Affiliations: McGill University, Graduate Program in Communications, 3465 Peel St., Montreal Quebec H3A 1W7, Canada, +1 514-398-4110 (w), +1 514-398-4934 (fax), Internet: [email protected]; [email protected]
Note: [1] From September 1995, Research Associate, Information Policy Research Project, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto (e-mail [email protected]). The author acknowledges the Doctoral Fellowship awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada which enabled her to undertake her research.
Abstract: Our notion of invisible colleges has largely shifted to one of virtual communities, as scholars and students have found the Internet to be an indispensable tool for maintaining and cultivating academic culture. Universities have been scrambling to keep up with this swiftly changing technological pace both at the infrastructure level and at the social and administrative level. However, resolution within the global context of two policy issues – access and copyright and intellectual property – will effect the development and deployment of internetworking content, particularly in the educational environment. This article concentrates on these particular policy Issues: access-particularly as related to gender; and copyright and intellectual property, as currently debated in both public policy and academic forums in North America, and their applicability to the higher education community.
