Some exciting events and pieces of news on Open data and Open knowledge are summarized below, don’t hesitate to spread the word!
The Open Access Week Challenge will take place between October 18 and October 24, everywhere in the world. It focuses on the question “What does Open Access (OA) enable us to do?” and its aim is at sharing success stories on how open access improved your research and contacts in order to make it much more popular and initiate discussions with fellow scientists on the importance of data sharing. The very recent article in NYT titled Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s gives a stiking example on how we could and have to advance in sciences. For more information and subscription, please check the dedicated website.
The Open Knowledge Foundation Blog announced the other day that a new report called “Beyond Access: Open Government Data and the ‘Right to Reuse'”on access to information and open government data is open for consultation. According to the authors, this report identifies the practical, technical and legal challenges facing various information movements. The pdf can be downloaded here and of course, critics, feedback and recommendations are welcome either by writing to beyond@access-info.org or by filling in the questionnaire on the report you can find here. The consultation closes on October 11, 2010.
Last but not least, I read the abstract of this publication (but not the publication yet, didn’t have the time) titled Research Data: Who will share what, with whom, when, and why?, by Christine L. Borgman (2010, China-North America Library Conference, Beijing). Here is the abstract:
The deluge of scientific research data has excited the general public, as well as the scientific community, with the possibilities for better understanding of scientific problems, from climate to culture. For data to be available, researchers must be willing and able to share them. The policies of governments, funding agencies, journals, and university tenure and promotion committees also influence how, when, and whether research data are shared. Data are complex objects. Their purposes and the methods by which they are produced vary widely across scientific fields, as do the criteria for sharing them. To address these challenges, it is necessary to examine the arguments for sharing data and how those arguments match the motivations and interests of the scientific community and the public. Four arguments are examined: to make the results of publicly funded data available to the public, to enable others to ask new questions of extant data, to advance the state of science, and to reproduce research. Libraries need to consider their role in the face of each of these arguments, and what expertise and systems they require for data curation.
The pdf can be downloaded here.
I’ll be glad to here some feedback from you, fellow readers 🙂