...[SciTalks] is a focused, searchable repository of video recordings of science lectures from all over the world. The site launches today with over 1,000 lectures online, and more are being added daily. Segments range from a series of hour-long lectures by the late Richard Feynman, to a short, hilarious Ali G interview with Noam Chomsky, and a fascinating talk on designing a semiconductor-based brain, by up-and-coming Stanford researcher Kwabena Boahen.
Access to SciTalks.com is completely free; additionally, users can set up a free username and password to create their own collection of favorite videos, which can be shared with students, friends and colleagues....
Users can also submit links to additional lectures to be listed on the site, search for upcoming science conferences, and even upload their own video content -- the site has subcategories for academic, business and personal science lectures. Linked sites for lectures in the humanities, government and business are planned for launch in the next 3 months.
Unlike most existing sites, SciTalks.com does not attempt to copy available content but simply provides url links to online sources, so that copyright holders such as universities and the lecturers themselves are able to maintain control over how the videos are used. At that level, the site is a targeted search engine with a user-friendly display that includes descriptive video captions and screenshots. In addition, the site is offering file upload and management tools based on SeeFile Software's SeeFile3 technology, so that scientists who want to put their lectures online will now have a purpose-built hosted forum to do so. The linked and hosted videos can be searched together in a consistent way, with pull-down categories for fields such as physics, biology and space science....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/21/2007 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.
