Charging for that report? I’ll pass

7th December 2006

posted in isafety |

The National Assessment Center for iSafe has released a 2005-2006 report on Internet trends that relate to Internet safety. This sounds interesting and possibly worth checking out, but unfortunately the report costs almost fifty dollars!

Reports like this which are commercially sold are, for most practical purposes, irrelevant to me. As I wrote several months ago in “The Ethic of Open Digital Content” published in the TechEdge:

Those who seek to be relevant in our digital world will not only produce and share ideas in digital forms, but will also permit OPEN access to those ideas to the world via the Internet.

I’d like to read what these iSafe researchers learned in the course of their investigations, but I’m not willing to shell out any money for their report when there are plenty of other quality research sources available online like the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 11:26 am and is filed under isafety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On December 7th, 2006, David Stone said:

Hmmm…they can pay ME $50 to read it. What century do they think they live in? Who is going to buy it?

2 On December 21st, 2006, Along the Way » iSafe Pros and Cons said:

[...] Another component I find fault with is their incomplete and outdated view of copyright. Although they explain copyright issues very well, they don’t mention the alternative copyright choice that educators and other content creators are using called Creative Commons. If their content is truly to be used by all, including educators, students, parents, and the community, why is there such a strict copyright attached to their content? It is their right to do this, but doesn’t the new way of sharing content at least deserve mention? The very first video in the series of lessons on personal internet safety features James Greenleaf, a retired FBI assistant director, and chairman of the Board of ISafe, warning all participants that iSafe material is copyrighted and that unauthorized used is “strictly against the law”. They recently issued a report on internet trends as they relate to internet safety, data they obtained from those they encouraged to take their “free” courses. As Wesley Fryer mentions in his post, Charging for that report? I’ll pass, the report costs almost $50! Why aren’t they allowing open access to this report? In the changing nature of content creation and open access to materials, this type of behavior is outdated. Also, where does their funding come from? Is part of it related to the RIAA? They certainly offer a fair amount of content on issues associated with piracy of music and other content. Where is the discussion about how others are sharing content legitimately? I recently read an intriguing book called, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, by Christopher Harris of Wired Magazine (which I learned about from reading blogs in the edublogoshphere). He states that the growing availability of choice offered by internet resources is giving rise to an ever growing niche market. Isn’t it then worthy of mentioning that traditional copyright isn’t the only avenue for content creation? There are other sources that teach about internet safety, some better than others. I think it is important to use a variety of sources when teaching about anything. I no longer trust the authority of only one source. We also need to teach our students to be prudent in always finding more than one source of information. Alternate viewpoints encourage critical thinking. That is what I have learned from being a responsible internet citizen. [...]