Vis-a-vis the American Anthropological Association, the post provides a compliment to the arguments presented in a less immediately accessible way in “Anthropology of/in Circulation: The Future of Open Access and Scholarly Societies.”  (As a contributor to it) I am very proud of the later paper, but it represents a dialogue on a range of issues and features a diversity of voices with several overlapping sets of interests. Mr. Lappin’s essay is a single scholar’s view on the ways that scholarly societies should be confronting the challenges and opportunities of a world in which most of their members will have access to web 2.0 tools. His discussions of the growing irrelevance of scholarly societies in the 20th century mode and his case for a new mission for the scholarly society (amplifying member’s voices in public rather than as a provider of members-only benefits of decreasing value) connects especially well with the case that Chris Kelty was making in “Anthropology of/in Circulation.” He also provides and operationalizes a number of do-able  steps of a clear cut sort–a kind of emulate-able game plan that a society leadership would be foolish not to at least give thought to.

Most Excellent Blog
Runner up: Anthropologi.info
Most Win: Culture Matters

Most Excellent OA Journal
Runner Up: Cultural Analysis
Most Win: Anthopology Matters

Most Excellent Blog or Journal that does not end in “Matters” (The Category formerly known as Most Excellent Unclassifiable Digital Thingamajob)
Runner Up: Digital Anthropology
Most Win: Neuroanthropology

For details, one can consult Savage Minds postings here, here, here, and here, as well as notes appearing on antropologi.info, Culture Matters, and Neuroanthropology.

(For the record, I am a small fish on Cultural Analysis‘ otherwise very distinguished editorial board and I am very proud that a journal bridging folklore studies and neighboring disciplines in the human sciences did so well in the voting. If you do not know the journal, check it out here.)

The last several years have witnessed the coalescing of the Access to Knowledge (A2K) social movement that champions human rights, human development, and the public interest as the focal points of innovation and information policy.

The Yale Information Society Project’s (ISP) first A2K conference advanced our commitment to building a broad conceptual framework of Access to Knowledge that can foster powerful coalitions between diverse groups. The A2k conference brought together leading scholars and activists from all over the world to participate in the construction of an intellectual framework for access to knowledge. Full conference proceedings and foundational resources for Access to Knowledge are available at the Yale A2K conference wiki.

This year, on April 27th-29th 2007, the weekend of World Intellectual Property Day, the A2K2 conference promises be a pivotal event mobilizing the A2K coalition. Taking place between sessions of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in which the Development Agenda is being formalized, this gathering is an oportunity to help define the emerging vision of innovation and information policy. A2K2 will further build the coalition amongst institutions and stakeholders that crystallized at the first landmark conference, help set the agenda for A2K policy and advocacy, and deepen the understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of access to knowledge issues. The A2K2 conference program is focused around mobilizing different spheres of society: Industry, Civil Society, Governments, and Technologists. The policy panels focus on a diverse set of A2K issues and are oriented towards tangible legal and technological solutions and collaborative strategies for policy makers and individual institutions.

**We invite remote participation in the A2K2 conference on the accompanying A2K2 Wiki. There is room on the wiki to questions of the panelists and to include background resources for each panels.