[okfn-tw] Fwd: FORCE11 Statement on Restrictions on Immigration and President Letter

Fri Feb 3 08:37:12 UTC 2017

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: FORCE11 <admin at force11.org>
Date: Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 2:59 AM
Subject: FORCE11 Statement on Restrictions on Immigration and President
Letter
To: tu.chenyi at gmail.com

<http://force11.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=5e2d2ee75f2d3afd1d39a666d&id=075f283c37&e=24923f17cf>

FORCE11 Statement on Restrictions on Immigration

The FORCE11 Board of Directors today voted to adopt the following statement:

FORCE11 is an international organization working towards improved open
digital communications to support an inclusive and global scholarly
community. We strongly support all basic democratic rights including
freedom of conscience, and freedom of movement, without which open inquiry
and scholarly communication cannot be conducted.

For this reason, the FORCE11 Board of Directors strongly opposes all
actions selectively restricting immigration or travel based upon religion,
national origin or other collective grounds, including the recent US
Government actions restricting immigration based on citizenship and origin.

These measures are attacks upon human rights that are foundational to
intellectual freedom and open scholarly communication.  We urge our members
to join us in working to oppose these and all other measures inimical to
open scholarship, intellectual freedom, and human dignity. The FORCE11
Board is committed to advocacy and the advancement of technology and social
practice to support inclusive intellectual spaces for open enquiry,
criticism, validation and preservation of evidence.

We will work to minimise the exclusionary effects of such travel bans
through the selection of locations for our activities, through program
design and technology.  We welcome collaboration with other like-minded
organisations to address these issues and reflect together on improving our
own practice for building a global and inclusive scholarly community.
------------------------------
Letter from FORCE11 President

Dear Colleagues,

FORCE11 works towards the goal of being a global platform that brings
communities together to discuss challenging issues. These communities focus
on the methods that underpin how scholars work, how we define and validate
what we consider to be true, and how the credit and attribution for insight
is assigned. Our business is seeking consensus across diverse communities
with differing agendas and interests. At this time I believe this work to
be more important than ever.

Like any organisation with its roots in the traditional North Atlantic
centres of western scholarship our claim to global reach is an aspiration.
I recognise this and seek to continually improve our work on the historical
inequities of access to and inclusion in scholarship including exclusion on
the basis of factors including, but not limited to, geography, social
conditions, professional status, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender
identity, citizenship and national origin.

It is still the case the most productive conversations happen face to face.
This is especially true of efforts pursued within FORCE11. The history of
the organisation is one of bringing together diverse groups to examine and
solve problems. Exclusionary limitations on travel of groups of people
specified on any basis is totally inimical to our goals and purpose.

It is for this reason that the Executive Board of FORCE11 has today
released a *statement*
<http://force11.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5e2d2ee75f2d3afd1d39a666d&id=1c8b0cebac&e=24923f17cf>that
rejects policies that exclude immigrants on the basis of belonging to a
group defined by race, religion, national origin or other criteria. This
includes the recent White House Executive Order.

Objecting to policy is not enough however. I will be working with the Board
and with our Working Groups and contributors to find ways in which we can
limit the effect of exclusionary policies. Amongst other things I want to
work across the full set of our activities to select venues and platforms
that are, as a whole, inclusive of as wide as a group of global
participants as possible. This will include considering restrictions to
entry, cost of travel, financial risks, physical access and safety of
participants. It is important to note that current policies both limit
entry to some countries by some participants but also have the effect of
making it impossible for some participants to leave their country of
residence.

At the core of our work at FORCE11 is also exploring technology and social
practice for scholarly communications. We will explore technology and
design options for practical and effective multi-site meetings and
workshops in the future. In all of this we welcome collaboration with
like-minded organisations to work together, to reflect on our own
practices, and to develop shared practice to support inclusive scholarly
meetings and communications more generally.

Good scholarship has at its core, recognising and listening to valid
criticism. I know that inclusion is something we need to continue to work
on as an organisation, that any organization needs to continue to work on.
I welcome comments, criticisms, and advice on how FORCE11 can work more
effectively, and how we can work together, to pursue these goals.

Yours sincerely

Cameron

Cameron Neylon, President
FORCE11
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-- 
Chen-Yi Tu (Crystal)
National Taiwan University
Institute of Oceanography
No.1 Sec. 4 Roosevelt Rd.
Taipei, Taiwan 10617
Email: tu.chenyi at gmail.com / d01241003 at ntu.edu.tw
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