Ségolène Royal, a candidate for the Presidency of France, supports the Berlin Declaration and the WSIS principles for OA. Thanks to Francis Muguet for forwarding a press release, in English and French, reporting Royal's recent meeting with Richard Stallman:
Open standards (like the Open Document Format) and the use of Free
Software contribute to the independence, quality and effectiveness of
public agencies and local communities. Developments funded by public
authorities for their own needs should be free, as a general rule.
Public authorities, in France and Europe, should promote a legal
framework which favors freedom to use software and participation of
all users in innovation. Policies for research and technological innovation in computing could benefit by using concepts originating from Free Software....
Beyond software, public authorities must promote the "information
commons" in all fields of science. [Royal and Stallman] call for implementation of the Berlin declaration and the recommendations of the World Summit of the Company of Information (WSIS) in regards to Open Access to scientific
information.
Update. For more background on the Royal-Stallman meeting and its joint statement, see Glyn Moody, Time for Coders to Get Political?Linux Journal, July 3, 2006.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/02/2006 09:53:00 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.
