taken down and is a dead topic.
It’s unfortunate no one posted back about what copyrights were in violation. This could be an excellent learning experience for everyone involved! We could collectively learn intellectual copyright and figure things out to make it right! I was really looking forward to such a practical learning experience.
Here’s what I found out:
Since this is an independent blog there are no legal obligations in relation to the school.
Embedding Youtube videos in your blog is legal. They even give you the code to embed the video. The person who has posted the video can take the code off the video if they do not want people to embed their videos. Any legal issues about the video themselves are actually issues with Youtube, not the blog.
In terms of quoting from a blog to a blog, there are no standards yet. The manuals of style do not yet have standards of citing blogs. So technically any way you cite from a blog to a blog is legal because the authorities haven’t determined correct forms of citations yet. (If someone has found the standards please let us know!) And certainly linking is not illegal; the entire web would be at fault if it were. Linking is how the web functions. So how is this page: http://silsblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/summer-seminars-in-oxford-prague-and-ljubljana/ in violation of copyright?
I think this would be a great platform for Pratt students to expand upon. How fantastic would it be if we wrote the standards and set them so well that the authorities followed our lead?
Google explains their search results here: http://www.google.com/explanation.html
It’s a complex pile of algorithms that probably looks like a big plate of spaghetti. People who post do not have control over what is first, second or last link on Google. Google has control over their algorithms but that doesn’t necessarily mean they control what is linked first, second or last. In fact, a few months ago Googling “miserable failure” used to link to pages about President Bush. Now because the course of that traffic has changed to people talking about the fact that Googling miserable failure comes up with President Bush. You can check that out here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm
Being a librarian comes with a field of controversy behind us and one in front of us. I think it’s our job to discuss controversy appropriately. I sincerely hope that no one is offended by the post about the Newberry controversy: http://silsblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/scrotum-is-scientifically-correct-no/
Our jobs depend on us to be versed in dealing with controversy.
So there’s my two cents. I basically agree with the other posters and am curious to why there is opposition towards it. I feel it is imperative that today’s library students are participating in blogs, wikis, instant messaging and all the other technological stuff I don’t yet know about. This is a huge step forward for Pratt entering the technological environment and for student community.
holly // April 18, 2007 at 1:46 pm |
i just googled “Pratt” and “SILS.” the first link was good.
on the other hand, i see no problem in a legal disclamer. it doesn’t have to overwhelm the page, just be there like those disclaimers on car commercials about how it’s a closed circuit and the drivers are professionals ;-D
Becky // April 20, 2007 at 12:16 pm |
They fixed that link back in February! I guess this is all sort of old news…
annamaria pomaswank // November 9, 2007 at 6:42 am |
I want to say that my case is not over…certainly is not a dead topic.
The Dean has deleted my name from every previous activities I did while associate professor at Pratt.
I can recive e-mail form pratt sils,
but my messages are never posted online.
The Dean continue a persecution I cannot pass under silence anylonger.
I want still thank the students who supported me
and dr. Bencivengo….Students should discuss why Pratt administration allowed such illegal beahvior toward good professors.
It seems to me that faculty is at mercy of private vendettas and unlimited power.
I still believe that what has been done to me and prof. Bencivengo should not happen in an educational institution, unless we renounce our
duty as good educators in a democratic society as is the USA.
Thank you for listening to me, for what is worth
Annamaria Poma Swank, Ph.D
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