Statement of Purpose
Harvard Graduate School of Education maintains local Web servers to aid the instructional, research, and administrative activities of the School, and to foster communication within the HGSE community and with the greater community around the world. The organization of these Web servers is designed to (1) provide clear and accurate information about HGSE to both the HGSE community and the outside world, (2) organize HGSE, Harvard, and network resources for the use of HGSE students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others, and (3) enable members of the HGSE community to publish their own information in the manner they deem most appropriate, according to the general guidelines that follow.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Compliance
As stated in the Harvard University Annual Copyright Disclosure, all Harvard users must respect the copyrights in works that are accessible through computers connected to the Harvard network. Under federal copyright law, no copyrighted work may be copied, published, disseminated, displayed, performed, or played without permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with fair use or licensed agreement. This includes music, movies, and other copyrighted material. Harvard may terminate the network access of users who are found to have repeatedly infringed the copyrights of others. Students with questions about copyrights or this policy are invited to raise those questions with any dean, tutor, or academic officer. Staff supervisors and members of the Faculty are welcome to contact the University's Office of General Counsel.
Access To Publishing
Any officially recognized HGSE office, project, program, area, or student organization, as well as any individual faculty member or student may publish on HGSE's web servers according to guidelines described here.
Publishing access is available first to officially recognized HGSE offices, projects, programs, areas, and student organizations. Access for individual faculty members and students is extended on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to resource availability. (Student organizations not officially recognized by HGSE cannot be granted publishing access. HGSE defines "officially recognized" student organizations as those recognized by the Student Government Association or, in exceptional cases, by the director of the Office of Student Affairs or her/his designee.) Every attempt will be made to accommodate anyone who wishes to publish on HGSE's web servers. Should restrictions become necessary due to resource constraints, users will be notified in advance, and the restrictions will be implemented as uniformly and as fairly as possible, at the discretion of the School and server administrator(s).
Official vs. Unofficial HGSE Information
Any information published by an officially recognized HGSE office, project, program, or area is considered official HGSE information, and may bear the HGSE shield. Information published by student organizations and by individual faculty members or students is considered unofficial and should not carry the HGSE shield. General guidelines apply to both types of information. However, each type has some additional guidelines governing publication. All network publishers are required to read, understand, and abide by these guidelines and policies. Publication of material on HGSE's web server implies the publisher's consent to abide by these guidelines.
Disclaimers
Official HGSE Information
Various Harvard Graduate School of Education offices, projects, programs, and areas are responsible for their own sections of this server. A specific author's name and a contact email address appear on each official HGSE page accordingly. If any question arises about either the content or links appearing on this server, please contact the person named on the document in question. No one at HGSE can accept responsibility for the content of information maintained at another non-HGSE site, but we welcome feedback if any problems are noticed.
Unofficial Information and Personal Home Pages
Unofficial information may be posted and maintained by individual HGSE students, faculty members, and officially recognized student organizations ("Unofficial Authors"). HGSE does not undertake to edit, screen, monitor, or censor information posted by Unofficial Authors, whether or not originated by Unofficial Authors or third parties, and does not accept any responsibility or liability for such information. Unofficial Authors and third parties are solely responsible for the content and organization of information posted by them, even if such information is accessed through HGSE servers. HGSE wishes to allow the academic community the greatest possible freedom to use these resources creatively and responsibly. Should you discover something out of date or in conflict with HGSE policies, please feel free to contact both the individual author and the Web Help.
General HGSE Online Publishing Guidelines
- New network publishers should preview the information already published on the HGSE web servers (other than personal home pages) to avoid duplication of information or contradictions with prior publications. (If you find something published which you believe is incorrect or incomplete, please speak to the contact person listed on that document.)
- Each publisher should include the following components: The name of the person responsible for the information; the date the document was last updated; an email address users may contact with questions or for further information (optional for personal home pages).
- Publishers should avoid duplicating documents appearing on other parts of the server or elsewhere on the website; the preferred manner is to create a link to that information. This helps to prevent errors or contradictions that can occur when duplicating information, and helps to insure that the original source's name, date updated, and continuing updates will appear on the document regardless of who "links" to it. When creating a link to another web page, it is best to link to that information in its fullest form, or at the highest level (on a web server) that is logical, to give fullest credit to the original publishers and to maintain their organization of the information when appropriate. Neither HGSE nor any individual HGSE network publisher is responsible for the content of information maintained outside of the HGSE servers.
- All network publishers should be aware of U.S. laws governing copyrights (see #5). Any violation of copyright or any other law is the sole responsibility of the publisher(s) of the particular information in question. It is safest to assume that copyright laws which apply to printed material also apply to online publishing.
Under certain circumstances, the law of "fair use" allows short excerpts to be quoted without seeking permission from the copyright owner. The copyright law specifies a four-factor test to determine whether reproduction of a work constitutes fair use. The four factors are: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes such as criticism, scholarship, or research; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work (fact or fiction, with fiction generally accorded greater protection); (3) the amount or substance of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for and value of the quoted work. Because these four factors must all be weighed, the fair use standard is difficult to apply. In doubtful cases, users should consult with their own legal counsel before deciding whether to rely on fair use.
To reproduce images or text in excess of what is permitted under "fair use," permission should be sought from the copyright owner (usually the author). If permission is granted, the user should give proper credit to the author and include the phrase "used with permission" and a copyright notice. The proper form of copyright notice includes the word "Copyright" or the copyright symbol plus the name of the copyright owner and year of publication (e.g., Copyright 2004 John Doe). See #3 for "linking to" rather than reproducing information. - No unauthorized use, copying, or publishing of Licensed Software is permitted. Detailed advice on software use and copyright laws is available from Harvard's Office of the General Counsel, Holyoke Center 980, (617) 495-1280. Copies of the booklet "Copyright and Fair Use: A Guide for the Harvard Community" are available free of charge here on this server, or by calling the General Council Office Administrator, at (61) 496-3006.
- Use of the web servers is not permitted for profit or commercial purposes (other than official HGSE business).
- Publishers should make regular checks of their documents and links to insure they remain up to date and functioning properly.
- All publicly accessible pages should be usable at all times. Any pages or sections which are largely unusable (for example, due to incorrectly written code or non-functioning links) may be removed from the server until they are corrected. Any removals will be preceded by notification from the server administrator(s).
- Federal and State Law regulates unauthorized access to computer facilities and software. Users of HGSE computing facilities are responsible for compliance with these laws. In particular, it is a violation of Federal law intentionally (1) to access a computer without authorization and thereby to obtain classified information; (2) to access a computer without authorization with the intent to defraud. Similar activities are also punishable as crimes under Massachusetts law.
- Use of the HGSE web servers is a form of communication subject to the HGSE Policy Statement on Harassment, and certain types of communication may be governed by the Telecommunications Act. The areas in which caution is recommended in online discussions and publications are: communications or materials which could be considered "patently offensive" or "indecent," particularly anywhere minors may have access, such as the web.
- If there is any doubt or question about these policies, publishers should contact Web Help for verification before publishing.
- It is not the intention of HGSE to edit, monitor, or censor personal home pages or those of student organizations, but to provide guidelines which the community is responsible for upholding. If a conflict with any HGSE policies is brought to the attention of the web administrator, the author will be notified and asked to take appropriate action.
- All student group names, logos, or publications including as expressed in domain names (i.e., URLs) incorporating any of the University's trademarks (e.g., "harvardpoloclub.com") are owned by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and are used by permission of the University.
Publishing Policies For Official HGSE Information
Official HGSE offices, projects, programs, and areas represent the School and the community. These policies regarding the appearance and content of official pages are aimed at maintaining consistency in the interface and content.
- Each HGSE office, project, program, or area manager may designate an individual (or more) as the network publisher(s) for that unit. Each designated publisher needs to obtain write access from the Learning Technologies Center, and, with the unit's manager, accepts responsibility for reading the HGSE Online Publishing Policies, and for the content and form of everything published under that unit's section. If the designated publisher shares his/her write access with other individuals or units, the designated publisher accepts responsibility for anything published by those others. (Normally, if other individuals or units need write access for their own publications, they can request this from the Learning Technologies Center, and will then have their own access and responsibilities.)
- Each HGSE publisher should use the template approved by the Dean's Office, or, in certain cases, include in one's own design the following components: a reference on every separate page to Harvard Graduate School of Education, preferably including the official HGSE shield (Research Projects and non-core HGSE offices may choose to omit this reference); the name of the person responsible for the information; the date the document was last updated; and an email address users may contact with questions or for further information. We recommend the use of standard navigational controls (also provided with the template) to move through the information on the HGSE website. The point of the template is to provide a consistent look and organization to the various parts of the HGSE website, at least for core HGSE information. The template is available by contacting Web Help.
- With the exceptions noted in #4 and #5, the following guidelines apply. Publishers should not duplicate documents appearing on other parts of the server or elsewhere on the Internet, and should avoid duplicating groupings of links for which another unit of HGSE is officially responsible. HGSE offices, projects, areas, and programs should not publish information for which another entity is the official *source*. Each unit's manager and designated publisher should decide upon what documents and links should be published based on its relevance and usefulness to the School, the community, and that unit. For example, if the Library is the designated source for Educational Internet links, other offices should avoid duplicating those efforts or creating a list inconsistent with the Library's list, unless there is a particular reason for doing so (if there is a reason, label the unofficial information as such, and include directions to the official source and a disclaimer such as "unofficial" list provided by...). The best approach is to point to the official source when applicable, and send additional information or changes you think should be included in the list to that publisher.
- To include information for which one is not the source, the preferred manner is to create a link to that information rather than duplicate it. This helps to prevent errors or contradictions that can occur when duplicating information, and helps to insure that the original source's name, date updated, and continuing updates will appear on the document regardless of who links to it. When creating a link to another Internet document, it is best to link to that information in its fullest form, or at the highest level (on a web server) that is logical, to give fullest credit to the original publishers and to maintain their organization of the information when appropriate. Neither HGSE nor any individual HGSE network publisher is responsible for the content of information maintained outside of the HGSE servers.
- If it is necessary to reproduce information for which one is not the source, it is essential to check the accuracy and appropriateness with the source before publishing, and to acquire the signed approval from the source.
- For members of our community with certain physical disabilities, access to information on the web can be severely limited by poor design and coding of web pages and as more and more critical information becomes distributed solely through Harvard websites, the University cannot overlook this inequity of information distribution. As a result, the University has outlined general accessibility standards for Harvard websites based on Federal guidelines and recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium. For a list of the accessibility standards with which official HGSE offices, programs, and areas must comply, visit University Disability Services.
Publishing Policies For Unofficial HGSE Information
General guidelines apply (above), and all network publishers are required to read, understand, and abide by these guidelines and policies. Publication of material on HGSE's web server implies the publisher's consent to abide by these guidelines. A link to the following disclaimer must be included on all unofficial pages.
Unofficial information may be posted and maintained by individual HGSE students, faculty members, and officially recognized student organizations ("Unofficial Authors"). HGSE does not undertake to edit, screen, monitor, or censor information posted by Unofficial Authors, whether or not originated by Unofficial Authors or third parties, and does not accept any responsibility or liability for such information. Unofficial Authors and third parties are solely responsible for the content and organization of information posted by them, even if such information is accessed through HGSE servers. HGSE wishes to allow the academic community the greatest possible freedom to use these resources creatively and responsibly. Should you discover something out of date or in conflict with HGSE policies, please feel free to contact both the individual author and the Web Help.