Posts Tagged ‘innovation’

Jean-Claude Guédon

Ph. D. in history of Science (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974) and Professor at the University of Montreal, Jean-Claude Guédon must have been among the very first users of the Net in the humanities as he began to explore the Internet ca. 1988. Through his understanding of the power of the Net, he designed and launched an electronic scholarly journal in the humanities in 1991, Surfaces, which was the first e-journal in Canada.

He was involved with the Internet Society as a member or co-chair of the program committee for the worldwide Inet meetings between 1995 and 2002 (co-chair in 1996, 1998, and 2000). In 1996, he also published a minor best-seller on the Internet in France (La planète cyber (Gallimard, 1996); 2nd edition under the title: Internet. Le monde en réseau in 2000.)

He acted as chair of the Advisory Board of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) until 2001, and also worked with NDLTD, an organization promoting the publication of theses and dissertations on-line

He has been involved in the growing debates surrounding the issue of open access to the world’s scientific literature. One of the drafters and initial signatories of the Budapest Initiative, he was a member of the Information Program Sub-Board of the Open Society Institute from 2002 until 2006. This membership also led him to be a member of the Board of eIFL, an organization committed to supporting libraries in developing and transition countries.

In 2006 until 2008, he was vice-president of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

He was also one of the founding members of AFUL, an organization for users of free software in French-speaking countries.

Beside teaching and publishing, he is regularly invited to lecture all over the world. He was guest professor at the University of Sao Paulo in 2008 and scholar in residence at the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam in 2010.)

Watch a video of Jean-Claude’s presentation at the event ➤

Luci Abrahams

Has been involved in the world of ICTs and development from 1995, when she worked in the Gauteng Provincial Government with oversight over IT matters in the GPG administration. In 1996, she led a GPG study tour to Malaysia and Singapore with participation from various GPG departments to explore the ways in which ICTs could be used to develop an “intelligent province”.

During her term of office she led a research study to design an Information and Communications Strategy for the National Assembly, NCOP and provincial legislatures under the EU Parliamentary Support Programme.

She was instrumental in the establishment of the precursor of the LINK Centre in September 1996, including early stage curriculum design and training delivery. She was also Chairperson of the National Information Technology Forum from 1996 to 1998.

She initiated a major e-government project at the Department of Social Development in October 1998, publishing a Request for Information for a service that could address the major obstacles to providing effective access and delivery of grant payments to citizens with the support of ICTs.

While pursuing a variety of interests over the past three years, she has done significant preparatory research in the field of ICTs and development and e-government for developing and presenting the LINK courses: Certificate in Information and Knowledge Management for the Public Sector and the Certificate in E-Government.

She serves as a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the advisory body to the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology on innovation matters. She recently participated in a South African delegation to Finland to study the Finnish National System of Innovation.

She was appointed to the Board of Directors of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in June 2002.

Watch a video of Luci’s presentation at the event ➤

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