Seminar series tackles ethics, technology

The CNMI Council for the Humanities is currently holding a series of free seminars to raise the public’s awareness of ethics and technology.

The seminars are a component of the Humanities Council’s yearlong Ethics Project that seeks to explore a range of ethical issues relevant to the people of the Northern Mariana Islands. The workshop started Tuesday and will be held until today, facilitated by professor Dr. Cecilia Lizama Salvatore.

Tuesday’s seminar focused on “Ethics, Technology and Cultural Resources.” The workshop started from 8am to 4pm at the Pacific Islands Club. Issues discussed were ownership of native culture, copyright, freedom of information, equal access to information, control of information, user service policies, development of libraries and museums, and information for development, among others. In the afternoon the issues discussed were plagiarism, intellectual property, copyright, and access to database under the “Ethics, Technology and Education” subject.

The seminar yesterday dealt with “Ethics, Technology and the Public and Private Sectors.” It was held at the Governor’s Conference Room on Capitol Hill from 8am to 11am. The issues discussed included records management, electronic information policies, intellectual property, national information infrastructure, information for development, information for building capacity and capability, and e-commerce.

In the afternoon, the session continued at the Northern Marianas College-Tinian Campus. The topic centered on “Ethics and Technology.”

Today’s final seminar will be held at the NMC Rota Campus, again focusing on “Ethics and Technology.”

Salvatore, a native of the Commonwealth, is an associate professor at the School of Library and Information Management of the Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. She currently teaches in the areas of management, organization theory, information transfer in special populations, assessment of a community’s information needs and evaluation of information services, theoretical foundations of service, information transfer and the knowledge society, global information infrastructure and archival studies.

For more information about the seminar series, contact the Council staff at 235-4785.