User:Vesper/FSOSS 08

Here's the stub for my FSOSS 2007 paper. ^^;;

Things I attended during FSOSS:

• ohai! art! - Pure Data Workshop
• Enabling Healthy Open Source Communities: Case study -- Thunderbird
• Protecting You with Exploit Me
• The Convergence of Open Access and Open Source

Finish date: tba

?

Speaker's Background:

Views on Open Source:

Open Source versus Open Access

The speaker didn't focus on Open Source at all. He went on and on about what Open Access meant, and how it was changing with the introduction of newer technologies.

Topic Summary: Open Access

Open Access is the free and unrestricted availability of research to the public, be it in libraries or over the Web. Publishers gain prestige by publishing papers in well-known journals, and the publishers (who sell the publishing service and the journals) get filthy rich. It is a concept that has been around for decades, and works well with copyright laws.

The Open Access cycle of knowledge works like this:

Professors do research in universities, and achieve great discoveries. The results of these findings are then published into a journal, which costs the professor a major fee. The publisher then exudes possession over this research, forbidding the professor from spreading that paper to third-world citizens or even the paper's co-author. The publishers then charge the university an exorbitant price for a few copies of that journal, which sit on a library shelf.

The fact is, the results of research aren't landing in the hands of those who need it, and the publishers are exacting a monopoly over this precious information.

Topic Summary: What Open Source can do for Open Access

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is that university libraries are comfortable with paying publishing fees. It is difficult to convince the libraries to divert some of their funding towards open source solutions.

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Speaker's Background:

Leslie Chan is a lecturer at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus. His work brings scientific journal access to developing countries around the world.

Views on Open Source:

OS is a tool whose use of utmost importance is to balance out the costs of Open Access.

Comparison on Open Source Opinions

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My Current Views on Open Source

!!!