This Monday, October 20 marks the first day of Open Access Week, an international event that celebrates the wide-ranging benefits of enabling open access to information and research–as well as the dangerous costs of keeping knowledge locked behind publisher paywalls. This year's theme is Generation Open.

There are tons of events happening around the world for Open Access Week. We wanted to share a handful of ones that we've heard about, most of which are screenings of the fantastic film, The Internet's Own Boy, a documentary about the late Internet activist and pioneer Aaron Swartz.

We're delighted that many of these screenings are inaugural events for new local digital rights initiatives! Here are a few:

• Boulder, CO: On Monday, October 20 at the ATLAS Auditorium at The University of Colorado, Boulder, students have organized a screening and a lively panel discussion about film.
• The Bay Area: On Tuesday, October 21 at the Cloyne Co-op at UC Berkeley, student activists will unveil their new student and community digital rights coalition and host a screening.
• Bethlehem, PA: On Tuesday, October 21  the Lehigh University Library is hosting a screening and moderated discussion.
• New York City: On Thursday, October 23 the Columbia University Library is hosting a free public viewing of the documentary and Skype conversation with the director, Brian Knappenberger.
• Nashville, TN: On Sunday, October 26 Nashville area online liberty activists are coming together for the first meeting of the Nashville Digital Rights Project with a viewing party and discussion group.

If these events are near you, try to attend and meet others in your area who are also interested in fighting for our rights online. If you're in the Bay Area, EFF activist April Glaser will be a guest speaker at the Berkeley event, and if you've got an event happening that's not on this list, email april@eff.org to let us know and share your event photos.

At EFF, we'll be blogging about Open Access everyday next week, so stay tuned to learn more about developments in the growing movement to ensure that knowledge should never be trapped behind a paywall.

If you haven't already, please sign and share the petition to support Diego Gomez, a Colombian graduate student who currently faces up to eight years in prison for doing something thousands of researchers do every day: posting research results online for those who would not otherwise have a way to access them. Diego's case is an important example of the dangers of closing access to knowledge. We will continue to follow his case closely and report back with new developments.

The Internet should be a place where we can share ideas and get educated, unimpeded by unfair paywalls. We are thrilled to join forces with dozens of organizations across the world for this year’s Open Access Week to spread message loud and clear: academic research should be free, available, and open for everyone’s benefit.

Join us for Open Access Week. This is going to be big.