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Global Information Society Watch 2009 | Association for Progressive Communications

sennoma — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:10:00 -0500

This third report in the GISWatch series is entitled “Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy” and reveals how vulnerable the internet as we know it is. The report unpacks the key issues impacting on access to online information and knowledge, including discussions on intellectual property rights, knowledge rights, open standards and access to educational materials and libraries. The report also offers an institutional overview and a reflection on indicators that track access to information and knowledge. 48 country reports –-ten more than last year— analyse the status of access to online information and knowledge in countries as diverse as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Mexico, Switzerland and Kazakhstan, while regional overviews offer a bird’s eye perspective on trends in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Europe. For the first time there is an innovate section that visually maps global rights as seen through the lens of Google searches, as well as a visual analysis of Twitter messages sent out during the recent Iranian political crisis. Tagged by sennoma under mangosteen, oa, oa.access,

NEW! “Why Open Access Matters in the Developing World” Video — Open Access Week - October 19-23, 2009

sennoma — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:34:00 -0400

Hear Walter H. Curioso, M.D., M.P.H. talk about his views of open access and how it can help in developing countries. Tagged by sennoma under oa, mangosteen,

BioMed Central Blog : Open access and the developing world - read the latest

sennoma — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:01:00 -0400

Tagged by sennoma under mangosteen, oa,

aRDi Access to Research for Development and Innovation

sennoma — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:34:00 -0400

The Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi) program is coordinated by the World Intellectual Property Organization together with its partners in the publishing industry with the aim to increase the availability of scientific and technical information in developing countries. By improving access to scholarly literature from diverse fields of science and technology, the aRDi program seeks to: * reinforce the capacity of developing countries to participate in the global knowledge economy; and * support researchers in developing countries in creating and developing new solutions to technical challenges faced on a local and global level. Currently, 12 publishers provide access to over 50 journals for 107 developing countries through the aRDi program. Tagged by sennoma under oa, mangosteen,

WHO | Open access: a giant leap towards bridging health inequities

sennoma — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:05:00 -0400

Studies have shown that access to published health research by the research communities in developing countries is no longer “fit for purpose”.2 As has been well documented, rising costs of subscriptions and permission barriers imposed by publishers have barred access to the extent that local health research and health care have been damaged through lack of information.3,4 For example, Yamey5 tells of a physician in southern Africa who could not afford full access to journals but based a decision to alter a perinatal HIV prevention programme on one single abstract. The full text article would have shown that the findings were not relevant to the country’s situation. With the advent of the internet there is little justification for continuing to create barriers to access. Richard Smith, as the former editor of the British Medical Journal, said, “Most research is publicly funded, and when the internet appeared it made no sense for research funders to allow publishers to profit from restricting access to their research”.6 This is true not only for publicly funded research but for private health charities around the world. As the Open Access Policy of the Wellcome Trust states, “We . . . support unrestricted access to the published output of research as a fundamental part of its charitable mission and a public benefit to be encouraged wherever possible”.7 Science is a collaborative process and openness is fundamental to knowledge advancement. Tagged by sennoma under subbiaharunachalam, lesliechan, oa, WHO, mangosteen, oa.numbers,

WHO | A key piece of the jigsaw for improving world health

sennoma — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:03:00 -0400

Impaired access to research information in health-related fields is not solely the preserve of developing countries but it is hugely exacerbated in poorer regions of the world. While these regions bear the brunt of the world’s health problems, only 10% of health research effort goes into these areas (referred to as the “10/90 gap”).1 If we are going to achieve what the World Conference on Science held by UNESCO and the International Council for Science in 1999 termed the true “orienting of scientific progress towards meeting the needs of humankind”, then we must improve the research effort on the health problems that afflict the greatest part of the world’s population. That cannot happen until research communication is optimized: at the turn of the new millennium more than half of research-based institutions in lower-income countries had no current subscriptions at all to international research journals.2 Tagged by sennoma under oa, almaswan, WHO, mangosteen, oa.numbers,

WHO | Building a bridge for research

sennoma — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:03:00 -0400

will open access build a bridge to reduce health inequity? The potential is certainly great but the digital divide remains large, with estimates that only 13% of the developing world use the Internet, often on slow and expensive connections.9 Therefore, the inequity in accessing information and communication technology infrastructure will need to improve to allow people to get a foot onto the information bridge. But even once they are there, they will still only be able to access information that has been paid for – even when that information was created using taxpayers’ money. There is a role for more research funders and donors to support open access as an integral cost of undertaking the research itself to ensure public access.10 Tagged by sennoma under oa, WHO, mangosteen,

R4L_homepage

sennoma — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:37:00 -0400

rebranding of HINARI, OARE and AGORA Tagged by sennoma under oa, mangosteen,

Bioline International Official Site (site up-dated regularly)

sennoma — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:20:00 -0400

Tagged by sennoma under oa, mangosteen,

Open and Shut?

sennoma — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:29:00 -0400

Tagged by sennoma under oa.money, intellectualproperty, mangosteen,

BioMed Central Blog : Open access and the developing world - read the latest

sennoma — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:47:00 -0400