[Open-access] Draft advocacy guide for libre open access?

[Peter Murray-Rust]

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>wrote:

> Thanks very much for your feedback Peter.
>
> I'm not yet sure whether or not I'll be able to make it to Berlin 11 (is
> anyone else on the list going?) - but by next week I mean open access week,
> which is 21-27th October:
>
> http://www.openaccessweek.org/
>

OK - I will blog something - it will be fairly challenging.

>
> Re: OA libre - while Peter Suber has suggested using the term in the way
> you mention (removal of 'some' reuse barriers), I wonder whether we could
> start pushing for a stronger meaning of this term which is compliant with
> the Open Definition and BOAI10, which is closer to its usual meaning in
> relation to software and content?
>
> Absolutely. I have been trying to do this but none of the mainstream OA
protagonists are interested. A typical reaction from Stevan Harnad is "this
is a minor issue - we need to get the repositories filled with 100% green
and then we will find time to discuss this." It's incredibly hard to make
progress because most of them don't care about true "libre" and I am
usually told to shut up.  Note that "Gold" is also not an operable term -
it means "on a publisher website" and formally says nothing about
libre-ness.

There is no useful OA dialectic which is why I suggested we set up this OKF
list. It has been difficult to interest many people outside.  At least the
funders (and some politicians)  get the importance of true - i.e. OKF-libre.

I don't know why Peter Suber and Stevan Harnad chose to promote "libre" as
meaning something different from the rest of the world. (I suspect it was a
contested compromise - there were predecessors of "strong" OA and "weak" OA
- similarly fuzzy). OA-"libre" is effectively a debased and useless term
(and nobody uses it) and it's a great pity it ever happened.


-- 
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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