[okfn-discuss] Proposal for OpenThesis Project

[Peter Murray-Rust]

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Thomas Kluyver
<thomas.kluyver at cantab.net>wrote:

> On 13 July 2010 14:00, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> The problem is that there are probably 5000 - 10000 HE institutions
>> globally (anyone have a better figure?) and we can only do this by
>> crowdsourcing. (Have we ever had the idea of an OKF contact/group per
>> institution? This could be a very powerful way of engaging?)
>>
>
> Would something along these lines work:
> (0. Decide what we want)
>

Yes - and we should have whatever is appropriate - wiki - mailing list -
pirate - skype. I think we all have ideas>>

>>Make a website for the project, along the lines of pantonprinciples.org,
setting out clearly what we're aiming for and why it's a good idea.
Yes

>>Work with high profile universities (Cambridge is an obvious target,
though I don't know how they make theses available at present) to get them
signed up, preferably with a press release saying how proud they are to be
working with us, at the forefront of the internet, and so on.

We need to identify the early adopters and get them on board. I'd probably
try to get unis which already expose all their theses as Open.

But my current suggestion is to also create a table of contents of  theses
in repositories across the world. This does not require detailed
negotiations with each uni - it is simply a translation of what they already
offer. I would try to avoid getting off on the wrong foot so we'd need to
get enough on board that it's seen as a good idea. And we might restrict it
to a subset of subjects/countries etc to see what the implications and
problems are

>>Provide encouragement and assistance as other universities catch on and
want to follow suit.

> We'd still have to build up enough momentum in step 2 that the idea catches
> on.
>
> Thomas
>
> We need to see who else in OKF is keen to do this and draw together a
group. I am also going to be looking for funding or at least sponsors in
this area. So, for example, in UK I've been talking with the eTHOS group and
I'd like to be able to go back with a rough outline of what we proposed to
do. So there's some cyclic processes here

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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