The BOAI is one of a handful of events that catalyzed the international open access movement. The BOAI offered a definition of OA that has structured action and opinion ever since. It was the first to call for OA journals and OA archives as complementary strategies. It was the first to generalize the call for OA, in both forms, beyond a certain field or region, the first to be accompanied by significant funding, and the first to use the term open access.
The BOAI emerged from a December 2001 meeting in Budapest convened by the Open Society Institute, which committed $3 million to implement its vision.
(Disclosure: I helped draft the BOAI and receive support from OSI. Dilemma: Should I understate the BOAI's influence just because I have a connection to it? I can't. Hence this disclosure. Call me biased or write your own birthday greeting, but this is my take.)
To the BOAI, live long and prosper --and to all who have worked for OA worldwide, Happy Valentines Day as well.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/14/2007 09:55:00 AM.
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.
