I saw a very interesting documentary about a South American country (Brazil? Argentina?) where they were already ignoring Western copyright law in order to free up collaboration in science. I have no idea what the legal repercussions are of doing something like that and from what I have seen on English Wikipedia, it still looks like Big Pharma rules the medical world. If we could somehow talk universities into daring to do open research, sharing data from the beginning, then that would be key moving forward. Now it seems to be a race in the dark to see who gets to publish first and the data is always reverse-engineered later. Sad.
On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 8:02 PM, Andrea Zanni <[email protected]> wrote: > With that amount of money, > we could probably put an end on closed science in less than a decade, and > make open access and open science the new standard. > There's already a lot of efforts going on, but incumbent publishers are > much more rich and resourceful. > Lobbying, advocacy, outreach could do a lot, from our part. > We are probably better equipped to coordinate bottom-up efforts > (hackathons, tools and whatnot), and we would be better suited for the > whole diplomatic/political/top-down side of it. > > Making open science the new standard would be a goal to itself and leverage > for other results. > We'd end up with a lot more free content for Wikimedia projects, probably > better advocacy and outreach for us in Universities and research centers. > We would spread and promote the Mertonian norms of science¹, which are > already our values. > Also, there's a fair chance for this new open science standard to sustain > itself, as in the current system scientists and researchers *already* do > research, publish and review for free.² > A new paradigm for science and research could also be very important for > developing countries, in which > scientists are often required to adequate to mainstream science (eg. they > are not able to research areas which would benefit their local community, > like local diseases). > > Aubrey > > > ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mertonian_norms > ² of course they are paid by their institutions, but the "act of > publishing" and the whole scholarship workflow is "embedded" and already > paid for. > > On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 7:38 PM, Amir E. Aharoni < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Heh, I remember Mr Wales asking what could the movement do with a million > > dollars some time around 2006. Is anything on the horizon? > > > > What could we do? Many things; one of them would be to get our act > together > > and become a true leader in software and content localization. Currently > we > > are proud about maintaining MediaWiki, a piece of software that is > probably > > translated to more languages than any other, and that is great, but: > > > > 1. Our software localization tooling, excellent as it is, didn't become > the > > industry standard, even though it could with better packaging. Why is it > > important? Because a Wikipedia in a given language doesn't exist in > > isolation—it exists in an environment of other programs, sites, > platforms, > > and media. There was a (relatively) thriving software localization > > community in the Catalan language already in the 1990s (!), so it's not > > surprising that Catalan Wikipedia was the first to start after English, > and > > is among the most successful Wikimedia projects now. Making software > > localization better for everybody will bring computer usage to the whole > > world, and we can be the leaders in it, rather than leaving it to the > > corporations. > > 2. We have the theoretical ability to write articles in any language of > the > > world, but not everybody actually does it. Some language communities need > > stronger nudges than others to get going: Training about translation and > > scientific writing, developing terminology, developing spelling > > dictionaries, developing keyboards that allow convenient typing, literacy > > programs, etc. In a lot of languages the Bible is the only published > book; > > this happened thanks to donations from people who want to spread their > > religion around the world. If it can be done with the Bible, it can be > done > > with an encyclopedia. > > 3. We are influencing public policy in the area of copyright law, but we > > should be influencing public policy around the whole world to make > > localized computing and content more accessible. Lobbying needs > resources. > > See > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_ > > movement/2017/Cycle_2/A_Truly_Global_Movement#Governments_ > > and_computer_vendors:_Accessibility_to_localization_technology > > > > > > -- > > Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי > > http://aharoni.wordpress.com > > “We're living in pieces, > > I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore > > > > 2017-05-17 20:08 GMT+03:00 David Cuenca Tudela <[email protected]>: > > > > > Are there any activities that could have a meaningful impact if we ask > > > donors for such amount of seed money? Are there reasons to do so? > > > > > > Do we have the guts to do so? > > > > > > Do we have the organizational capital to handle it? Or can we get there > > > soon? > > > > > > Do we have the moral right to take a lead in the world and ask for as > > much > > > resources as needed? > > > > > > Is our leader and our members willing to take big undertakings? > > > > > > Are most of us ready to live in fear while the values that we cherry > most > > > would crumble under our own eyes? > > > > > > Would it matter much if we as a movement would disappear? Or is it a > > > struggle always a positive answer against the shadows in the world? > > > > > > Can we offer anything else in this world than truth, free knowledge, > and > > an > > > open inclusive environment? > > > > > > Would you take best wishes from a stranger like me? > > > > > > > > > Micru > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > > > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > > > wiki/Wikimedia-l > > > New messages to: [email protected] > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > > wiki/Wikimedia-l > > New messages to: [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
