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The Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University is sponsoring a two-day workshop on Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency on January 21-22, 2010. Despite increasing interests in issues of open government and governmental transparency, the values of “openness” and “transparency” have been undertheorized. This workshop will bring together academics, government, advocates and tinkerers to examine a few critical issues in open and transparent government. How do we conceptualize openness and transparency for government? Are there specific design and architectural needs and requirements placed upon systems by openness and transparency? How can openness and transparency best be sustained? How should we change the provision and access of primary legal materials? Finally, how do we best coordinate the supply of open government projects with the demand from tinkerers? (This workshop is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to citp@princeton.edu if you would like a name tag and lunch. Top review the summary, schedule, speakers and directions please visit the conference site.)

The Journal of Research Practice (JRP) seeks to develop our understanding of research as a type of practice, so as to extend and enhance that practice in the future. The Journal aims to highlight the dynamics of research practice, as it unfolds in the life of a researcher, in the growth and decline of a field, and in relation to a changing social and institutional environment. The Journal welcomes deliberation on the basic issues and challenges encountered by researchers in any specific domain. The Journal aims to explore why and how different activities, criteria, methods, and languages become part of research practice in any domain. This is expected to trigger interdisciplinary dialogue, mutual learning, facilitate research education, and promote innovations in different fields. Download the "Call for Submission form."

The Information Literacy Blog brings you news and reports about information literacy around the world. Information Literacy: "the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society."

The International Society of Political Psychology is hosting their 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting on July 7-10, 2010. "Making our World Anew: Political Psychology in an Age of Global Challenges" will be held at the Mark Hopkins Hotel (Nob Hill) in San Francisco, California, USA. Review their Call for Papers.

CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies is sending faculty and students to attend the conference. View their events online.

Community of Democracies is a global intergovernmental coalition of democratic countries, with the goal of promoting democratic rules and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world, founded in 2000, during a Ministerial Conference in Warsaw. The conference was the idea and initiative of the then Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, prof. Bronislaw Geremek and the former U.S. Secretary of State, Dr. Madeleine Albright. In 2000, in Warsaw, ministerial delegations from 106 countries from all around the world signed the final declaration Toward the Community of Democracies, naming values which constitute democracy. The aim of the declaration was to demonstrate methods of support to those countries which strive for freedom and democracy. Community of Democracies is an important global platform for exchange of experiences and consultations toward building and strengthening of democratic order inside the countries as well as in the international system. The members are countries who meet democratic standards worked out and adopted at Community’s summits in Warsaw in 2000 and in Seoul in 2002.

Yale ISP To Host A2K4 Conference on Access to Knowledge and Human Rights
The Information Society Project(ISP) at Yale Law School will host its fourth Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K4), Thursday, February 11, through Saturday, February 13, 2010, at Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT. The three-day event will bring together an international group of scholars and public interest advocates to discuss the intersections between global knowledge policy and human rights. This year’s conference will be the first to focus on the human rights dimension of access to knowledge. Participants will explore the implications of intellectual property, telecommunications and technology policy for freedom of expression, access to education and health care, and other rights recognized in international law.