<<OII -it's official!.doc>>
From: steve woolgar
To: John Armitage
Sent: 04/05/01 09:23
Subject: Fwd: FYI: new Oxford Internet Institute
Dear John
Would this be of interest to members of the list?
Regards
Steve
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Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 09:20:30 +0100
To: [log in to unmask],[log in to unmask]
From: steve woolgar <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: FYI: new Oxford Internet Institute
You may be interested to know about the announcement today of the new
£15m Oxford Internet Institute. Some details in the attached press
release.
Best wishes
Steve
Professor Steve Woolgar, Director
ESRC Virtual Society? Programme
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
59 George Street
Oxford OX1 2BE
+44 (0)1865 288667
+44 (0)1865 288668 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
www.virtualsociety.org.uk <http://www.virtualsociety.org.uk/>
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e-Research: a First for Oxford
Oxford University is creating the world's first truly multidisciplinary
Internet Institute based in a major university. The Oxford Internet
Institute (OII), with initial funding of £15 million, will carry out
research and make policy recommendations about the effects on society of the
Internet with the goal of putting Oxford, the UK and Europe at the centre of
debates about how the Internet could and should develop.
The Oxford Internet Institute has been made possible by a major donation
from The Shirley Foundation of £10 million (partly to the University, of
which the Institute will be a department within the Social Sciences
Division, and partly to Balliol College, where it will be located) together
with public funding totalling £5 million from the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE), which is supported by the Department for
Education and Employment.
The creation of the OII has been warmly welcomed by the Secretary of State
for Education, David Blunkett, the European Commissioner for the Information
Society, Erkki Liikanen, and the Cabinet Office e-envoy, Andrew Pinder, as
well as by Derek Wyatt MP, an early proponent of the concept. "I
congratulate Oxford University on establishing this innovative Institute,"
says David Blunkett. "The effects of the Internet are pervasive - through
business, education and leisure. Britain needs a centre for top-class
research on the difficult issues the Internet poses in cryptography,
intellectual property rights, security and so on. In bringing together
research across the country, I hope the Institute will become a world
leader."
The Vice-Chancellor, Colin Lucas, comments; "This is an area with huge
commercial interests and there is a need for a voice that is independent,
underpinned by first class research and recognised world-wide for its
integrity. Oxford is well placed to provide this and the generous funding
from The Shirley Foundation and the further support from HEFCE are an ideal
beginning. Moreover, the enthusiasm for this project is so great that the
planning, the fundraising and finding of a building have all been completed
in a matter of months."
Andrew Graham, Master-Elect of Balliol, who has been heading the group
working on this initiative adds: "You can already shop, bank, vote, debate,
argue, consult a doctor and get your degree over the Net - and do so all
around the globe. However, there is also an enormous amount of rubbish out
there and some material that is harmful. To understand what is happening and
to formulate helpful policies you need people such as political scientists,
lawyers, medics, economists and computing scientists working together.
Building on the substantial strengths already in Oxford, this is what the
OII will do. It is a great opportunity for the University and for Balliol."
Dame Stephanie Shirley, founder of The Shirley Foundation, says: "For some
time now I have been very interested in the social, ethical and other issues
raised by the Internet. These are global concerns and I am delighted that
my funding has provided the Oxford Internet Institute with the firm
foundation required to attract public, and in due course further private,
financial backing. I am confident that the Institute will enable Britain to
play a leading and authoritative role in this important area."
The Institute will attract the best people in the world both through
permanent appointments and by offering senior visiting appointments (filled
after open competition) for research staff seconded to Oxford. It will also
act as a focus in Oxford for doctoral students and postdoctoral staff
working in this area. "The attraction of this project", explains HEFCE's
Chief Executive, Sir Brian Fender, "is the opportunity it presents for a
world-leading collaboration which can foster a genuine UK Internet academic
community, equipped to anticipate and facilitate rapid response to topical
issues of public concern."
The Oxford Internet Institute will raise further funds to support plans for
expansion of its activities.
For more information contact: University of Oxford Press Office 01865
280528
Notes to editors:
More information about the Oxford Internet Institute - including interviews
with those involved in the project - can be found at
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/oii/ .
Topics the Institute might investigate include:
 global law enforcement
 governance and regulation
 privacy and security
 confidentiality and trust
 the boundaries of the nation state (including the implications for
taxation)
 participation in the information society
 e-Government and the delivery of public services
 e-democracy
 Internet-enabled healthcare
 innovation and knowledge creation
 effects on education (especially higher education)
 the digital divide
 problems and prospects for e-money
 impact on music and the creative arts
 community building and development
 defence and counter-terrorism.
Within Oxford, there are already significant research programmes relating to
the Internet and its impact. These include:
 the Saïd Business School's ESRC-funded national research programme
"Virtual Society?", led by Professor Steve Woolgar (which considers whether
fundamental shifts are taking place in the ways people behave, organise
themselves and interact as a result of new technologies)
 interdisciplinary research on intellectual property and information
technology conducted at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at
St Peter's College
 the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (considering the
consequences of globalisation and digitalisation on governance, policy and
law - often with an interdisciplinary base, co-operating with other
academic areas including politics, economics and management)
 the Oxford-Intel Initiative supported by St Catherine's College and
the University's Department of Educational Studies (a collaboration with one
of the world's leading microprocessor manufacturers to produce new types of
educational software)
 work on Internet-enabled health care at the Institute of Health
Sciences
 developments within the Department of Continuing Education (where
the Technology Assisted Lifelong Learning programme investigates and
develops new ways of using technology to support lifelong learning and where
the delivery of graduate level degrees as well as short courses is being
developed in association with many other parts of the University)
 the Department of Chemistry which is running a massive "distributed
screen saver" project in which people all over the world share the unused
power on their computers to screen molecules for cancer fighting potential.
In the first three weeks of its existence 250,000 people have signed up for
what could be the world's biggest Internet computational project.
 under the Humanities Board and the major library, museum and
publishing resources of the University, there are many Internet projects.
These include work at the Ruskin School on creative art on the Internet as
well as the electronic storage and retrieval of images of ancient
manuscripts and artefacts
The University of Oxford is also the UK partner, with Stanford, Princeton
and Yale Universities, in a joint "distance learning" venture which will
provide on line courses in the arts and sciences initially to their combined
500,000 alumni. The non-profit University Alliance for Life-Long Learning
will offer non-credit courses, taking advantage of emerging technologies to
give the alumni and others convenient access to their Universities'
extraordinary resources. The Alliance will provide an innovative
educational service that is likely to include on line courses and
interactive seminars; multimedia programmes; topical Web sites that include
links to research information; live and taped coverage of campus speakers,
exhibitions, and other events; and lectures on tape. The member universities
will control the content of the courses and other educational services
offered, ensuring that they meet the highest standards.
The Shirley Foundation was established in 1996 by "Steve" (now Dame
Stephanie) Shirley, who endowed it with a substantial trust fund. The fund
is used to support a wide range of projects, primarily in the fields of
autism and IT. The Foundation has achieved national recognition for the
importance and impact of its funding. Its mission is to support pioneering
projects with the potential to have a strategic impact, especially those
that could push out the boundaries of knowledge, understanding and good
practice. It has so far dispensed over £25m, of which £15m has gone to
establishing Prior's Court School for children with autism and £5m to The
Worshipful Company of Information Technologists to provide it with its own
base and the resources to initiate a variety of charitable activities.
The Oxford Internet Institute will be headed by a Director, who will also
hold a Professorial Chair at the University. The post will be filled
through an open selection process and it is hoped that an appointment will
be made this summer. An Advisory Board will be appointed to enable the
Institute to draw on expertise from a range of sources within and outside
Oxford.
The Oxford Internet Institute will be based at 1 St. Giles - part of Balliol
College.
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