Papers by Brian Fitzgerald
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
Agile development methods have become a standard in the software industry, including in large-sca... more Agile development methods have become a standard in the software industry, including in large-scale projects. These methods share a set of underlying assumptions that distinguish them from more traditional plan-driven approaches. In this paper we adopt Alvesson and Sandberg's problematization approach to challenge three key assumptions that are prevalent in the large-scale agile literature: 1) agile and plan-driven methods are mutually exclusive; 2) self-managing and hierarchically-organized teams are mutually exclusive; and 3) agile methods can scale through simple linear composition. Using a longitudinal case study of large-scale agile development, we describe a series of trigger events and episodes whereby the agile approach was tailored to address the needs of the large-scale development context, which was very much at odds with these fundamental assumptions. We develop a set of new underlying assumptions which suggest that agile and plan-driven practices are mutually enabli...
Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which cove... more Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs
Throughout my undergraduate studies in law I took a keen interest in politics, economics and cons... more Throughout my undergraduate studies in law I took a keen interest in politics, economics and constitutional and international law. I also worked at that time for the Crown Law Office of Queensland and gained significant experience in Public Law. After graduating I worked as a Research Associate for the High Court of Australia at the direction of then Justice William Deane (at the time when Sir Anthony Mason was Chief Justice). This time at the High Court provided new ideas and experience in relation to legal research (especially computerised legal databases), writing, reasoning and conceptual thinking. It also allowed me to see the inner workings of the highest court in the land and to work on a number of significant constitutional law opinions. During this time Justice Deane was a generous mentor and pointed out to me the importance of the legal area of Restitution and the special expertise of Professor Peter Birks at Oxford University in relation to this topic.
Cultural Science Journal, 2014
The first two paths are hard fought. The process of law reform in the area of copyright law is gr... more The first two paths are hard fought. The process of law reform in the area of copyright law is gridlocked due to established interests on all sides. The prospect of new argumentsfor example those based on the Australian Constitution-being accepted in the shorter term is low. The only viable option with the potential of immediate impact is the third path. A tremendous example of this third path and one which our research group has been leaders in achieving is the application of Creative Commons licenses to Government or Public Sector Information (PSI). There is ample evidence in many reports here and overseas such as the UK, USA and the European Union, that the release of PSI is beneficial to society and the economy as a whole in that it promotes accountability of government, better engagement with citizens and helps spark social and economic activity. Here are six short perspectives which commence with Anne Fitzgerald describing the revolutionary role that Creative Commons licensing has had in the management of copyright to better fit the digital age. In subsequent papers John Gilchrist provides a critique of two aspects of the recently released report of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) entitled Copyright and the Digital Economy in the light of the wider values inherent in the release of public sector information, and the needs of government, Kylie Pappalardo considers how Australian intermediary liability law governing ISPs can be amended and interpreted to better account for user interests, Kunle Ola explains the fundamental importance of the Open Access movement to social, health and economic development in Nigeria, Ezieddin Elmahjub provides an Islamic perspective on introducing an open information policy in the Middle East and North Africa and Ben Atkinson critically explores the embedded values in copyright as a private property right. All these papers in one dimension or another explore how the law and management of copyright can better encourage access to knowledge and the promotion of creativity in the digital age and foster the common good.
Agile development approaches have become the norm for almost all software development now. While ... more Agile development approaches have become the norm for almost all software development now. While agile approaches can deliver more frequent releases of working software, it quickly became apparent in many organisations that they were not able to leverage these frequent releases due to the disconnect between the development and operations functions, with the latter typically responsible for releasing software to customers. This resulted in the move towards closer integration of these functions through the DevOps movement. As the trend towards digitalisation continues, companies are increasingly implementing DevOps. We propose a maturity model for this agile to DevOps transition with three levels: agile, continuous integration, continuous delivery. Based on an in-depth case study in an organisation which has several years’ experience of DevOps, we identify a fundamental disruption in the soft skills and competences that software teams are expected to possess, and in the patterns of co...
This chapter considers how open content licences of copyright-protected materials – specifically,... more This chapter considers how open content licences of copyright-protected materials – specifically, Creative Commons (CC) licences - can be used by governments as a simple and effective mechanism to enable reuse of their PSI, particularly where materials are made available in digital form online or distributed on disk.
In late 2003 I became involved with the Australian implementation of the Creative Commons (CC) Pr... more In late 2003 I became involved with the Australian implementation of the Creative Commons (CC) Project along with Tom Cochrane (DVC TILS QUT) and Ian Oi (then of Blakes Lawyers now a Partner at Corrs Lawyers). We were excited by the possibilities that CC might provide. QUT became an Institutional Affiliate and an Australian version of the Creative Commons licence was completed (creativecommons.org.au). In order to celebrate and launch the Australian version of the Creative Commons licence and inform people about the project more generally we decided to run a conference here in Brisbane in January 2005 on Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons. The chapters that appear in this volume are a result of that conference.
The digital version of this book is also available electronically through the Sydney eScholarship... more The digital version of this book is also available electronically through the Sydney eScholarship Repository (http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au) and The Queensland University of Technology ePrints Repository at: (http://eprints.qut.edu.au).
In 1919 Marcel Duchamp pencilled a moustache on a postcard sized image of the 'Mona Lisa'. Many p... more In 1919 Marcel Duchamp pencilled a moustache on a postcard sized image of the 'Mona Lisa'. Many people were outraged, including a few artists, but others were amused. Was it art? Was it sacrilege? Could it be both? Today, millions of people are making digital sounds and pictures, often using and parodying existing material, and distributing the results on the Web. Is it art? Few people care. Two year's earlier Duchamp had taken a men's urinal manufactured by the New York J L Mott Ironworks, signed it R Mutt and sent it to a gallery. The original urinal has been lost but later, authentic copies sell for about $1.5 million. It is possible that the postcard is not a postcard at all, but Duchamp's own original likeness. 1 If so, it is not a copy but part of the parody. These are deep waters. As far as I know, nobody ever sued Duchamp for infringing their copyright or design rights. Fast forward 90 years. In January 2007 the Chinese Government found itself in the kind of dilemma that is typical worldwide as all governments seek to formulate a sensible intellectual property (IP) policy for the modern world. When is parody permissible? Is it acceptable to make a spoof, which an innocent person might mistake for the original, or is it morally and commercially unacceptable?
Media International Australia, 2005
Fan-based or third party content creation has assumed an integral place in the multi-million doll... more Fan-based or third party content creation has assumed an integral place in the multi-million dollar computer games industry. The emerging production ecology that involves new kinds of distributed organisations and ad hoc networks epitomises the ‘drift of value’ from producer to consumer and allows us to understand how user-led innovation influences the creative industries. But the ability to control intellectual property rights in content production is critical to the power structures and social dynamic that are being created in this space. Trainz, a train simulation game released by Brisbane developer Auran, which relies heavily on fan-created content for its success, is used as a case study. The licence agreements between Auran and the fan creators are analysed in order to understand how the balance between the commercial and non-commercial is achieved and how the tension between open networks of collaboration and closed structures of commercial competitive environments are negoti...
In almost everything we do, the law is present. However, we know that strict adherence to the law... more In almost everything we do, the law is present. However, we know that strict adherence to the law is not always observed for a variety of pragmatic reasons. Nevertheless, we also understand that we ignore the law at our own risk and sometimes we will suffer a consequence. In the realm of collaborative endeavour through networked cyberinfrastructure we know the law is not too far away. But we also know that a paranoid obsession with it will cause inefficiency and stifle the true spirit of research. The key for the lawyers is to understand and implement a legal framework that can work with the power of the technology to disseminate knowledge in such a way that it does not seem a barrier. This is difficult in any universal sense but not totally impossible. In this article, we will show how the law is responding as a positive agent to facilitate the sharing of knowledge in the cyberinfrastructure world. One general approach is to develop legal tools that can provide a generic permission or clearance of legal rights (for example, copyright or patent) in advance (usually subject to conditions) that can be implemented before or at the point of use. This has become known as open licensing and will be discussed below in terms of copyright and patented subject matter. 2 1 Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation (QUT) and Research Officer OAK Law Project, QUT Law Faculty (respectively). This chapter was first published as an article in (2007) 3(3) CTWatch Quarterly 61-7 <http://www.ctwatch.org/quarterly/pdf/ctwatchquarterly-12.pdf>.
For the law to be an enabler, it must be supported by polices, principles and frameworks: Perhaps... more For the law to be an enabler, it must be supported by polices, principles and frameworks: Perhaps the biggest problem facing e-Research is the lack of understanding and agreement as to what is required in terms of local and national information infrastructure to support e-Research activities. Without this common framework of understanding it is actually very difficult to come to legal agreement as to collaborative arrangements, sharing, and interaction beyond a narrow set of participants. This then actually inhibits the establishment of an open e-Research environment that starts to utilise the potential offered by digital technologies. 6
is a Professor and Head of the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University in New Sout... more is a Professor and Head of the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia. He is co-editor of one of Australia's leading texts on e-commerce and has published articles on Law and the Internet, Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law in Australia, the United States, Europe and Japan. Over the past two years, Brian has delivered seminars on information technology and intellectual property law in Australia,
and 2010 marks the 300 th anniversary of the Statute of Anne. There is no doubt that concepts abo... more and 2010 marks the 300 th anniversary of the Statute of Anne. There is no doubt that concepts about how to manage, control and share knowledge, culture and creativity existed in societies well before 1709/10 3 but it is the Statute of Anne that is the symbolic birthplace of what we know as modern copyright law. 4 1 The previous statutes at the federal level were the Act of 31 May 1790 (further statutes introduced new subject matter and expanded the scope and term of protection
International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2006
The rise of a global information economy has brought China under heavy pressure to protect copyri... more The rise of a global information economy has brought China under heavy pressure to protect copyright. Since passing its first copyright law in 1990, China has been engaged in the steady construction of a copyright system that accords with international standards. However, striking a balance between encouraging economic activity through the protection of intellectual property rights and creating an environment in which the needs of consumers are respected and creativity and innovation are not stifled is an ongoing challenge. This paper briefly discusses the role that copyright law might play in the development of China's creative industries, with reference to China's own legal and creative traditions, as well as the experiences of people working in today's domestic film and music industries. The scope of the present law is outlined and the relevance of alternative protection models such as 'open content licensing' is considered.
Policy Futures in Education, 2006
In the networked information driven world that we now inhabit the ability to access and reuse inf... more In the networked information driven world that we now inhabit the ability to access and reuse information, data and culture is a key ingredient to social, economic and cultural innovation. 3
The 'Blog, Podcast, Vodcast and Wiki Copyright Guide for Australia' was developed by th... more The 'Blog, Podcast, Vodcast and Wiki Copyright Guide for Australia' was developed by the Law Research Program of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) to examine and explain copyright issues which impact upon creators and users of ...
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Papers by Brian Fitzgerald