[okfn-discuss] Proposal for OpenThesis Project

Tue Jul 13 11:28:15 UTC 2010

I tried to follow PeterM's suggestion to start by reworking PeterS'
text, but handling a document of this size is not convenient in an
Etherpad.

As an alternative option, I created http://wiki.okfn.org/OpenETD and
filled in some of the basic information. I do not find MoinMoin very
convenient either, but at least it has a table of content to
facilitate navigation. My personal preference for developing the text
would be a Wikiversity page.

Any other opinions on where to start typing?

Daniel

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> Graham,
> Extremely useful.
>
> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 4:43 AM, Graham Higgins <gjh at bel-epa.com> wrote:
>>
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>> On 12 Jul 2010, at 02:28, Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
>>
>>> So, apart from the name clash (which is unfortunate and we may need to
>>> think about) there isn't much in common unless you know diferently
>>
>>
>> Probably a wise move to consider a name change, "Openthesis" seems to have
>> picked up some negative associations already.
>>
>> Openthesis.org is discussed in the latter half of this blog post from
>> February:
>>
>> http://scienceblogs.com/bookoftrogool/2010/02/academic_samizdat.php
>>
>> The post references a "dustup" on EDT-L list about an apparent harvesting
>> of thesis metadata and associated content,
>
> This is by Dorothea Salo - worth reading
>
> She argues that OpenThesis.org has violated copyright by downloading against
> restrictions from the institutions (which apparently have special
> dispensations). I'm not clear that OT has actually downloaded theses in mass
> (I may just not have read far enough).(I think there is too much
> conservatism about legal issues in this.) But anyway that's not what I
> suggest OKF does
>
> My analysis is that OKFThesis (let's start with that) downlloads the
> metadata from the repositories. If THAT's illegal then I am happy to be the
> first in line for the jail. It then decides whether the object pointed to is
> Open. This might be done by licence - more likely by crowdsourcing. It then
> adds this metadata to the OKFT Toc.
>
>>
>> the referenced discussion carries a pointer to this abstract of James
>> Ryley's summary of the Openthesis rationale:
>>
>> http://conferences.library.pitt.edu/ocs/viewabstract.php?id=759&cf=7
>>
>> And this from searching for "Patents Online, LCC James Ryley":
>>
>> "This site was started by a former patent searcher, James Ryley, who was
>> not happy with the service or prices available from other patent data
>> providers. James happened to have a background in web programming and web
>> design, so he decided to solve the problem himself by building a better
>> patent searching site. So, this site started out as a labor of love, and
>> something James felt would be valuable to the community. Initially the site
>> was completely built and financed by James. But, as the site has grown
>> numerous people have become involved in various aspects of the site, and we
>> are currently investigating business models that will allow the site (or at
>> least the vast majority of the site) to remain free while defraying our
>> development, hosting, and hardware expenses."
>>
>>
>> http://www.freepatentsonline.com/help/topic/Who-runs-this-site-and-why.html
>
> Patents are actually the easiest place to start with. The info is by
> definition Open. We have a program which downloads all the EPO patents for
> chemistry and indexes them. We think it's miles ahead of any other
> technology. It's not 100%. So we can create an open patents database. (No,
> I'm not proposing TWO OKF projects in the same day - I believe that if you
> propose something you have to be part of the heavy lifting and I'll do that
> for theses)
> .
> So I currently suggest OKFTheses or OKTheses to avoid the name clash, but
> that's just a start.
>
> P.
>
>
> --
> Peter Murray-Rust
> Reader in Molecular Informatics
> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
> University of Cambridge
> CB2 1EW, UK
> +44-1223-763069
>
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>

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