Thursday 18 October 2007: In the tradition of the best fairy tales, the castle was surrounded by wooded hills turning through the gold and russet and red hues of autumn. The sun shone from a clear blue sky; the air was still, and slightly chill, and when the car stopped outside the elegant front of the 14th century castle it suddenly seemed that things were going to happen, and happen well, that day.
And they did. The taxis shuttling delegates from Brussels and the airport arrived in quick succession. Our host, the engaging and energetic Bernard Rentier, rector of the University of Liege, in the ownership of which the Castle resides, beamed at each guest and welcomed them to his medieval retreat. As the guests assembled, representatives of twenty or so research institutions across Europe (with the good wishes and demand for feedback from a number of others that could not be represented on the day), an air of warm anticipation developed.
The occasion was a gathering to discuss what needs to be done by the research institutions of Europe to move things along towards the promising new world of enhanced and more effective scholarly communications. The prize is a more visible, more open, more competitive Europe, the goal of the Lisbon Agenda, fed by the i2010 Vision and the Bologna Process.
More will be announced from this meeting over the coming weeks. The initial meeting is reported here and here and these reports make clear that there is much to come. You will see that the second of those reports is Bernard's blog. He is unique - the only rector in the world who blogs about Open Access. Maybe he'll start a trend.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/23/2007 02:36:00 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.
