What is your definition of “intellectual property”? What is an “expert’s” definition of intellectual property? What examples of intellectual property, from academic or everyday life, can you name? How does the concept of intellectual property change when it can be manipulated and shared?
For this blog post we are to talk about intellectual property, and to address a few questions presented to us on the subject.
My own definition of "intellectual property" is all forms of media and various art forms which are owned by a person who has created the concept or idea. So because they created the idea they own intellect which created the media in question is owned by them and is trademarked by them.
The 'expert' definition of intellectual property that I got from the world intellectual property organization website is :Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
IP is divided into two categories: Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. (http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/)
Some examples of intellectual property that I can name from my every day life and in my academical setting are: textbooks, novels, paintings, poetry, films made in art class, and photos taken.
I believe the concept of intellectual property changes when it can be manipulated and shared in that because it is shared it can become a source of inspiration of others who then use that work possibly as a reference to that piece. So then in some ways it makes it harder to determine if a persons intellectual property has been violated and used by another, since the new work is not an exact copy of the original and defining ownership of an idea or concept is a hard thing to do if it is not seen that it is an complete and utter copy of the original. It is a new idea and is different so it is hard to identify the amount of intellectual property of the original that is in the new version.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Urvashi Vaid
During our IM 204 class we decided to go to a presentation that was being given by Urvashi Vaid on Campus so we had a half class and where given 6 questions to answer in a blog post about what we gathered through this presentation.
1. What where your expectations prior to this event? What did you know about the topic before you attended this event?
I suppose my expectations prior to attending this event where that I would probably learn many new things about some of the things the LGBT community is facing in the United states, and how they are fairing in their battle for equal rights. I knew before attending this event that in the United States there have been some issues for the LGBT community in regards to them gaining the right to be able to have marriage rights with their partners.
2. How was the information presented? Did the information presented at the event differ in any way from what you had learned or believed in the past? How?
I believe Urvashi Vaid started out the presentation by talking about some current issues the LGBT community is facing with gay marriages, a lesbian activist trial, and a bias bill that was passed in New Jersey that was directed at a young man. The information presented did not differ all that much in any way to what I had learned or believed in the past but I did like how Urvashi brought up the point of how some of her friends who had achieved same sex marriage rights in their state would say that the LGBT movement was over now. And how she brought up it is only the beginning and that because of the small victory it did not mean that the people who where against gay marriage are now in favor of it and that society as a whole will welcome this group. She points out that all that will take time and is not instantaneous.
3.What was one thing that you learned from this event that you did not know, or had never heard before?
I learned that only six states in the united states have marriage equality currently. I knew that some states had won this vote, but I did not know how many and I am slightly surprised that it is not a higher number, and I hope that soon it will be legal in all 50 states. I also learned one very odd gay antimalarial stature as to why it should not be allowed is that if it was allowed it would cause people to not reproduce and civilization as we know it would end because their would be no new births of children into this world. Which was so ridiculous that I was just stunned by that stance.
4. Did the personal, professional, or academic background make the speaker an authority on the topic? Why or why not? Yes, Urvashi's personal, professional, and academic background on the subject all made her an authority on the subject she was speaking about. I mean Urvashi Vaid is a community organizer, writer and attorney who has been a leader in the LGBT and social justice movements for nearly three decades. So it is a topic which affects her and she deals with on a regular basis, since she has a partner herself, and has written one book about social equality and has another one which is coming out soon, so she is quite the authority on the subject.
5.What can you take away from this presentation to assist you in your Alternative viewpoints paper?
Well for my own Alternative viewpoints paper there was not a lot which was addressed on the Singaporean LGBT community, so not much help in that respect. But there was a lot of general information about the LGBT community that was potentially useful on the subject. I thought one interesting thing she had said was that in South Africa third gender had been written into law, which I found to be very surprising so for anyone who may have been addressing the LGBT community in Africa it would have been very useful information.
6. (I think this took place.... though what question was asked of Urvashi, I could not make out what was asked....) If someone in the class had the opportunity to ask a question, how did the speaker respond? Was their answer satisfactory to you? Why or why not?
I think the person who asked the last question was in our class, and I know it had something to do with heterosexual individuals but I am not positive as to what was asked question wise so in turn I can therefore not really judge where Urvashi's response was a good one or not, though I am sure it was satisfactory and answered the question that had been posed to her.
1. What where your expectations prior to this event? What did you know about the topic before you attended this event?
I suppose my expectations prior to attending this event where that I would probably learn many new things about some of the things the LGBT community is facing in the United states, and how they are fairing in their battle for equal rights. I knew before attending this event that in the United States there have been some issues for the LGBT community in regards to them gaining the right to be able to have marriage rights with their partners.
2. How was the information presented? Did the information presented at the event differ in any way from what you had learned or believed in the past? How?
I believe Urvashi Vaid started out the presentation by talking about some current issues the LGBT community is facing with gay marriages, a lesbian activist trial, and a bias bill that was passed in New Jersey that was directed at a young man. The information presented did not differ all that much in any way to what I had learned or believed in the past but I did like how Urvashi brought up the point of how some of her friends who had achieved same sex marriage rights in their state would say that the LGBT movement was over now. And how she brought up it is only the beginning and that because of the small victory it did not mean that the people who where against gay marriage are now in favor of it and that society as a whole will welcome this group. She points out that all that will take time and is not instantaneous.
3.What was one thing that you learned from this event that you did not know, or had never heard before?
I learned that only six states in the united states have marriage equality currently. I knew that some states had won this vote, but I did not know how many and I am slightly surprised that it is not a higher number, and I hope that soon it will be legal in all 50 states. I also learned one very odd gay antimalarial stature as to why it should not be allowed is that if it was allowed it would cause people to not reproduce and civilization as we know it would end because their would be no new births of children into this world. Which was so ridiculous that I was just stunned by that stance.
4. Did the personal, professional, or academic background make the speaker an authority on the topic? Why or why not? Yes, Urvashi's personal, professional, and academic background on the subject all made her an authority on the subject she was speaking about. I mean Urvashi Vaid is a community organizer, writer and attorney who has been a leader in the LGBT and social justice movements for nearly three decades. So it is a topic which affects her and she deals with on a regular basis, since she has a partner herself, and has written one book about social equality and has another one which is coming out soon, so she is quite the authority on the subject.
5.What can you take away from this presentation to assist you in your Alternative viewpoints paper?
Well for my own Alternative viewpoints paper there was not a lot which was addressed on the Singaporean LGBT community, so not much help in that respect. But there was a lot of general information about the LGBT community that was potentially useful on the subject. I thought one interesting thing she had said was that in South Africa third gender had been written into law, which I found to be very surprising so for anyone who may have been addressing the LGBT community in Africa it would have been very useful information.
6. (I think this took place.... though what question was asked of Urvashi, I could not make out what was asked....) If someone in the class had the opportunity to ask a question, how did the speaker respond? Was their answer satisfactory to you? Why or why not?
I think the person who asked the last question was in our class, and I know it had something to do with heterosexual individuals but I am not positive as to what was asked question wise so in turn I can therefore not really judge where Urvashi's response was a good one or not, though I am sure it was satisfactory and answered the question that had been posed to her.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
During our Google 101 introduction in class I learned so many new ways in which I could use Google to help me focus on what I was searching for and also giving me tools in which to help me narrow my search results even more. I learned about how when you are typing in your search you can use + to help to expand your search results to include another thing you are searching for that goes along with it. You can use - to help you get rid of information that contains the thing you subtracted to focus on what you are searching for. I also learned that if you find a website you like you can copy it address into the Google search and then do : similar websites and it will help you find more resources that are similar to that site. Also that .gov country( wanna research) will give you government documents in your search for that country. And can use a ~ to help you in your search to find words which are similar to the word you put ~ in front of it to expand your search. I also learned that you can use Google searches from Google sites in other countries to help you if you think it would benefit your research. Also I found that Google Scholar could be quite useful in finding material which was useful in your research because it would tell you how often the source was cited and that would in turn give you an idea of the relevancy of the article. I also liked how under the Google search options it had a tool which gave you the reading level of the website, which could help you get rid of sources that where not up to the standards you may need in doing research.
I liked Google very much even before find out all of these new things about it since I use it multiple times each and every day. So learning more about the proper way to use it has made it even more appealing to me and I am happy that I was able to learn how to use it more efficiently since it will probably help me very much when I am looking for information online.
I will use Google tools/online research strategies such as the +,-,~ to help me expand, limit, and add to what I am searching for in a future class where I may have to do a research project of some sort or just find useful information on some topic to do an assignment. I also think the use of Google Scholar will help me with finding the information I need while at the same time allowing me to know it is a fairly creditable source which I have found. I will use it to find information I need, and because of it I will now probably be able to find things more quickly because of the limiting resources some of the tools have and information with is relevant to what I am searching for. In real life situations if I am just searching for a topic and I get a whole bunch of results, these new searching methods and tools can help me limit my results down to what it is I am searching for.
So in all this was a very pleasant learning experience and I look forward to putting to use the things I learned.
I liked Google very much even before find out all of these new things about it since I use it multiple times each and every day. So learning more about the proper way to use it has made it even more appealing to me and I am happy that I was able to learn how to use it more efficiently since it will probably help me very much when I am looking for information online.
I will use Google tools/online research strategies such as the +,-,~ to help me expand, limit, and add to what I am searching for in a future class where I may have to do a research project of some sort or just find useful information on some topic to do an assignment. I also think the use of Google Scholar will help me with finding the information I need while at the same time allowing me to know it is a fairly creditable source which I have found. I will use it to find information I need, and because of it I will now probably be able to find things more quickly because of the limiting resources some of the tools have and information with is relevant to what I am searching for. In real life situations if I am just searching for a topic and I get a whole bunch of results, these new searching methods and tools can help me limit my results down to what it is I am searching for.
So in all this was a very pleasant learning experience and I look forward to putting to use the things I learned.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Blogging about Blogs
Over the course of our time spent on our semester research project, there are 8 questions we need to address in our oral presentation we will be giving at the end of the semester to our classmates.
1. The human population that I researched was substance abusers with a focus on alcoholism in particular. I wanted to be able to through my research come to a better understanding of what this population of people affected by alcoholism goes through. I wanted to find explanations for their actions and why it is they even start drinking in the first place, and what makes them continue to do so even when they are able to see that it may be drastically impacting their lives and others in a not so positive way.
2. My assumption for alcohol abusers was that they are all to some degree misguided and lacking in control of their actions (because their body or mind have become so heavily dependent on alcohol to get through the day) and this in turn does not make them the most pleasant of people to be around. People who are alcoholics are depicted by their bad decision making skills while drinking because they have become inebriated through the consumption of the alcohol so it is likely that they would not make the best of decisions while consuming it. I assume that to some degree it is their choice whether they continue their chronic use of the substance, since for the most part they choose to start it (though I know they did not start out with the thought 'I'm going to start being an alcoholic today'). And I assume that alcoholism has a drastic impact on the lives of those who are victim to its use and to those whose lives are affected by the actions of the alcoholic. I also assume that people use it to compensate for stress in their lives or problems they are having.
3. I found that people who are chronic alcoholics often resort to drinking because they believe it will mellow them out and make them feel better, but often it is not that they are only stressed but also depressed and because alcohol is a depressant it only makes ones depression worst instead of better.
4. I would have to say that some challenges this group faces in mainstream society is that they are assumed to automatically have more control over themselves and their actions than what they really do have. For some alcoholics it is not just a choice of choosing to drink or not to drink, sometimes the amount in which their body has become addicted to alcohol is stronger than their rational reasoning skills. So I would say people might to easily condemn them and think they don't want to change or they don't want to be helped, and for some this may be true but for others they have become victims to their alcohol use and just find it harder to stop.
6. I would say the challenges that people would find in doing library research and original research on this population is possibly finding information that deals directly with the factor of alcoholism that you are searching for. And I would say that it can be hard to find information that is truly unbiased on alcoholism because I have come across a few books and articles that just completely labels them the scum of the earth, who are violent and nasty people. And of course those sources are very biased in the direction that alcoholism is wrong and it should not happen, and that is in part what makes alcoholics underrepresented in society. We have made it a legal thing in our society so in some ways one would think it odd that it could be so condemned when it is a substance that can be used without any legal repercussions (also long as you’re not belligerent on it)
7. After learning more about my human population the research question I have generated on them is “Why is alcoholism so prevalent in society?” and it is an ongoing investigation because I have been preoccupied with other research questions I came up with that are linked to that question, and I found it sometimes hard to search for information that dealt with that question but Professor Wexelbaum has given me some tips on which to help me with my research question search string. So hopefully I will be able to gather more information on the subject.
1. The human population that I researched was substance abusers with a focus on alcoholism in particular. I wanted to be able to through my research come to a better understanding of what this population of people affected by alcoholism goes through. I wanted to find explanations for their actions and why it is they even start drinking in the first place, and what makes them continue to do so even when they are able to see that it may be drastically impacting their lives and others in a not so positive way.
2. My assumption for alcohol abusers was that they are all to some degree misguided and lacking in control of their actions (because their body or mind have become so heavily dependent on alcohol to get through the day) and this in turn does not make them the most pleasant of people to be around. People who are alcoholics are depicted by their bad decision making skills while drinking because they have become inebriated through the consumption of the alcohol so it is likely that they would not make the best of decisions while consuming it. I assume that to some degree it is their choice whether they continue their chronic use of the substance, since for the most part they choose to start it (though I know they did not start out with the thought 'I'm going to start being an alcoholic today'). And I assume that alcoholism has a drastic impact on the lives of those who are victim to its use and to those whose lives are affected by the actions of the alcoholic. I also assume that people use it to compensate for stress in their lives or problems they are having.
3. I found that people who are chronic alcoholics often resort to drinking because they believe it will mellow them out and make them feel better, but often it is not that they are only stressed but also depressed and because alcohol is a depressant it only makes ones depression worst instead of better.
4. I would have to say that some challenges this group faces in mainstream society is that they are assumed to automatically have more control over themselves and their actions than what they really do have. For some alcoholics it is not just a choice of choosing to drink or not to drink, sometimes the amount in which their body has become addicted to alcohol is stronger than their rational reasoning skills. So I would say people might to easily condemn them and think they don't want to change or they don't want to be helped, and for some this may be true but for others they have become victims to their alcohol use and just find it harder to stop.
6. I would say the challenges that people would find in doing library research and original research on this population is possibly finding information that deals directly with the factor of alcoholism that you are searching for. And I would say that it can be hard to find information that is truly unbiased on alcoholism because I have come across a few books and articles that just completely labels them the scum of the earth, who are violent and nasty people. And of course those sources are very biased in the direction that alcoholism is wrong and it should not happen, and that is in part what makes alcoholics underrepresented in society. We have made it a legal thing in our society so in some ways one would think it odd that it could be so condemned when it is a substance that can be used without any legal repercussions (also long as you’re not belligerent on it)
7. After learning more about my human population the research question I have generated on them is “Why is alcoholism so prevalent in society?” and it is an ongoing investigation because I have been preoccupied with other research questions I came up with that are linked to that question, and I found it sometimes hard to search for information that dealt with that question but Professor Wexelbaum has given me some tips on which to help me with my research question search string. So hopefully I will be able to gather more information on the subject.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Blogging About Blogs (Assignment 12)
Our assignment for this week was to look at blogs about the topic we are doing research for (in my case it is alcoholism), and from these blogs we have looked at, give our opinion on whether or not we believe blogs to be legitimate forms of scholarship or news.
The opinion I have formulated through looking at different blogs (on alcoholism) are that I believe they are or I should say can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news if they are done in a way which is relevant to the topic the blog is about and it keeps a constant update on the subject with the possible use or paraphrasing of information from articles they have read on the subject to further enrich the blog post. I think they can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news because if they done correctly and in a manner which incorporates their own views (though in the case of mine it is mainly just articles which do not include the bloggers own opinion on the subject, but who show they find it to be of relevant through their posting of the information) and experiences on/with the topic including relevant references to current news broadcasts or a recently published article on the subject to help get their viewpoint across to readers of the blog. This in turn helps explain what factors have lead this blogger to have a certain view (or why they find it important to contribute information on a topic) on a topic they are blogging about.
An example which shows that blogs can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news is the blog ALCOHOL REPORTS
What this blog post does is list relevant information about alcoholism through its reference to a link of an article that focuses on alcoholism. The blog allows you to see where this information was first gathered from, and it explains the information to the reader in a way which is understandable but still highly academical. Also from what I have seen on this blog they update it multiple times daily with new information they find in journals, book, and articles in the news and so forth from all over the world and on many different topics which relate to alcoholism. And from what I have seen through looking at numerous posts is that the bloggers really just re-paste these articles on their blog so they are not really altered in content of the intended message of the article at all which makes it in my opinion a very scholarly source of information. I will say though that because this blog updates so often it can be hard to sort through which parts of it you would find useful to what you are looking for on your topic, also some of the articles are harder to understand because they use scientific language and are almost lab report summaries, but other than that it is a source which provides quite a bit of useful information about alcoholism.
References
ALCOHOL REPORTS. (2012, March 9). The Influence of Gene–Environment Interactions on the Development of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence [blop post]. Retrieved from http://alcoholreports.blogspot.com/2012/03/influence-of-geneenvironment.html
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