[open-bibliography] Fwd: News release: Referencing made easy

Tue May 18 08:44:06 UTC 2010

Thanks Jim,

In terms of the open vs closed sharing - while the 'MyReferences' tool we have developed makes use of RefWorks, much of the functionality we have developed does not rely on RefWorks as such. For example we support the idea of sharing references in any 'collaborative activity' in Moodle - this entails inserting an xml representation of the reference into Moodle forums/blogs/wikis and enabling functionality (such as 'export this reference'). None of this is tied to RefWorks. I would like to see some improvements in this area - for example it would have been nicer if we had been able to use RDFa and Bibliontology instead of an arbitrary xml representation - however I explain the reasons this didn't happen in my comment on this post http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/microformats-and-rdfa/#comments

So while the sharing mechanism is limited to the Moodle environment - which I agree is not ideal - it is not tied to any commercial software. 

In terms of the RefWorks T&C, your interpretation differs from mine, and the one implicitly supported by RefWorks. I believe the line you quote is about the use of the system, not the data stored in the system. I interpret the line to mean that we are unable to resell (or otherwise offer) the RefWorks service/software to others outside our organisation. However I do not believe this extends in any way to the bibliographic data stored in the system, and none of our discussions with RefWorks have indicated this is the case. As RefWorks supports the open publication of bibliographies as RSS (with the reference included as xml) it would seem that they do not intend your interpretation of the T&C either. 

Finally I'd like to re-emphasise that although the MyReferences tool was the focus of the press release - perhaps being the most tangible output - it is not the sole focus of the project. Particularly for this list I would highlight the section on "Copyright, Intellectual Property Rights, Licensing and Reference Management". This brief section highlights some of the issues to consider, and quotes the recent JISC report on the Transport and Use of Bibliographic Records (http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Projects/TransferandUseofBibliographicRecords/TheBasics/Legalconstraints.aspx) in terms of reuse of bibliographic data. What would be really valuable to the project is any suggestions of how this section might be improved, or if there are issues currently missed completely - input from those on this list would be especially welcome.

Best wishes,

Owen

On 17 May 2010, at 17:56, Jim Pitman wrote:

> Owen Stephens <o.stephens at open.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
>> I have to disagree with this. The project was not about open bibliographic data per se, but we did consider issues around sharing of bibliographic data between staff and students with a focus on how this might happen in an online learning environment. 
> 
> Understood that your project was not set up to promote open bibliographic data.
> My point is that it appears to have the effect of providing good bibliographic services to  RefWorks
> institutional customers while not promoting open bibliographic data.
> MyReferences appears to promote not open sharing, but closed sharing, where both 
> the data sharing capability and the data itself are made available only to individuals at 
> institutions which have RefWorks subscriptions.
> 
>> Additionally I really can't see how RefWorks restricts or licenses open bibliographic data?
> 
> From http://www.refworks.com/RefWorks/help/refworks.htm#Terms_and_Conditions.htm
> 
> "Customer may use the Service for bibliographic research purposes in the internal operation of its organization only or, if Customer is an individual, for his/her personal use only."
> 
> This clause appears to forbid republication of any bibliographic metadata assembled through the
> MyReferences system.
> If MyReferences users have some other terms of RefWorks service which would allow them to republish
> bibliographic metadata acquired through RefWorks licensing, I would be delighted to learn that
> and to cooperate with MyReferences users to enlarge and improve the pool of open biblio metadata.
> 
> 
> --Jim
> 
> ----------------------------------------------
> Jim Pitman
> Director, Bibliographic Knowledge Network Project
> http://www.bibkn.org/
> 
> Professor of Statistics and Mathematics
> University of California
> 367 Evans Hall # 3860
> Berkeley, CA 94720-3860
> 
> ph: 510-642-9970  fax: 510-642-7892
> e-mail: pitman at stat.berkeley.edu
> URL: http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/users/pitman
> 
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