Benjamin Brantley, Misty Kiernan and Douglas Smalley, all students in Middle Georgia State University's graduate program in Information Technology, presented their research of hot-button digital issues at the recent International Association for Computer Information Systems Conference in Nashville, Tenn.
 
All three are members of the charter class of graduate IT students at MGA, which introduced the Master of Science in Information Technology in January 2016.
 
“I am grateful to our faculty members who have created a culture of research among our graduate students and I am proud of our graduate students who have demonstrated their professional development through conference presentation and publications," said Dr. Alex Koohang, dean of the School of Information Technology. "This clearly shows the strength, quality and excellence of our Master of Science in IT program.”
 
The students' research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and in conference proceedings.
 
Smalley’s paper, "Open Source and the Validity of Intellectual Rights," constructed a scholarly assessment of the protection of open source architecture in the consumer-driven marketplace.
 
Brantley’s paper, "Copyright Protection is Disappearing," questioned through scholarly publications whether copyright protection is vanishing due to the proliferation of innovations and technologies and the demise of the digital gap.
 
Kiernan presented two papers at the conference that considered the current state of legal and ethical issues, including one titled "Bring Your Own Devices to Work."  Kiernan’s papers were also published in "Issues in Information Systems Journal." All of the students conducted their research under the direction of Dr. Scott Spangler, assistant professor of Information Technology.
 
School of Information Technology administrators and faculty Koohang, Dr. Kevin Floyd, Dr. John Girard, Spangler and Alan Stines also attended and presented at the conference.
 
“Presenting at IACIS was an incredible experience," Kiernan said. "The group was very encouraging and supportive throughout the entire conference and the knowledge I gleaned from other’s research has encouraged me to continue writing and delve deeper into my topic."
 
Brantley said, "The opportunity of presenting as well as having a scholarly work published by a well-known international conference has been an incredibly enlightening experience. The feeling of being surrounded by other scholarly individuals as I delivered my presentation was one of the most remarkable moments of my life!"