Ian Dent: Scientific Information in the Digital Age: How accessible should publically funded Science be? A Media Anthropology Perspective
An announcement by the EU (Brussels, February 2007) as part of the i2010 ‘Strategy for the Information Society’, noted that within the context of an ongoing initiative to archive Europe’s ‘cultural heritage’, all publically funded science (including the social sciences) will be required to allow shared access within e-collaborations to ongoing, unpublished data through the creation of new, ‘digital repositories’ and e-science ICT frameworks (Grids). The implications for anthropological field research could be immense. This paper will discuss these possible implications from a Media Anthropology perspective. Drawing on recent fieldwork undertaken in Iceland in collaboration with the EU IST Programme and Nordic Council of Ministers, this paper will seek to highlight possible areas of both interest and concern.