What are the links between UNESCO and Open Access ? What UNESCO will do in the future to promote Open access to scientific knowledge ? Now, the ppt of the Open access week conference is available ! A presentation made by Bhanu Neupane.

1. UNESCO and Open Access
Indrajit Banerjee, Director
Open Access Week 2012
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2. In the next 3 (three) hours
Globally enough information will be consumed to fill
21 million DVDs
36 billion emails will be sent
some 250000 blog posts will be written
– enough to fill the TIME magazine for 256 million
years;
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3. In the next 3 (three hours)
22 million people would have visited Facebook;
2.8 million people would have visited LinkedIn;
more than 30 million photos would have been
uploaded;
2.8 million hours of tv and movies would have been
watched on Netflix;
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4. In the next 3 (three hours)
some 5 million people would have visited Twitter
587 million minutes would have been spent on
Facebook
More iPhones would be sold than babies that
would be born in the next 3 hours.
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5. Shall we be happy and complacent?
Presence of “Knowledge Challenges”, that requires
our concerted and synergized action.
Erosion of access to certain information and
knowledge
Digital divide continues
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6. Thus UNESCO:
Believes in building inclusive knowledge societies.
Leveraging of new technological innovations
Principle of ‘Openness’, access and sharing by
focussing on content, technology and processes.
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7. World is competitive
Competitiveness of a country depends on its
knowledge acquisition and sharing capacity.
If we share more, we improve the value of our
research and reduce obstacles for sharing the
knowledge
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8. Thus at UNESCO we believe
that many of the old values and ways for sharing
information are not appropriate in these times.
This is why UNESCO advocates in favour of OPEN
ACCESS to Scholarly and scientific
Communication.
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9. The political mandate
All countries of the world met in Paris during the 36
general Conference in October 2011 and adopted
the Open Access strategy.
Outlined Organization’s work over next 6 years.
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10. Easy Rationale
Access to information is dear to everyone involved
in research, innovation and creativity
Quality teaching, learning and research without
access to new knowledge is impossible.
There are several challenges, but the concept and
philosophy of Open Access brings to us a variety of
solutions to improve access to information and
knowledge.
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11. UNESCO’s mandate
is to: “Maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge:
By encouraging cooperation among the nations in
all branches of intellectual activity”
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12. Open Access
is both a researcher’s greatest output and
technological innovation’s most important resource.
is the provision of free access to peer-reviewed,
scholarly and research information to all.
Is when the rights holder grants worldwide
irrevocable right of access to copy, use, distribute,
transmit content
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13. Sharing of Knowledge leads to
opportunities for equitable economic and social
development,
intercultural dialogue, and
has the potential to spark innovation.
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14. What have we done since
Undertook a comprehensive scan of the world of
Open Access
Undertook a mapping exercise, and
launched Global Open Access Portal (GOAP).
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15. GOAP
Information from 148 countries
Is a work in progress
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16. WSIS KC
Open Access Community
Some 1750 members and operate out of
UNESCO’s WSIS Knowledge Communities.
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17. Foster Enabling Environment for OA
Curricula are being developed
Self Directed learning tools are being developed
Software that helps in creating repositories are
being evaluated
Best case practices are being documented
Open Journal System Editor training tools
The Policy Guidelines document
– English
– French
– Russian 17

18. 18

19. Foster Enabling Environment for OA
Curricula are being developed
Self Directed learning tools are being developed
Software that helps in creating repositories are
being evaluated
Best case practices are being documented
Open Journal System Editor training tools
The Policy Guidelines document
– English
– French
– Russian 19

20. Lets not forget
Current level of access to peer-reviewed
information is only about 20%
We have “miles to go before we can sleep”.
Need to work collaboratively and build synergies
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21. In conclusion
Thank all of you for coming here today
Thank the team of Myscienceworks, and
University of Pierre and Marie Curie for working
with us.
Openness will pay dividends, creating an enabling
environment to Open Access to scientific
information, which will benefit all of us.
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22. More information: b.nuepane@unesco.org 22