Oxford University has released its project plan for Scoping Digital Repository Services for Research Data Management, "to scope the requirements, including for the underlying infrastructure and interoperability, for digital repositories services to store, curate, disseminate and preserve research data generated at Oxford." The plan was last modified February 27. (Thanks to Charles Bailey.)
... Objectives:
Capture and document researchers’ requirements for digital repository services to handle research data.
Participate actively in the development of an interoperability framework for the federated digital repository at Oxford.
Make recommendations to improve and coordinate the provision of digital repository services for research data.
Initiate and develop collaborations with the different repository activities already occurring to ensure that communication takes place in between them.
Raise awareness at Oxford of the importance and advantages of the active management of research data.
Communicate significant national and international developments in repositories to relevant Oxford stakeholders, in order to stimulate the adoption of best practices. ...
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.
