The Digital Promise Project submitted its report to Congress on October 23. The report calls on the country to create a $20 billion Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO-IT), funded from the auction of electromagnetic spectrum. Interest generated by the trust would pay for new projects in digital research and education, apparently including open-access projects. Quoting Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in the press release: "DO-IT will give us the opportunity to take the
knowledge that resides in our country's museums, libraries, universities and
research institutions and make it uniformly available to every American from
Presque Isle, Maine to Juneau, Alaska." Quoting the executive summary: "DO IT will help to digitize these collections [in universities, museums, libraries, and cultural institutions] and set standards to conserve 'born digital' materials, ensuring their accessibility to all. It will assist in the development of content and software to integrate the riches of our cultural institutions into classroom curricula and stimulate research in the humanities. It will help move our not-for-profit educational, cultural, and scientific institutions into the digital age and enable them to reach beyond
their walls into even the most remote schools, homes, and workplaces." Three Senators (Dodd D-CT, Durbin D-IL, and Snowe R-ME) have agreed to introduce legislation to implement the report's recommendations.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/30/2003 02:10:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
