thomas-gideonTuesday, March 15, 12:30-1:45 PM
MITH Conference Room, McKeldin Library B0135

“The International Amateur Scanning League, Unlocking the Federal Archives One Work at a Time” by THOMAS GIDEON

The federal government has produced and continues to produce a staggering amount of material, most of which is released directly into the public domain. The policies and processes for providing broad access in the age of the internet are still catching up both to that volume and new technologies. Experiments in public-private partnerships have been tried with varying degrees of success. Even the most successful are burdened with odd limitations and restrictions. A small group of volunteers working directly with the National Archives are trying to change that.

THOMAS GIDEON  (@cmdln) is an advocate for free software and free culture. He blogs and podcasts about those experiments in digital commons along with technology policy in general, hacktivism, the experience of being an inveterate technology enthusiast and professional, and much more at The Command Line. (http://thecommandline.net)

A continuously updated schedule of talks is also available on the Digital Dialogues webpage.

Unable to attend the events in person? Archived podcasts can be found on the MITH website, and you can follow our Digital Dialogues Twitter account @digdialog as well as the Twitter hashtag #mithdd to keep up with live tweets from our sessions.

All talks free and open to the public! Refreshments are often provided but attendees are welcome to bring their own lunches.

Contact: Neil Fraistat, Director, MITH (http://mith.umd.edu, mith@umd.edu, 5-8927).