On November 20, the third IUCN World Conservation Congress (Bangkok, November 17-25) will adopt the Conservation Commons Statement of Principles. Excerpt: "The Conservation Commons is first and foremost an idea. It is the expression of a collaborative effort of the conservation community to improve open access to, and unrestricted use of, data, information, and knowledge related to the conservation of biodiversity with the belief that this will contribute to improving conservation outcomes. At its simplest, it encourages organizations and individuals alike to place documents, data, and other information resources related to conservation in the public domain....[O]pen access to, sharing, and use of biodiversity data, information, and knowledge resources by all sectors of society concerned with the conservation of biodiversity is essential both to empower them and to enable effective decision making....[G]lobal inequities directly restrict access to data, information and knowledge for many of the world’s people, with adverse impacts on the conservation of biodiversity....The Conservation Commons promotes free and open access to data, information and knowledge for conservation purposes." (Thanks to Donat Agosti.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/09/2004 11:26:00 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.
