[Irtalk] FW: [EIFLoa] Participate now in an online dialogue on open access and the developing world

[Smith, Ina <ismith@sun.ac.za>]

From: eifloa-bounces at lists.eifl.net [mailto:eifloa-bounces at lists.eifl.net] On Behalf Of Iryna Kuchma
Sent: 28 November 2012 11:42
To: eifloa
Subject: [EIFLoa] Participate now in an online dialogue on open access and the developing world

(http://www.wsis-community.org/pg/forum/topic/586392/is-open-access-only-for-rich-countries-participate-now-in-an-online-dialogue-on-open-access-and-the-developing-world/)

Welcome to this discussion which will provide a valuable space for us to reflect upon our different perspectives on what open access means for the developing world.

Open access has enjoyed a great deal of acceptance and growth over the last decade, with a particularly strong spurt in the adoption of open access policies by major agencies and governments in the last 12 months. With open access policies and initiatives now being taken up by UNESCO<http://www.unesco.org/>, the World Bank<http://www.worldbank.org/>, the FAO<http://www.fao.org/>, the European Commission<http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm>, and the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States, it is clear that open access has entered the global mainstream.

We now know that open access can work in the immediate and short term in providing better access to the research literature, whilst some of the longer term consequences and effects are still emerging. This is especially so in the developing world, which has been badly served by the publishing system we have inherited from the 20th century new opportunities and possibilities are created by open access, and, at the same time certain pitfalls need to be noted and avoided.

With this as a background context, we will focus in on the developing-world scenario.  Our first point of discussion is:

The production, publication and consumption of scholarly knowledge and OA

This will focus on the greater concern of scholarly research in the developing country context debating the questions:

  *   What does OA imply and offer the developing world in terms of production, publication and consumption of academic materials and research activities?
  *   What are the specific challenges and opportunities for access to knowledge in developing countries?

Sub-theme 1:  Considering the issues of translation; co-production and increasing access to academic materials; and the importance of OA in producing and sharing of non-state-supported educational materials;

Sub-theme 2:  OA in academia and the search for global prestige; the perverse impact of metrics and rankings; scholarly knowledge production; and sharing and consumption challenges in developing countries.

The Center for Internet and Society<http://cis-india.org/>, along with The African Commons Project<http://www.africancommons.org/>, both non profit organisations operating in the global South, will facilitate this discussion, ably assisted by a group of committed activists, academics and open-access specialists, whom we will invite to give us a brief welcome and background about their areas of interest.

For deeper information to assist in contextualising the discussion, you are encouraged to look at the positioning paper that was collaboratively drafted with funding from the Institute for Development Studies (IDS)<http://www.ids.ac.uk/>.  The paper, entitled "Open Access and devleopment:  Journals and beyond" can be accessed for download here<http://www.africancommons.org/2012/11/open-access-debates-get-talking/>.

Our launch date for the discussion is officially Tuesday, 27 November
When registering on WSIS Knowledge Communities in order to take part in this discussion, we encourage you to provide as much information about yourself, your interests and your location as possible, as this will add key background info to our collective opinions.

________________________________

E-pos vrywaringsklousule Hierdie e-pos mag vertroulike inligting bevat en mag regtens geprivilegeerd wees en is slegs bedoel vir die persoon aan wie dit geadresseer is. Indien u nie die bedoelde ontvanger is nie, word u hiermee in kennis gestel dat u hierdie dokument geensins mag gebruik, versprei of kopieer nie. Stel ook asseblief die sender onmiddellik per telefoon in kennis en vee die e-pos uit. Die Universiteit aanvaar nie aanspreeklikheid vir enige skade, verlies of uitgawe wat voortspruit uit hierdie e-pos en/of die oopmaak van enige l?ers aangeheg by hierdie e-pos nie. E-mail disclaimer This e-mail may contain confidential information and may be legally privileged and is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that you may not use, distribute or copy this document in any manner whatsoever. Kindly also notify the sender immediately by telephone, and delete the e-mail. The University does not accept liability for any damage, loss or expense arising from this e-mail and/or accessing any files attached to this e-mail.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lib.sun.ac.za/pipermail/irtalk/attachments/20121128/ca932795/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: ATT00001.txt
URL: <http://lists.lib.sun.ac.za/pipermail/irtalk/attachments/20121128/ca932795/attachment.txt>