In the weeks preceding the iCommons Summit, it was clear to Heather Ford and John Wilbanks that the event could play a role in connecting open science and free culture. The two respective Executive Directors of iCommons and Science Commons agreed that the meeting in Rio should serve as a means for initiating discussion, in the hopes of discovering a way to bridge the divide. The result - the Rio Framework for Open Science....
Serving as a link farm, Open Science is the first substantive outcome of the Summit, delivered less than two months after it was conceptualized. Developed and tailored by Ford and Wilbanks, the first draft of the Framework was released on August 19. It is maintained on the iCommons wiki.
Right now, Open Science is a skeleton - a home for a minimal set of tools for universities and institutions, with the potential and hope that it expands exponentially as more users utilize the resources. By having the infrastructure live on a wiki, community members are able to actively edit, comment, annotate and add to the existing base....
The potential for Open Science is only as limited as the imaginations of the open science community, especially the users. Ford hopes that through iCommons’ work with individual countries, users can see this link farm as a modal point, helping the public garner support and move forward with their own open access initiatives at a local level.
Wilbanks sees Open Science as a means for localizing arguments in the future. The wiki-based site could expand to provide users with PowerPoint presentations, evidentiary writings, and marketing documents targeted to specific regions and audiences. But it is only through the site’s use and community development that the Framework can move in such a direction.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/02/2006 08:36:00 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.
