EFF proudly participated in the eighth annual Open Access Week last week, a celebration of making scholarly research immediately and freely available for people around the world to read, cite, and re-use.

We published multiple blog posts each day, including a post from our friends at Wikimedia and a letter from Colombian scientist, Diego Gomez, who is facing up to eight years in jail for sharing a scholarly article online. One theme that seemed to run across all blog posts was that open access doesn't exist in a vacuum: there are laws, policies, and happenings in the world that immensely affect our access to research. Copyright law, for example, not only bolsters the current closed access model of scholarship, but its particulars are becoming stricter as policies extend outside the United States. We encourage you to check out all the blog posts below.

Deeplinks

Reddit AMA

We also participated in a reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything") about open access alongside Creative Commons, the Right to Research Coalition, Open Access Button, and Fundación Karisma. Questions ranged from "What's the biggest obstacle to getting papers out from behind that $30 pay-wall?" to "Have you noticed any countries/regions leading by example?"

Events

Groups around the world participated in Open Access Week by throwing parties, talks, and screenings of the documentary about Aaron Swartz, The Internet's Own Boy. We were excited to see Open Access Week serve as the inaugural event for two new digital rights groups: The Tennessee Digital Rights Project and Net Plurality in Berkeley, CA.

Open Access Week at Columbia University gathered over 1,000 signatures in support of open access policies, organized a screening of The Internet's Own Boy, and even made a neat video. (CC BY)

EFF Activist April Glaser spoke to students part of Berkeley's Net Plurality project after a screening of The Internet's Own Boy. (CC BY)

A panel discussion followed a screening of The Internet's Own Boy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. (CC BY)

Shareable Graphics

We collaborated with artist and graphic designer, Ty Semaka, to create some graphics to share on social media. These graphics portray a few leaders in the open access movement with their thoughts about why we need to fight for open access. These all licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, so feel free to remix and share online.

OA Button Founders and Quote

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