---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Open Access Week <mail_at_openaccessweek.org>
Date: Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Subject: The end of Open Access Week 2010, from SPARC
To: "amsciforum GMAIL.COM" <amsciforum gmail.com>
Open Access Week
A message to all members of Open Access Week
The largest, most successful International Open Access Week yet has
just come to a close. With just under 900 participants in 94
countries, this year’s event was no less than three times larger than
it was just a year ago. Hundreds of videos, photos, blog posts, and
more were released to promote and highlight the benefits of Open
Access to research and take the conversation even more deeply into the
research community – and they absolutely did.
We could celebrate the week as a success in numbers like these alone,
but the numbers really only tell part of the story.
The increase in diversity of participants is even more telling.
Started as a student-driven event in 2007 with support from SPARC and
the library community, Open Access Day was at first a library-centric
affair. Having grown in recognition and participation every year
since, in 2010 we truly began to make deep inroads into the academy.
The student stake in the conversation on access continues to grow more
firm, but this year participants from the academy – including
humanists, climate change scientists, provosts, research funders,
Nobelists, and lawyers – really took advantage of the occasion to
share their insights on how Open Access has had an impact on their
work and lives.
Nobel prize-winning scientist and director of the U.S. National Cancer
Institute Dr. Harold Varmus participated in the official OA Week
kick-off event, saying, with respect to where open-access publishing
has reached and what’s now possible: “All of these adventures are
tremendously exciting because they markedly enrich the experience of
being a scientist, of reading the work of others, and of exchanging
views with others in the scientific community.” Dr. Varmus’s comments
are online at
http://vimeo.com/15881200.
In his video, Dr. Nico Sommerdijk, associate professor of Chemical
Engineering and Chemistry at the Dutch Eindhoven University of
Technology, expresses a need for moving beyond traditional publishing
approaches to share data. He made his research data openly available
so that now, “Everybody can access [the data set] directly with one
click of your computer mouse. People may use the same data set for
things that we were not looking for and so generate new science with
the same scientific data set.”
(
http://www.openaccessweek.org/video/open-access-of-data-generates)
The stories that were shared are inspiring, but so was the creativity
of the delivery.
In Portugal, the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém held a portion of
their Open Access Week program in Second Life.
(
http://www.openaccessweek.org/xn/detail/5385115:Event:9662?xg_source=activity)
Students at Boston University made a video to illustrate that studying
without access to the resources you need is like having half a sock to
wear, half a hotdog to eat, or half a book to read
(
http://www.openaccessweek.org/video/open-access).
And, in Open Families
(
http://www.arl.org/sparc/openaccess/openfamilies), scientists relate
in personal and compelling terms how Open Access to the research and
data they produce, as well as that produced by others, is not just a
professional cause for them but a family affair.
All these contributions to the conversation – in writing, photo, and
video – are a fantastic resource that will help us all to continue the
conversation over the course of the year and beyond, and are a sure
sign of the growing momentum behind Open Access Week. Of course, the
growing size and power of the global network also continues to
impress.
Open Access Week 2010 was also a great reminder to us of the work and
opportunities that lie ahead. We’ve isolated a need to dig deeper
into the academy and find ways to meet faculty on their own terms – to
find ways to bring Open Access Week, so to speak, to campus every day
of the year. While we’ve made crucial advances, we’ve only just
started to make the inroads needed to engage the community of scholars
and researchers.
We’ve made fantastic progress, with awareness-raising around Week and
with advancing Open Access as a new norm in scholarship.
Congratulations to every single person who worked so hard to ensure
the success of the event – locally, regionally, nationally, and
globally. And, thank you.
SPARC also extends special thanks to the members of the 2010 Open
Access Week program advisers
(
http://www.openaccessweek.org/group/programadvisers), SPARC members
(
http://www.arl.org/sparc/member), and everyone we’ve had the pleasure
in working with this year. Thank you.
Naturally, there’s more to come. Watch for more OA Week round-up
materials from SPARC, including more videos, throughout the week. And,
course, there’s Open Access Week 2011 to look forward to! We'll look
forward to seeing you at www.openaccessweek.org then.
Warm wishes,
Heather Joseph, Executive Director
Jennifer McLennan, Program Director for Open Access Week
On behalf of the 2010 Open Access Week Program Advisers
Visit Open Access Week at:
http://www.openaccessweek.org/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Received on Wed Oct 27 2010 - 04:20:59 BST