Author Archives: Joseph McArthur

OpenCon 2015 Applications are Open!

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This was originally posted at: http://opencon2015.org/blog/opencon-2015-applications-are-open

Applications to attend OpenCon 2015 on November 14-16 in Brussels, Belgium are now open! The application is available on the OpenCon website at opencon2015.org/attend and includes the opportunity to apply for a travel scholarship to cover the cost of travel and accommodations. Applications will close on June 22nd at 11:59pm PDT.

OpenCon seeks to bring together the most capable, motivated students and early career academic professionals from around the world to advance Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data—regardless of their ability to cover travel costs.  In 2014, more than 80% of attendees received support.  Due to this, attendance at OpenCon is by application only.

Students and early career academic professionals of all experience levels are encouraged to apply.  We want to support those who have ideas for new projects and initiatives in addition to those who are already leading them.  The most important thing is an interest in advancing Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data and a commitment to taking action. We also hope to use applications to connect applicants with opportunities for collaboration, local events in your area, and scholarship opportunities to attend other relevant conferences.

OpenCon is equal parts conference and community.  The meeting in Brussels serves as the centerpiece of a much larger network to foster initiatives and collaboration among the next generation across OpenCon’s issue areas.  Become an active part of the community by joining our discussion list, tuning in for our monthly community calls and webcasts, or hosting an OpenCon satellite event in your community.

Apply now, and join the OpenCon community today!

About OpenCon:

Hosted by the Right to Research Coalition and SPARC, OpenCon 2015 will bring together students and early career academic professionals from across the world to learn about the issues, develop critical skills, and return home ready to catalyze action toward a more open system for sharing the world’s information — from scholarly and scientific research, to educational materials, to digital data.  OpenCon 2015 will be held on November 14-16 in Brussels, Belgium.

OpenCon 2015’s three day program will begin with two days of conference-style keynotes, panels, and interactive workshops, drawing both on the expertise of leaders in the Open Access, Open Education and Open Data movements and the experience of participants who have already led successful projects.

The third day will take advantage of the location in Brussels by providing a half-day of advocacy training followed by the opportunity for in-person meetings with relevant policy makers, ranging from the European Parliament, European Commission, embassies, and key NGOs. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the conference’s three issue areas, stronger skills in organizing local and national projects, and connections with policymakers and prominent leaders across the three issue areas.

OpenCon 2015 builds on the success of the first-ever OpenCon meeting last year which convened 115 students and early career academic professionals from 39 countries in Washington, DC.  

Speakers at OpenCon 2014 included the Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States for Legislative Affairs, the Chief Commons Officer of Sage Bionetworks, the Associate Director for Data Science for the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and more than 15 students and early career academic professionals leading successful initiatives. OpenCon 2015 will again feature leading experts, and the program will be announced in the coming months.

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May OpenCon Webcast: The facts behind OER

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Open Educational Resources have always held the promise of saving students millions – if not billions – of dollars each year. But is cost savings the only advantage of OER?  A growing body of evidence suggests that OER produce learning outcomes that are as good or, in many cases, better than those of proprietary learning materials.

Our next OpenCon Community Webcast will delve into current research on the efficacy of Open Educational Resources and how they compare with traditional textbooks. John Hilton III, an Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University and leading expert on OER efficacy, will be joining us to address this issue. In his presentation, John will answer critical questions including if students using OER get better grades, how students and teachers perceive Open Educational Resources and what it takes for a professor to adopt an Open Textbook.

The webcast will be held on Tuesday, May 5th, at 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST and last approximately 45 minutes. You can view the webcast at opencon2015.org/community/webcasts or by bookmarking the embedded YouTube link below. You can join the discussion and ask questions on Twitter with the hashtag #opencon. A recording of the presentation will be available online immediately following the webcast at the same URL.

This was originally posted at http://opencon2015.org/blog/may-opencon-webcast-facts-behind-oer# 

New OpenCon webcast series and March OpenCon Community Call

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This month, due to downtime on the OpenCon website we’re posting this announcement here. Normally you can find details at OpenCon2014.org/community/webcasts and OpenCon2014.org/community/calls

Announcing OpenCon Community Webcasts!

We’re excited to announce our new OpenCon Community Webcast series, which aims to inform and engage the growing OpenCon community by showcasing an individual, project, or success story each month. Ranging between 30 minutes and an hour, these webcasts will provide a regular opportunity for the OpenCon community to hear from those leading the charge for Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data.

To kick the series off, we’ve invited Titus Brown (website, blog, twitter) to join us and share his story of gaining tenure as an open researcher! Titus is a an Associate Professor at the University of California Davis Genome Center and recently wrote a blog post that will be of interest to many in the OpenCon community entitled “On gaining tenure as an open scientist”. In October 2014, Titus was one of 14 researchers selected for the new Moore Investigators in Data-Driven Discovery award .

The webcast will be held on Friday, April 3rd, at 12pm EDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST, and last approximately 45 minutes. A recording of the presentation will be available online immediately after the webcast. You can view the webcast at this URL or by bookmarking the embedded YouTube link below.



March OpenCon Community Call

Beginning in February, we’ve begun hosting OpenCon community calls each month for those in the OpenCon network to hear the latest updates on open policy, share updates on one another’s projects, and have an open discussion of important topics. Approximately 20 people joined our first call, and we’re hoping to see many more join future discussions. Those surveyed said the first call was extremely useful and plan to join again in the future.

Join our next community call on Wednesday, March 25th, at 12pm EDT / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET.

If you’re planning to join this month’s community call, you can sign up to give an update and see last month’s minutes at http://bit.ly/communitycallmarch

Don’t miss out on the discussion! Join the OpenCon community email list.
 
Finally, make sure you’re not missing out on the lively discussion on our OpenCon community email list, which is also where you can get the latest updates on OpenCon. You can subscribe through the form below.





Join the OpenCon Discussion List

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IFMSA MM2015 “Virtual pre-GA”

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Dear pre-GA participants,

I must begin with an apology, I understand that my not being able to attend lead to the cancellation of the pre-GA. The organisers know how much I value the work of the IFMSA and the Right to Research has long been a partner with the IFMSA for this work. However, as an organise our staff travel extremely frequently but we do not allow this if there is any possible threat to our safety. However, not wanting to leave you without some way to learn about these issues I thought I’d put together a “virtual” pre-GA.

The following videos will introduce you to the topics of Open Access, Open Education and, Open Data in theory. You’ll also be introduced to the topic in action, and see how being open can be useful as a student, how it impacts how reproducible our science is and why it’s important for human health. Finally, you’ll see how the policy environment around these issues is changing. Each of these video’s is a high-quality recording of the leading thinkers and actors on the topic they’re discussing, often I have edited them to ensure they’re as concise as possible.

Once you have worked your way through the videos, which will take around 6 hours, I’m more than happy to discuss the topics raised in the videos online! You can find doodles and my email below!

Joe McArthur

Materials

  1. Introduction to Open Access and Open Education
  2. Being Open as a student or Early-Career Researcher 
  3. Introduction to Open Data
  4. Open Data and Reproducibility in Research
  5. Importance of Open Science To Human Health
  6. Open Access and Open Education policy

Q and A session

Once you’ve completed watching those lectures, I’d love to talk to you! I’ve put together a doodle poll for you all to arrange a time to chat. It’s for a month from now.

Answer the doodle: http://doodle.com/gx7epbpd2v7k7iv3

If that fails though, you can catch me whenever by emailing joe@righttoresearch.org

Don’t miss these 4 webcasts to bring you up to speed on Open Access and Open Educational Resources!

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In the run up to OpenCon 2014 we’re happy to present four webcasts that take you from the very basics, to the leading edge of Open Access, Open Education and Open Data in just a few hours. You can sign up for reminders below! 

The Open Access Week Kick Off event – October 20st

This October the 20st at 8pm BST, (3PM EDT, 12PM PST, 9PM CET) join SPARC and the World Bank here to kick off International Open Access Week 2014.

To celebrate the start of Open Access Week SPARC and the World Bank highlight some of the most interesting student and early career researcher-led initiatives that exemplify the “Generation Open” theme for International Open Access Week. The kickoff event will feature questions from both the in-person and online audiences.  The panel will discuss the role that institutions central to a career in research can play in supporting—and rewarding—early career researchers in making their articles and underlying data openly accessible.

To find all the information for joining, and ask questions of the panel head here.

Open Access 101 with Nick Shockey – October 29th

This October the 29st at 4pm BST, (12PM EDT, 9AM PST, 5PM CET) join Nick Shockey here for an introduction to Open Access.  

Nick is the founding Director the Right to Research Coalition. A coalition of local, national, and international student organizations that advocate for researchers, universities, and governments to adopt more open scholarly publishing practices.  Under Nick’s direction, the coalition has grown to represent just under 7 million students in approximately 100 countries around the world and has facilitated student lobbying in over two hundred Congressional offices. Nick is a leading expert on Open Access, and has spoken to audiences across the world on the topic.

Open Education 101 with Nicole Allen and David Willey – October 31th

This October the 31st at 5pm BST (1PM EDT, 10AM PST, 6PM CET) join Nicole Allen and David Wiley here for an introduction to Open Education.

Nicole Allen is SPARC’s Open Education Director and a leading figure in the Open Education Movement. In her time Nicole worked with college students to organize numerous large-scale grassroots campaigns on OER and related issue areas, including a 40-campus, cross-country van tour called the “Textbook Rebellion” and organizing 3,000 professors to sign a commitment to consider adopting open textbooks. Nicole is widely cited in the media for her work, and is considered one of the leading issue experts on college textbook costs.

Dr. David Wiley is Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning, an organization dedicated to increasing student success and improving the affordability of education through the adoption of open educational resources by middle schools, high schools, community and state colleges, and universities. He is also currently a Shuttleworth Fellow, Education Fellow at Creative Commons, and adjunct faculty in Brigham Young University’s graduate program in Instructional Psychology and Technology.

Open Data 101 with Ross Mounce – November 4th

This November the 4th at 4pm BST (11AM EST, 8AM PST, 5PM CET) join Ross Mounce here for an introduction to Open Data.

Ross Mounce is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bath studying the use of fossils in phylogeny and phyloinformatics, completing his PhD at the University of Bath last year. Ross was one of the first Panton Fellows and is an active member of the Open Knowledge Foundation, particularly the Open Science Working Group. He is an advocate for open science, and is actively working on mining academic publications to reuse scientific data in meta-analyses to gain higher level insights in evolutionary patterns.

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Ideas and tips you need to pull off a great Open Access Week

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Open Access Week is drawing ever closer, now a mere 7 weeks away and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever. The week has grown in just a few short years from students on just a handful of campuses working together, into a truly international event. This year the week’s spotlight is on young people with the theme “Generation Open”. The week will celebrate the mammoth contribution we’ve made to the Open Access movement, but also the address the unique challenges we face.

 

The week is already shaping up to be a huge success, with students from Nepal, to Nigeria and the USA planning events of all shapes and sizes. This year our Generation Open Grants (more here) drew a huge number of high quality applicants and we’re excited to have been able to support a great set of events. We were also thrilled that over 1000 OpenCon 2014 applicants also indicated they were going to get involved in Open Access Week.

 

To support you all in taking part in the week on Friday September 19th, at 6PM GMT+1 join us for an hour of ideas, tips and questions for running a great Open Access Week event. Sign up below and we’ll remind you closer to the time to join us. You can tweet us questions throughout (@R2RC) or leave a comment on the video. If you can’t join live though, you won’t miss out, we’ll have a video up straight after!

 

In the mean time, if you can’t hold the excitement in share the page with your friends, colleagues and anyone else who will listen!

Sign up at http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/open-access-week-planning-webcast  to be notified, or grab a google calendar invite here:

Originally posted at http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/open-access-week-planning-webcast on September 3rd. 

Ideas and tips you need to pull of a great Open Access Week

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Open Access Week is drawing ever closer, now a mere 7 weeks away and this year it promises to be bigger and better than ever. The week has grown in just a few short years from students on just a handful of campuses working together, into a truly international event. This year the week’s spotlight is on young people with the theme “Generation Open”. The week will celebrate the mammoth contribution we’ve made to the Open Access movement, but also the address the unique challenges we face.

 

The week is already shaping up to be a huge success, with students from Nepal, to Nigeria and the USA planning events of all shapes and sizes. This year our Generation Open Grants (more here) drew a huge number of high quality applicants and we’re excited to have been able to support a great set of events. We were also thrilled that over 1000 OpenCon 2014 applicants also indicated they were going to get involved in Open Access Week.

 

To support you all in taking part in the week on Friday September 19th, at 6PM GMT+1 join us for an hour of ideas, tips and questions for running a great Open Access Week event. Sign up below and we’ll remind you closer to the time to join us. You can tweet us questions throughout (@R2RC) or leave a comment on the video. If you can’t join live though, you won’t miss out, we’ll have a video up straight after!

 

In the mean time, if you can’t hold the excitement in share the page with your friends, colleagues and anyone else who will listen!  

 

Watch on youtube here: http://youtu.be/UeaULYbiFz0

 

 Sign up below to be notified, or grab a google calendar invite here:

 

Less than a week to apply for a GOGrant!

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Seven years ago, students partnered with SPARC to organize a day of coordinated on-campus action in support of Open Access that quickly grew into International Open Access Week. Students have continued their leadership on Open Access and this month the Right to Research Coalition announced Generation Open Grants, a new initiative to support students and early career researchers in hosting events and raising awareness during the 2014 International Open Access Week, from October 20th through the 26th. The grants build upon this year’s Open Access Week theme of Generation Open, which will  highlight the importance of students and early career researchers and explore how the transition toward Open Access affects researchers at different stages of their careers.

 

Applications are still open but will close in under a week on August 18th at midnight Pacific Daylight Time (GMT – 7:00). Winning applications will be announced by August 29th. You can find more information on the Generation Open Grants as well as how to apply here.

 

The Right to Research Coalition will fund a total of $4,000 in Generation Open Grants, ranging in size from $250 up to a maximum of $1,000 per organization. Guidance on expectations for grants of various sizes can be found on the Generation Open Grant homepage.

 

Generation Open Grants can be put toward a range of events, from watch parties for the SPARC-World Bank Open Access Week Kickoff Event to campus-wide campaigns and mini-conferences. There is a final chance to discuss your application this Thursday, August 14 at 5:00 PM-7:00 PM (GMT+1), you can join to discuss your application here (via Google Hangouts).

 

Adapted from a Right to Research blog post on August 10st which can be found here http://www.righttoresearch.org/blog/one-more-week-to-apply-for-a-gogrant.shtml

Apply Now! Generation Open Grants to Support Young Researcher-Led Open Access Week Events

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Today, the Right to Research Coalition announces the Generation Open Grants, a new initiative to support students and early career researchers in hosting events and raising awareness during the 2014 International Open Access Week, from October 20th through the 26th. The grants build upon this year’s Open Access Week theme of Generation Open, which will highlight the importance of students and early career researchers and explore how the transition toward Open Access affects researchers at different stages of their careers.

 

The Right to Research Coalition will fund a total of $4,000 in Generation Open Grants, ranging in size from $250 up to a maximum of $1,000 per organization. Those applying for a grant will have the ability to choose what level of funding they feel is appropriate for their proposed event. Guidance on expectations for grants of various sizes can be found on the Generation Open Grant homepage.

 

The Generation Open Grants can be put toward a range of events, from watch parties for the SPARC-World Bank Open Access Week Kickoff Event to campus-wide campaigns and mini-conferences. This year’s grant program builds on previous Right to Research Coalition efforts during Open Access Week, most notably a partnership with the Medical Students’ Association of Kenya which educated nearly half of Kenyan medical students about Open Access during the week. The Generation Open Grants will seek to identify and support innovative new ideas for events and awareness raising strategies to engage peers and/or the wider campus community on Open Access. A perfect example of this being OpenUCT’s “Open Access Challenge”.

 

Seven years ago, students partnered with SPARC to organize a day of coordinated on-campus events in support of Open Access that quickly grew into International Open Access Week. The Generation Open Grants will support and advance the involvement of students and early career researchers that lies at the heart of Open Access Week.

 

Applications are now open and will close on August 18th at midnight Pacific Daylight Time (GMT – 7:00). Winning applications will be announced by August 29th. You can find more information on the Generation Open Grants as well as how to apply here