T.P.: Your work puts emphasis on the open access principle, which is an extremely interesting concept radically changing the way we see science, education and knowledge. However, do you think that access to content is enough for the democratisation of knowledge?
M.G.: I don’t think it is sufficient but it may well be a necessary condition. There are certainly additional concerns - connectivity, flexible copyright law, etc. are also essential, but access to content is important.
T.P.: The story is out: five leading European research institutions launched a petition that called on the European Commission to establish a new policy that would require all government-funded research to be made available to the public shortly after publication. Tell us a little bit more. How was this effort organised? After the initial success, how do you intend to continue?
M.G.: I believe this stems from several OA (open access) activists seeking to galvanize opinion on the issue. The fight will certainly continue – though here is some support and movement on the issue, we are still a long way from universal OA mandates for most major funding agencies worldwide. Moreover, many researchers and academics still do not give much thought to how they make their own work accessible.
T.P.: What do you expect to be the short and long term effects of this effort?
M.G.: Short term will be a growing awareness of the potential to increase the public’s access to knowledge by adopting more open approaches to publishing. Long term, the public will come to expect that such knowledge is readily available and we will facilitate the creation of a better informed, more knowledgeable society....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/18/2007 10:40:00 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.
