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About Richard White

University Copyright Officer

Creative Commons in Dunedin, Friday 23 November

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

For those in Dunedin, Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ will be hosting a discussion session just prior to the opening of the NetHui South Conference (see this post). Anything CC-related can be raised, discussed or debated, though the focus will likely be on open access and Open Educational Resources.

The session is open to anyone, regardless of whether you’re attending NetHui.  Matt McGregor, CC ANZ’s Public Lead, will be down from Wellington to facilitate.

Creative Commons Meet-up, Kakapo Room, Otago Museum, 11am Friday 23 November

Open Access Week, 22-28 October 2012 | Everywhere

Monday, October 22nd, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

It’s Open Access Week across the world – and here at Otago, with our third and final seminar in our Open Minds series on Thursday 25 October, this time focusing on Open Data. Otago staff who have not registered but would like to attend please do so ASAP. See the relevant blog post for the programme and the contact details for registration.

And with a broader national focus, Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand is hosting a series of posts on the theme of Open Access. Featuring contributions from academics, publishers and librarians (and humble Copyright Officers), Open Access in Aotearoa discusses the future of free and open access to New Zealand’s publicly funded scholarly research. My own post discusses the reality of open access here at Otago but within the broader context of international trends, looking at the attitudes and understanding I see from our staff and students as Copyright Officer on a day-to-day basis.

Open minds: open data

Thursday, September 27th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

Data is perhaps the trickiest type of ‘open.’ It is often seen as the precious jewel that must kept locked away as the source of all power — and that’s before you even start thinking about privacy or intellectual property issues. Where, for example, is the line between pure facts (which you can’t own) and datasets that are the product of a particular researcher’s brain? And who owns data that is the product of such a brain if that person’s salary comes out of the public purse?

Nevertheless, the voices of those calling for the opening up our data are getting louder. Governments are doing it, as the NZ Government has done with the NZ Government Open Access and Licensing Framework (NZ GOAL) and the Declaration on Open & Transparent Government to actively release data of value to the public. BioMed Central is one publisher consulting the scientific community about how they might “put the open in open data and open bibliography” by proposing to establish CC0 (i.e. public domain) as their default for data published alongside academic papers.  And a provocative piece by Peter C Gøtzsche (Why we need easy access to all data from all clinical trials and how to accomplish it) appeared recently in Trials, suggesting that it is not only advantageous to publish your data “it is a moral imperative to render all results from all trials involving humans…publicly available” in the interests of patients, the progress of science and heath systems around the world. He even proposes legislative changes that could facilitate such a quantum shift.

We’ll be discussing these things and more in the third of our Open Minds seminar series, to be held in the Arana College Main Common Room, 9.30 – 1.00pm on October 25. Check out the full programme for details of our keynotes and panel members. This is a University of Otago staff only session for us to consider what strategies we might pursue in this area but we plan to release some video footage later under CC BY-SA. Otago staff should email library@otago.ac.nz to register your interest by 12 October.

Scientists say open access research inevitable in NZ (from Radio NZ)

Friday, July 27th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

From Morning Report, Wed 25 July: Scientists (and the PM’s science advisor Peter Gluckman) say that it is inevitable that NZ will follow recent declarations overseas that publicly funded research will become open access:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2526108/scientists-say-open-access-research-inevitable-in-nz

Who pays for Open Access Publishing? Video and audio discussions now on-line

Monday, June 18th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

Video and audio material from the Open Publishing seminar, the first in Otago’s 2012 Open Minds series held in February, is now on-line, ahead of our second session on Open Educational Resources on 28 June.

“We’re gonna be payin’ double for a while,” suggested one participant in our first Open Minds seminar, which focused on open publishing. After listening to presentations from Natalia Timiraos of open access publisher BioMed Central (Open Access Publishing – how it works, how it evolves) and from Jane Hornibrook, Public Lead of Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ  (Creative Commons licensing in open scholarship), participants grappled with the issue of who pays for open access to publications, especially with the current co-existence of traditional and open access publishing models.

Some bemoaned the fact that many open access models simply transfer cost from commercial publisher to author – meaning the public would still pay for access, just through a different system (though a new model has since been announced, as blogged below). Others considered the role that the library has to play, given that it currently pays for access to e-resources. Ultimately the general consensus was that we are in a transitional phase and we can’t see exactly what we’ll end up with. One participant argued that the transition would transform the research culture of universities because the internet is forcing us to re-think “the very fundamental question of what we are here to do…how can we now reach this objective in a more efficient, cost-effective, sustainable manner using these new technologies that we didn’t have before” (listen to the whole conversation here).

All the content is licenced CC BY-SA. Thanks to our guest speakers Natalia and Jane for allowing this re-use of their material.

PeerJ to shake the world of academic publishing

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012 | Richard White | 2 Comments

On June 12 PeerJ was announced, a new model for peer-reviewed Open Access publishing based on membership and community rather than a charge to cover publishing costs. Make what you will of the neologistic name, PeerJ promises authors the lifetime right to publish for a one-off membership fee from as little as $99. Its founders, including Peter Binfeld, who recently stepped down from heading PLoSOne, also claim to be be re-inventing the peer review process, allowing greater transparency and promising a turn-around of one month. The challenge for PeerJ will be its eschewing of impact factor, with accepted articles being judged on scientific validity alone. (Ed’s note: they’ve responded to this here, among other questions put to them following the launch). Nevertheless, the move promises to shake the world of academic publishing by harnessing the potential of the modern web to bring greater interactivity, transparency and simple speed of process to peer review and publishing.

Read more on Ars Technica or Nature or from among a whole host of media coverage, including a post by the University of Auckland’s champion for OA, Fabiana Kubke, professor of neuroscience, on her Building Blogs of Science site.

Cory Doctorow: “Internet and technologies, a matter of copyright?”

Saturday, March 10th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

A typically thoughtful piece by the Canadian-British fiction author, blogger, journalist and activist Cory Doctorow: “it’s time we stopped thinking about what makes good copyright policy and just think about what makes good policy.” In other words, in the connected world can’t create policy that only deals with certain aspects of it all.

Check it out on Creative Arte: Cory Doctorow: “Internet and technologies, a matter of copyright?”.

Copyright Community of Practice – first 2012 meeting

Sunday, March 4th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

Today being the first meeting of the CCOP for 2012, I went back to the original objectives we devised for the group back in 2008. This is what we said we’d do and most of them still hold true:

  • Meet and discuss copyright issues
  • Co-ordinate different areas
  • Clarify areas of compliance
  • Improve education/access to information/training
  • Promote best practice
  • Advise the Registrar

As is the way of communities of practice, the group has evolved over time, and the increasing focus on things open access has led to the Open Minds seminar series and this blog.

But as with any face-to-face group, the conversation is extremely wide-ranging – and lively – which is hardly surprising given the diverse membership (from musicians to philosophers to librarians).

If you’re on the Dunedin campus, come along to the meeting today at 1pm in the Reception Room (1st floor Clocktower). The other dates for the year are: 7 May, 2 July, 3 September, 5 November, all at 1pm in the Reception Room. (If you’re on another campus and interested let me know and we’ll investigate our options for ways for you to participate).

Open Minds: Open Publishing

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012 | Richard White | No Comments

Today, 16 February 2012, is the first in a series of three seminars to be held at Otago for academic leaders and senior managers. Broadly speaking the series seeks to start a discussion about how scholarship is changing with the tools at our disposal for sharing and collaboration. The open movement is growing in momentum around the world. How does this affect Otago? What are others doing? What are we doing already and what else could we do?

The first session today focuses on open publishing as a way into the topic. And we’re delighted to have two keynotes from people involved at the forefront of the growing open movement: Natalia Timiraos from BioMed Central (one of the biggest Open Access publishers of academic research) and Jane Hornibrook from Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ.

It’s going to be a great day. Otago people who want to join in by watching the stream, email me @ richard.white@otago.ac.nz . Or follow the #openotago hashtag on Twitter.