From zita at ISI.EDU Thu Dec 1 00:34:23 2005 From: zita at ISI.EDU (Zita Wenzel) Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 22:34:23 -1000 Subject: [APRU-DLI] APRUNet Newsletter (v.4, n.11) Message-ID: <438EB58F.2040106@isi.edu> ====================================================== APRUNET NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2005 (V.4, n.11) Current web issue and archived copies: To subscribe to the APRUNet Newsletter, see: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. APRU ?Distance Learning and the Internet Conference? 2. Inaugural APRU Enterprise Business Plan Competition 3. APRU Brain and Mind Research Symposium 4. APRU Doctoral Students Conference 5. 7TH APRU Fellows Program 6. APRU Enterprise Business Plan Competition - Extra Chapter Challenge 7 APRU Research Symposium 2006 - "Earthquake Hazards Around the Pacific Rim - Global Watch and Environmental Impact 8 Library of Congress Backs World Digital Library 9 Online Education Expands in Africa 10. Stanford Podcasts go to iTunes 11. Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative Report 12. Comments and Suggestions 1. APRU ?DISTANCE LEARNING AND THE INTERNET CONFERENCE? The 6th APRU Distance Learning and the Internet (DLI) Conference was held at Far Eastern National University (FENU), Vladivostok, Russia, from 4-7 October 2005. There were 108 participants, 88 of them physical and 20 remote (videoconferences and web presentations). A total of 43 universities from 11 countries were represented including 11 APRU member universities. The sixth in its series, the conference aims to bring together leading, international distance learning experts from academia, business and public sectors. The theme for this year was "Linking People through Information Technology Education". The sub-themes for the Conference were: 1. Content development in distance and blended learning 2. Infrastructure, technology trends and challenges 3. Cultural exchanges through distance learning 4. Student issues in distance learning and the Internet Issues addressed at the Conference included e-learning content and quality assurance, credit transfers, online degree recognition, aspects of infrastructure such as video-conferencing, technology-enabled learning, technology trends and challenges. Special interest topics for this year's conference included student experiences and presentations in distance learning, including the in-person graduation of a group of students who had received their bachelor?s degrees by distance learning between FENU and University of Maryland. The keynote address by Dr. Diana Oblinger, Educause, was delivered by videoconference. Presentations from this year?s conference, and information on next year?s conference, are available on the APRUNet web site at http://www.apru.org/activities/aprunet/. ?The Seventh Annual "Distance Learning and the Internet" Conference will be hosted by University of Tokyo from 8-10 November 2006. 2. INAUGURAL APRU ENTERPRISE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION Inaugural APRU Enterprise Business Plan Competition ? Extra Chapter Challenge (ECC) is now open. This competition will be conducted concurrently but as an additional component of the 7th APRU Doctoral Students Conference (DSC) to be hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 17-21 July 2006. The ECC, with prize money worth approximately US$20,000, is open to doctoral students in any discipline from all APRU member universities (please see attached concept paper). Students are required to write an extra chapter in their dissertations on how they will commercialize their research output with the aim of creating extensive economic and social value beyond their dissertation. The process of developing a sustainable business plan will help them capitalize on their intellectual capabilities, and cultivate a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Further benefits include a rare opportunity to present their work to an international panel of judges comprising distinguished and prominent members of the venture capital community, industry leaders and other experts. Interested students will be required to submit a 2-4 page proposal to your university by 31 December 2005 and the sending university will then select one or more participants to compete in the ECC. Details and procedures for the final Call for Papers are attached. Further information on the program and other conference information will be progressively made available at the conference website at . If you have any queries, please direct them to the ECC Organizing Committee at . The APRU Secretariat can also be contacted at >. 3. APRU BRAIN AND MIND RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM The APRU Brain and Mind Research Symposium is to be held from August 14 to 16 next year at University of Sydney for APRU brain researchers. The Symposium is for senior representatives of APRU brain researchers to meet in Sydney for the three-day symposium. The Symposium's purpose is to illuminate the scope of brain research in APRU and to put specific plans in place for optimizing brain research in the Asia Pacific region. Interested parties may want to contact Professor Max Bennett who is the Scientific Director of the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney and coordinating efforts to hold the Symposium. Professor Bennett can be reached at . 4. APRU DOCTORAL STUDENTS CONFERENCE The 7th APRU Doctoral Students Conference (DSC) will be hosted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 17-21 July 2006. The conference theme is "Inventing the Future: Trends, Perspectives and Enterprise from the Pacific Rim". Building on last year?s theme that centers on a sustainable future, the DSC 2006 aspires to explore the ways in which academic research can contribute towards inventing a future that benefits the community and the world. Designed as an interdisciplinary gathering of doctoral students where the flow of ideas and information converge, the conference provides an important avenue for doctoral students to present their research in an international academic setting to fellow students from other APRU universities. It will be an opportune time for students to obtain critique on their research, establish valuable networks and future academic collaborations. The DSC participants will be provided with 6 nights of free lodging at the NUS residence. No registration fees will be charged as well. We hope that this will strongly promote participation from doctoral students. APRU member universities are encouraged to select and fund the travel of at least one or more doctoral students to this conference. The DSC Call for Papers with details and procedures for submission is posted on the APRU web site . Note that the deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 DECEMBER 2005 and please send them via email to >. For successful DSC applicants, they are also encouraged to maximize their subsidized accommodation by taking part in the APRU Enterprise Business Plan Competition ? Extra Chapter Challenge (ECC) where the top three participants will share prize money of approximately US$20,000. More information on registration, lodging and other conference information will progressively be made available at the conference website at . The NUS conference organizers, Mr. Raphael Funwa Iluyomade and Ms. Chan Mei Yen, may be contacted at > for any queries regarding the conference. 5. 7TH APRU FELLOWS PROGRAM The APRU Fellows Program (AFP) is into its 7th series and next year, it will be hosted by the Australian National University (ANU) from 16-25 August 2006. The 2006 Fellows Program is championed by the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at ANU and will focus on the theme ?Regional Security and Governance?. This year's program aims to bring together faculty members from the political sciences, humanities and social sciences, international relations, law, economics, sciences and environmental studies who are interested to study the myriad of complexities relating to regional security and governance. ? Great Power Politics and Regional Security Implications ? Terrorism and Islam ? Democratization in the Asia Pacific ? The Political Economy of Globalization ? Regional Architecture ? Environmental Security ? Pandemics and Health Security Please contact Ms Maree Tait of ANU via email > or fax: + 61 2 61250767 by 31 March 2006. Registration awards may be available for APRU member universities from developing economies. If you wish to apply for the registration awards for your fellow, please contact the APRU Secretariat at >. 6. APRU ENTERPRISE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION - EXTRA CHAPTER CHALLENGE 31 Jan 2006: Submission of 2-4 page proposals/letter of recommendation 16 Feb 2006: Announcement on selected winner/s for participation at ECC 23 Jun 2006: Submission of 25-30 page final proposals 17 Jul 2006: Competition begins 21 Jul 2006: Top 3 ECC winners to be announced 7. APRU RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 2006 "Earthquake Hazards Around the Pacific Rim - Global Watch and Environmental Impact Osaka University and University of California, Berkeley will co-host the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) / Association of East Asian Research Universities AEARU) Research Symposium 2006 on "Earthquake Hazards Around the Pacific Rim - Global Watch and Environmental Impact" from 21-22 April 2006. Second in the series, this symposium is sponsored by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco-Osaka Sister City Association. Different from other more technical and specialized symposiums on earthquakes, this research symposium will focus more on the reduction of environmental impact by earthquakes. Various methods such as international warning network and risk management will be intensively discussed at the symposium. Interested participants can contact Professor Yoshikatsu Murooka at >. Registration is now open till 15 March 2006. The schedule for the APRU/AEARU Research Symposium 2006 is as follows: (1) Call for Abstracts (Deadline: 5 January 2006) Contributing authors should submit their one-page abstracts to Osaka University San Francisco Office at >. Contributing authors will be notified of paper acceptance by 25 January 2006. (2) Submission of Papers (Deadline: 28 February 2006) Papers for the research symposium should be submitted to Osaka University San Francisco Office at >. More details on the research symposium are available in the attached flyer. Interested participants can also find out more about the APRU/AEARU Research Symposium 2006 at Osaka University San Francisco Office's website at ; it would be constantly updated with information. All APRU universities are encouraged to participate in this conference. We would appreciate it if you could forward information on this conference to faculty, staff and students in your university who may be interested to attend. For further queries, interested parties can send an e-mail to Osaka University San Francisco Office at: >. 8. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BACKS WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY The U.S. Library of Congress has launched an effort to create a vast digital collection of artifacts representing the cultures of the world. Librarian of Congress James Billington said the World Digital Library would be "a documentary record of other great cultures of the world," dealing "with the culture of those people rather than with our contacts as Americans with those cultures." The new initiative will use as models the American Memory Project, which has digitized more than 10 million items representing "Americana," and the Global Gateway, a joint project with five national libraries in Europe and Brazil that highlights connections between those cultures and that of the United States. Initial funding for the World Digital Library will come from Google, which has pledged $3 million for the effort. Billington said he hopes to attract other private funding for the project. MSNBC, 22 November 2005 9 ONLINE EDUCATION EXPANDS IN AFRICA Inside Higher Ed, 17 November 2005 The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has announced a grant to fund online education efforts in Africa. The $900,000 grant will support the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa consortium, which is working to develop an online portal that will offer a broad array of educational materials from institutions such as MIT, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Chinese Open Resources for Education. According to Kuzvinetsa Peter Dzvimbo, rector of the African Virtual University, which is part of the consortium, Africa is in great need of math and science teachers, and the new portal will be used in "teach the teacher" programs to educate new instructors in sub-Saharan Africa. The online resources will not be limited to teachers, however. Beginning in Tanzania and South Africa and spreading to other African countries, the portal will be openly available to anyone with Internet access. Dzvimbo said he hopes that eventually teachers in Africa will join the online efforts alongside the professors and students in the United States who will be initially involved. 10. STANFORD PODCASTS GO TO ITUNES -Educause ?Under a new deal with Apple Computer, podcasts from various aspects of campus life at Stanford University will be available on the iTunes Web site. The arrangement is the first one in which a university has made an institution-wide commitment to provide podcasts to iTunes. The podcasts will include academic content such as lectures, coverage of sporting events, and podcasts created by students. About 400 podcasts are currently included, and Stanford officials said they plan to regularly add content to the site, which is its own section of the iTunes Music Store. Other institutions are said to be considering similar programs, and the addition of capacity to handle video files in iTunes could make the service appealing to still others. In a separate project, Stanford podcasts are being made available through iTunes only to students and professors involved in a group of university courses. Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 October 2005? 11. ELECTRONIC CULTURAL ATLAS INITIATIVE (ECAI) REPORT - Fudan University and Professor Ge Jianxiong and his colleagues at the Center for Historical Geographic Studies hosted the 2nd Congress of Cultural Atlases in May this year. ECAI representatives met with Greg Cole of GLORIAD to discuss the use of the high-speed networks to support humanities scholarship. - The next meeting is the joint conference with the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium and the Pacific Rim Digital Library Alliance in Hawaii, 1-3 November 2005. - A number of ECAI affiliates attended the Summit on "Digital Tools for the Humanities" held at the University of Virginia in September. At the conclusion of the summit, four groups were formed dealing with the creation of tools for: (1) Space, Time, and Uncertainty (2) Interpretation (3) Collaboration (4) Virtual Reality The groups are attempting to see how the current tools and new tools can be used to create significant advances in scholarship and how to incorporate digital technology. - Jeanette Zerneke was a featured speaker at the Case Western Reserves 2nd Biennial Symposium - GIS Technology: Sustaining the Future & Understanding the Past. Her paper - Dynamic Maps and Cultural Atlases from the Silk Road to North American Missions provided a survey of the accomplishments, issues, and lessons learned in building cultural atlases for ECAI. The presentation touched on three major themes of the conference: 1) Use of GIS technology in the planning for sustainable futures; 2) use of GIS technology to facilitate historical and socio-cultural inquiry and 3) use, archiving, and preservation of GIS data. See: - ECAI will co-sponsor the 1st International Summer School in Landscape Archaeology and Computer Applications: from the Field to Virtual Reality. This 3-week program is being coordinated by Maurizio Forte of the Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, (CNR, National Research Council, Italy), and will run 10-29 July 2006 in Rome, Italy. More information about the program is available from the ECAI web site: public.doc > - Prior work had shown how place name gazetteers could enhance geographical searching in online library catalogs. Gazetteers supply latitude and longitude, thereby allowing different places with the same name to be distinguished, different names for the same place to be associated, and map displays to show the geographical dispersion of retrieved records and to help express the geographical aspects of queries. Details available at: . 12. COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS This is the networking activities newsletter of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). It is designed as a tool to assist in the development of advanced Internet capabilities among APRU universities and APEC economies. The key goal is to develop teaching and research applications that utilize advanced Internet technologies, e.g., distance learning, virtual conferences, telemedicine, etc. by sharing, networking, partnerships, and collaborations. This newsletter may be used to give or receive information on a project or to look for partners or collaborators. Comments or suggestions are encouraged and welcomed. For online current and past copies of the APRUNet Newsletter, see . Please send your news to . If you do not wish to be subscribed, or wish to add your name to the mailing list, please see http://mailman.isi.edu/mailman/listinfo/apru-dli. Zita Wenzel APRUNet Coordinator Please email Copyright (c) 2005 Association of Pacific Rim Universities. ======================================================