‘Networks of Knowledge’ topic of Dec. 1 Scientia lecture

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Rice professor Richard Baraniuk will discuss “Networks of Knowledge” at the next Scientia lecture, set for 4 p.m. Dec. 1 in McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall. A reception will be held after the colloquium.

	RICHARD BARANIUK

The last 15 years have seen major shifts in the nature of knowledge production and circulation. The Internet has enabled new modes of authorship, new forms of open licensing and distribution, and new forms of collaboration and peer production. New online education projects, scientific journals and reference works have rapidly gained critical mass. In turn, however, new anxieties have arisen concerning the long-term sustainability and quality assurance of these enterprises. In this talk, Baraniuk will review the past, present and several potential futures of Internet-enabled scholarly publication with a particular emphasis on the global open-access movement.

Baraniuk, the Victor E. Cameron Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, was recognized this summer with a World Technology Award for his pioneering work on Connexions, the university’s Web site to develop and freely share scholarly content.

The theme of this year’s Scientia lecture series is networks; lectures will consider not only the ways in which networks are changing people’s lives, but also how insights into the operation and architecture of networks may generate solutions to a wide variety of problems.

Scientia is an institute of Rice University faculty founded in 1981 by the mathematician and historian of science Salomon Bochner. Scientia provides an opportunity for scholarly discussion across disciplinary boundaries; its members and fellows come from a wide range of academic disciplines.

Scientia lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~scientia.