"science literacy" - american library association, new orleans june 2006
TRANSCRIPT
August 25, 2005, at 12:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Savings Time
Updated August 27, 2005 10:42 a.m. EDT
Updated August 28, 2005 8:42 a.m. EDT
Updated August 29, 2005 8:20 a.m. EDT
Sept 15, 2005
September 8, 2005
WE ARE HERE
Telephoto view (north) of Laetoli trackway site, 1996© J. Paul Getty Trust
Laetoli trackway, close-up of footprints in late afternoon, August 1995© J. Paul Getty Trust
Laetoli, May 1996; Oblique view of trackway used in autoCAD model© J. Paul Getty Trust
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/cbcnews/archive/sprng_sum01/song.html
Rheinardia ocellata, the Crested Argus. Photographed at night by an automatic camera-trap in the Ngoc Linh foothills (Quang Nam Province).
Courtesy AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wildideas/kids/job_ryder.html
http://www.atgc.org/Arabidopsis_Genome/x-ath-genome-002-small.png
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0674006771/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-4859238-9642354#reader-link
“Science Literacy”
“Science Literacy” ?
“...the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions, and to draw
evidence-based conclusions in order to understand and help make
decisions about the natural world and the changes made to it through human
activity.”
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (1999). Measuring Knowledge and Skills: A New Framework for Assessment. Paris: Author.
“Content or Structure”
“...involves broad science concepts from physics, chemistry, biological sciences, and Earth and space sciences. Concepts are incorporated more particularly from themes such as biodiversity, forces and movement, and physiological change, and are organized into several broad areas of application: science in life and health, science in Earth and environment, and science in technology.”
U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics“Outcomes of Learning: Results From the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment of 15-Year-Olds in Reading, Mathematics, and Science
Literacy Statistical Analysis Report December 2001, NCES 2002–115 http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002115.pdf
Biodiversity Resource Center California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco
“Process”
“...includes thinking skills organized into five processes:
– recognizing scientifically investigable questions,
– identifying evidence needed in a scientific investigation,
– drawing or evaluating conclusions,
– communicating valid conclusions, and
– demonstrating comprehension of scientific concepts.”
U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics“Outcomes of Learning: Results From the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment of 15-Year-Olds in Reading, Mathematics, and Science
Literacy Statistical Analysis Report December 2001, NCES 2002–115 http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002115.pdf
“Finally, any nation that attempts to address the urgent social problems of our time solely from a
scientific or a humanistic vantage point will surely fail to find solutions that take account of the
essential and inescapable interconnections and inter-dependencies among the different elements
of our natural and social worlds.”
Billy E. Frye, “Introduction”, IN The Humanities and The Sciences , American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No. 47, 1999.
http://www.acls.org/op47-3.htm#galison (MAY 31, 2006)
A Brief Digression: TWO CULTURES???
“What elements are necessary for creativity?” (Nobel Laureate Jerome Friedman)
“I believe creativity requires a powerful imagination and a strong intuition. Imagination is always an experimental process. It is the ability to manipulate images and symbols in the mind to make combinations that are totally new. Reasoning is constructed with moveable images, just as poetry is. Very often analogies are the threshold to creativity. Creativity often results from combining images or ideas that appear to be quite dissimilar. Since the number of possible combinations of images in the imagination is exceedingly large, there must be some constraints that help select those which seem most promising. “
Jerome Friedman, “Creativitiy in Science”, IN The Humanities and The Sciences , American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper No. 47, 1999. http://www.acls.org/op47-3.htm#galison (MAY 31, 2006)
Science Literacy
Science Literacy requires both a working competence with the practical methodologies of science and working access to
the complete library and archive of scientific knowledge resources.
=Scientific Knowledge + Scientific Competence
Repatriation of biodiversity information through Clearing House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Global Biodiversity Information Facility; Views and experiences of Peruvian andBolivian non-governmental organizations. Ulla Helimo Master’s Thesis University of Turku Department of
Biology 6.10. 2004 p.11. http://enbi.utu.fi/Documents/Ulla%20Helimo%20PRO%20GRADU.pdf [06-06-05]
KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES:
Technology
“data” – observations, descriptions or measurements -- of referent objects, events, processes -- recorded and reported in a standard way
“experience” – personal or collective recollection and interpretation of events
“information” – selected and composed patterns of data having reasonable, testable properties of an hypothesis
“knowledge” – reasoned assumptions derived from the analysis of information and experience , presumed to be “true” and “reliable”, [even objective and invariant] having predictive power and expert consensual support
Some Possible Working Definitions
Colin Bibby, 2002
The Knowledge Cycle in the International Conservation
Community
Civic Scientific Literacy?
“…we believe that the healthy functioning of democracy depends crucially upon the
existence of a literate public; and in modern industrial societies, true democracy must
embrace scientific literacy.”
J. Durant, G. Evans, and G. Thomas, “Public Understanding of Science in Britain,” Public Understanding ofScience 1 (1992): 161–182. Quoted in: Jon D. Miller, “The measurement of civic scientific literacy.” Public
Understand. Sci. 7 (1998) 203–223. http://pascal.iseg.utl.pt/~ccti/Documents/Miller1998.pdf
“Compared with practical science literacy, the achievement of a functional level of civic science literacy is a more protracted endeavor. Yet, it is a job that sooner or later must be done, for as time goes on human events will become even more entwined in science, and science-related public issues in the future can only increase in number and in importance. Civic science literacy is a cornerstone of informed public policy.”
B. S. P. Shen, “Scientific Literacy and the Public Understanding of Science,” in Communication of Scientific Information, ed. S. Day (Basel: Karger, 1975), 44–52 Quoted in: Jon D. Miller, “The
measurement of civic scientific literacy.” Public Understand. Sci. 7 (1998) 203–223.
http://pascal.iseg.utl.pt/~ccti/Documents/Miller1998.pdf
An Inconvenient Truth?
Poder Politico y ConocimientoResponsabilidad y Poder
Políticos
Administradores o Gestores
Analistas-Técnicos
Científicos
Conocimiento (en términos científicos-occidentales)Bajo
Alto
Alto
(Sutton, 1999)
From: Organizaciones que aprenden, paises que aprenden: lecciones y AP en Costa Rica by Andrea Ballestero Directora ELAP
Science Literacy as a Key to Sustainable Development
“Science Literacy” is commonly invoked as a a measure of national competitive deficit.
.It can also be understood as an essential competence for international sustainable
development.
“Improving Science Literacy and Conservation in Developing Countries”By Carlos L. de la Rosa
An ActionBioscience.org original article
Industrialized nations can help improve science literacy in developing countries by:
• giving their institutions access to current scientific literature
• translating scientific information from English to other languages
• publishing papers by scientists from these countries
• creating literary exchanges between scientists everywhere
Carlos L. de la Rosa “Improving Science Literacy and Conservation in Developing Countries” http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/delarosa.html
Finland
“Structure of the World Wide Web in Finland. Circles denote sites and lines denote connecting links.” Courtesy of Bernardo Hubernman (HP Labs, Palo Alto)
from B. Huberman The Laws of the Web, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2001
GDP
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Internet Hosts
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg
Information Gradient
Pakistan:In the past 50 years…
32 universities and more than 100 colleges, training institutes and other specialized institutions of higher education have been founded
[Syed Haider Abbas Zaidi, “Higher Education Pakistan” http://www2.unesco.org/wef/f_conf/000000e2.htm ]
Peshawar, NWFP,
Pakistan 1994
From: “xxxxxx” <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Subject: RESEARCH PAPERS REQUIRED Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 09:54:37 +0500
Dear sir,I am a student of MSC. Veterinary Parasitology ... I need your help because of that these research papers are not available & I could not purchase these research papers which are mentioned in below list with related to some research topics which are below as
(1) Epidemiological evaluation of cattle lice/buffalo lice(or) Epidemiological studies\surey cattle lice \ buffalo lice . (2) Prevalence of cattle lice on calves (or) Prevalence of sucking & chewing lice on cattle (3) incidence (or) Prevalence of sucking & chewing lice on cattleI will be thankfull to your if you will send to
me these research papers on my postal address (or) because of that I can not purchase them. (4) Taxonomical study of different species of cattle lice. Please send to me these research papers as early as possible .
Postal address :Dr . xxxxxx House#xx,Street#xx Email address: xxxxx@ hotmail.com
RESEARCH PAPERS REQUIRED
1: Colwell DD, Clymer B, Booker CW, Guichon PT, Jim GK, Schunicht OC, Wildman BK. Prevalence of sucking and chewing lice on cattle entering feedlots in southern Alberta.Can Vet J. 2001 Apr;42(4):281-
2: Chalmers K, Charleston WA. “Cattle lice in New Zealand: observations on the prevalence, distribution and seasonal patterns of infestation.” N Z Vet J. 1980 Oct;28(10):198-200.
[SNIP]
“Broad access to scientific information is key for people to understand, participate and respond to the challenges that development poses to civilization. Understanding of issues such as global warming, loss of biodiversity, evolution, implications of genetic research, and many other topics is essential, almost a requisite, for personal involvement in these issues. They affect all of us, and the better we understand them, the better we can respond with appropriate actions, whether these are activism in public causes or changes at the personal level.”
Carlos L. de la Rosa “Improving Science Literacy and Conservation in Developing Countries” http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/delarosa.html
“Science literacy at the citizen's level in developing countries is essential for the development of sustainability and for the protection and conservation of irreplaceable global resources. An environmentally aware society can make the right decisions about the environment and support their leader's efforts towards sustainability. Developing countries, often mired in internal political, social and economical struggles, can't afford to add environmental deterioration to their problems, especially because of a lack of access to relevant information. Since developed countries often produce and publish much of this information, it behooves them to make the extra effort to make the information available to the decision-makers and citizens of developing countries.”
Carlos L. de la Rosa “Improving Science Literacy and Conservation in Developing Countries” http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/delarosa.html
“Science flourishes in a secular democracy” ???
“... two key elements [have] proven to be essential in moving forward in science: secularism and a working democracy, as exemplified by Turkey.
“... Turkey is the only member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) states with universities ranking among the world's top 500, and it leads OIC states in terms of annual output of research papers…”
Correspondence: Iclal Büÿükderim-Özçelik, Tayfun Özçelik “Science flourishes in a secular democracy” Nature 433, 355 (27 January 2005) | doi:10.1038/433355b
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v433/n7024/full/433355b.html
Peshawar, NWFP,
Pakistan 1994
The Ethical Context
“The field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind “
Thomas Jefferson 1807
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 19.Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
(emphasis added)
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
RIO DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT
AND DEVELOPMENT (1992)
Principle 10 Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all
concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided
Convention on Biological Diversity: Article 17
Exchange of Information1. The Contracting Parties shall facilitate the exchange of information,
from all publicly available sources, relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account the special needs of developing countries.
2. Such exchange of information shall include exchange of results of technical, scientific and socio-economic research, as well as information on training and surveying programmes, specialized knowledge, indigenous and traditional knowledge as such and in combination with the technologies referred to in Article 16, paragraph 1. It shall also, where feasible, include repatriation of information.
UNESCO Universal Declaration
on Cultural Diversity. (2001) 9. Encouraging “digital literacy” and ensuring greater mastery of thenew information and communication technologies, which should beseen both as educational discipline and as pedagogical tools capableof enhancing the effectiveness of educational services;
10. Promoting linguistic diversity in cyberspace and encouraging universalaccess through the global network to all information in the publicdomain;
11. Countering the digital divide, in close cooperation in relevant UnitedNations system organizations, by fostering access by the developingcountries to the new technologies, by helping them to master informationtechnologies and by facilitating the digital dissemination ofendogenous cultural products and access by those countries to theeducational, cultural and scientifi c digital resources available worldwide
http://unesdoc.UNESCO.org/images/0012/001271/127160m.pdf
UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. (2001)
“While ensuring the free flow of ideas by word and image, care should be exercised that all cultures can express themselves and make themselves known. Freedom of expression, media pluralism, multilingualism, equal access to art and to scientific and technological knowledge, including in digital form, and the possibility for all cultures to have access to the means of expression and dissemination are the guarantees of cultural diversity.”
http://unesdoc.UNESCO.org/images/0012/001271/127160m.pdf
UN Millenium Development Goals?
Recommendation 9 International donors should mobilize support for
global scientific research and development to address special needs of the poor in areas of
health, agriculture, natural resource and environmental management, energy, and climate.
We estimate the total needs to rise to approximately $7 billion a year by 2015.
UN Millenium Project http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/recom_09.htm
Ethos of Science
“The substantive findings of science are a product of social collaboration and are assigned to the community. They
constitute a common heritage in which the equity of the individual producer is severely limited…”
“The scientist’s claim to “his” intellectual “property” is limited to that of recognition and esteem which, if the institution functions with a modicum of efficiency, is roughly commensurate with the significance of the increments brought
to the common fund of knowledge.”
Robert K. Merton, “A Note on Science and Democarcy,” Journal of Law and Political Sociology 1 (1942): 121.
“Factual data are fundamental to the progress of science and to our preeminent system of innovation. Freedom of inquiry, the open availability of scientific data, and full disclosure of results through publication are the
cornerstones of basic research, which both domestic law and the norms of public science have long upheld.”
J.H. Reichman and P.F Uhlir. “A contractually reconstructed research commons for scientific data in a highly protectionist intellectual property environment.” in The Public Domain. J.Boyle, ed. Durham, NC: schoolo of Law, Duke University. (Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol.66 nos 1&2 ) 2003
“Public research is largely an open, communitarian, and cooperative
system. It is founded on freedom of inquiry, sharing of data and full disclosure of results by scientists whose motivations are
rooted primarily in intellectual curiosity, the desire to influence the thinking of others about the natural world, peer recognition for their
achievements, and promotion of the public interest.
“Although this normative and value structure of public science predated the revolution in digitally networked technologies, it makes it ideally
suited to experiment with and exploit those new technological
capabilities, which themselves facilitate open, distributed and cooperative uses of information.”
P.F. Uhlir. “Re-intermediation in the Republic of Science: Moving from IntellectualProperty to Intellectual Commons.” Information Services and Use 23(2/3) 63-66. 2003
Society for Conservation Biology Code of Ethics
Principle 1:
“Actively disseminate information to promote understanding of and appreciation for
biodiversity and the science of conservation biology.”
The Library Tradition
For hundreds of years, libraries have been the “protected areas” of the knowledge commons.
The “public library” is a commons or zone of “fair use” that makes knowledge freely and equitably available to all.
“Fair Use” in the Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws
Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code (Circular 92)
§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair useNotwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted
work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —
• (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• (2) the nature of the copyrighted work;• (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the
copyrighted work as a whole; and• (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work.The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such
finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107 [06-29-05]
So…
What’s the problem?
References to “Intellectual Property” in U.S. federal cases
0
500
1000
1500
2000
"IntellectualProperty"
"Intellectual Property" 1 0 4 9 15 11 56 341 1721
1900-1919
1920-1929
1930-1939
1940-1949
1950-1959
1960-1969
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1990-1999
“Professor Hank Greely” Cited in Lessig, L. The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connrcted world. NY, Random House, 2001. P. 294.
Julian Birkinshaw and Tony Sheehan, “Managing the Knowledge Life Cycle,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 44 (2) Fall, 2002: 77.
???
Should scientific knowledge be a “commodity” ???
THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DATA AND INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN PROCEEDINGS OF A SYMPOSIUM Julie M. Esanu and Paul F. Uhlir, Editors Steering Committee on the Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs Board on International Scientific Organizations Policy and Global Affairs Division, National Research Council of the National Academies, p. 5
Research CommonsThe Public Domain
Knowledge Commons
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/218/costimpact.html
But… is commercial publishing profitable…?
“…figures released by the largest publisher of scientific journals -- Amsterdam-based Elsevier -- help explain why many scientists and others are frustrated. Its 1,700 journals, which produce $1.6 billion in revenue, garner a remarkable 30 percent profit margin.
"I do realize that the 30 percent sticks out," Elsevier VicePresident Pieter Bolman said. "But what we still do feel -- and this is, I think, where the real measure is -- we're still very much in the top of author satisfaction and reader satisfaction.
Rick Weiss, “A Fight for Free Access To Medical Research” The Washington Post (Section: Nation, A01 ) 08/05/2003
Testimony of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan GreenspanSemiannual Monetary Policy Report to the US Congress
Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,U.S. Senate July 16, 2002
“Why did corporate governance checks and balances that served us reasonably well in the past break down? At root was the rapid enlargement of stock market capitalizations in the latter part of the 1990s that arguably engendered an outsized increase in opportunities for avarice. An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community. Our historical guardians of financial information were overwhelmed. Too many corporate executives sought ways to "harvest" some of those stock market gains. As a result, the highly desirable spread of shareholding and options among business managers perversely created incentives to artificially inflate reported earnings in order to keep stock prices high and rising. This outcome suggests that the options were poorly structured, and, consequently, they failed to properly align the long-term interests of shareholders and managers, the paradigm so essential for effective corporate governance. The incentives they created overcame the good judgment of too many corporate managers. It is not that humans have become any more greedy than in generations past. It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously. “
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/2002/july/testimony.htm
“Coordination” & Monopoly
“…major commercial journals appear to enjoy substantial monopoly power despite the absence of obvious legal barriers to entry by new competing journals. … journals achieve monopoly power…”:
1) by a ‘‘coordination game’’ -- the most capable authors and referees are attracted to journals with established reputations.
2) by copyright law -- restricts competitors from selling ‘‘perfect substitutes’’ for existing journals by publishing exactly the same articles. (in contrast, sellers of shoes or houses are not restrained from producing nearly identical copies of their competitors’ products.)
Carl T. Bergstrom and Theodore C. Bergstrom, “The costs and benefits of library site licenses to academic journals,” PNAS, January 20, 2004, vol. 101(3):897. http://www.pnas.orgcgidoi10.1073pnas.0305628101
For example, in 1930, there were 10,027 books published in the United States. In 2001, 174 of those books were still in print.
That means 9,853 books were out of print, but still presumably protected by copyright.
"Presumably" because, in the U.S., the protection of copyright reaches back to 1923. But only presumably because, for works created before 1978, a copyright had to be
registered to be secured and then renewed for the author to enjoy a full term of copyright protection. At least half of all works published historically never took the
first step; almost 90% never took the second.
The vast majority of creative work published in 1930, therefore, is in the public domain. But it is extremely costly to know which works in particular are in that category. And for those works that remain under copyright, unless new editions
containing the latest copyright information become available - a reprint of an old book, say, or a DVD of an old movie - tracking down the current owners can
require hours of detective work that may come up empty.
Let a Thousand Googles Bloom Copyright reform is vital to the spread of culture and information. By Lawrence Lessig January 12, 2005 ----
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lessig12jan12,0,7164490.story Copyright
2005 Los Angeles Times
“Orphan Works”? BOOKS [“Monographs” ]
Reductionists
Current Norms
Expansionists
Maximalists
Intellectual Property Rights
BENEFITS
Differing Interpretations of IPR Regulation
Mouse
“…a clash of business models.” -- Kevin Kelly
“Authors and publishers (including publishers of music and film) have relied for years on cheap mass-produced copies protected from counterfeits and pirates by a strong law based on the dominance of copies and on a public educated to respect the sanctity of a copy. This model has, in the last century or so, produced the greatest flowering of human achievement the world has ever seen, a magnificent golden age of creative works. Protected physical copies have enabled millions of people to earn a living directly from the sale of their art to the audience, without the weird dynamics of patronage. Not only did authors and artists benefit from this model, but the audience did, too. For the first time, billions of ordinary people were able to come in regular contact with a great work. In Mozart's day, few people ever heard one of his symphonies more than once. With the advent of cheap audio recordings, a barber in Java could listen to them all day long.
“But a new regime of digital technology has now disrupted all business models based on mass-produced copies, including individual livelihoods of artists. The contours of the electronic economy are still emerging, but while they do, the wealth derived from the old business model is being spent to try to protect that old model, through legislation and enforcement. Laws based on the mass-produced copy artifact are being taken to the extreme, while desperate measures to outlaw new technologies in the marketplace "for our protection" are introduced in misguided righteousness. (This is to be expected. The fact is, entire industries and the fortunes of those working in them are threatened with demise. Newspapers and magazines, Hollywood, record labels, broadcasters and many hard-working and wonderful creative people in those fields have to change the model of how they earn money. Not all will make it.)”
Kevin Kelly, “Scan This Book!” NYT. Published: May 14, 2006
Access Spectrum: Business Models for Knowledge Resources
No AccessLicensed access
Purchase Qualified Access
Qualified Access /
Limited Use
Open access / Unrestricted
use
Proprietary Values
Service / Commodity Values
“Associative” Values
Science Commons: Socially Responsible Licensing of Intellectual Property
The global poor have inadequate access to medicines even those developed by universities. Global pricing policies of such medicines effectively denies access to 80% of the worlds population, though the developing world makes up only 5% of the worldwide market for drugs. This result is contrary both to basic ethics and to the university systems mission to spread the benefits of its knowledge. Often, this is because of the pressure to achieve patentable successes rather than public goods. Similarly, research on rare diseases (and indeed on many diseases common only in developing nations) is not incentivised in part because of complex and inappropriate licensing frameworks. Current legal tools often do not yield packages of rights that give the basic permissions needed to turn research into viable drugs and treatment regimens, and can in fact discourage product development altogether.
In response, Science Commons has begun hosting a tightly knit informal working group of elite university technology transfer managers who discuss access to essential technology for orphan disease and developing country healthcare. Members of the group have developed the first draft of an Equitable Access License (EAL) that would reduce the barriers required for a university wishing to license its technology for commercialization but with a humanitarian exception that allows research for diseases affecting the global poor and for rare diseases. We expect to release the EAL over the coming months, and will be launching an adoption campaign aimed at top research university administration and licensing offices.
Science Commons: Alternatives for Scholars
An Ethical Spectrum ? – Support for Scientific Knowledge Commons
Human Health Agriculture
Conservation Nuclear Technology
Biotechnology
The Conservation Commons
promotes and enables
conscious, effective and equitable sharing of knowledge resources
to advance conservation.
PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSERVATION COMMONS
Open Access
The Conservation Commons promotes free and open access to data, information and knowledge for all conservation purposes.
Mutual Benefit
The Conservation Commons welcomes and encourages participants to both use resources and to contribute data, information and knowledge.
Rights and Responsibilities
Contributors to the Conservation Commons have full right to attribution for any uses of their data, information, or knowledge, and the right to ensure that the original integrity of their contribution to the Commons is preserved. Users of the Conservation Commons are expected to comply, in good faith, with terms of uses specified by contributors. http://www.conservationcommons.org/section.php?section=principle&sous-section=endorsement&langue=en
Organizations that have formally endorsed the Principles American Museum of Natural HistoryARKive: The Wildscreen Trust (UK) (Website of the year)BirdLife InternationalBPCentre for Sustainable Watersheds (Canada)Chevron-TexacoChevron-Texaco Specific Endorsement LetterCIFORCONABIO - MexicoConservation Biology Institute, USAConservation International *CRIA - Brazil *DIDG Information Systems Ltd. (Australia)Earth Conservation ToolboxEnvironmental Education Center - Russia "Zapoveniks“Erawan Interactive: Digital PublishingETI BioInformaticsFauna & Flora InternationalFriends of Nature - BoliviaGBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility *Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP)Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network of IUCNGreenFactsINBio, National Biodiversity Institute of Costa RicaInformation Center for the Environment (ICE), U. of California, DavisINSnet, Internetwork for SustainabilityInstituto de Biología, U.N.A.M. MexicoInstituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (Colombia)International Center for Himalayan Biodiversity (link unavailable for now)International Commission on Zoological NomenclatureInvasive Species Specialist Group of IUCN/SSC (Species Survival Commission)IUCN - The World Conservation Union *My Nature (based in Romania)NASA *
National Geographic SocietyNature Protection Trust of SeychellesNature Serve *PALNet - Protected Areas Learning Network (from WCPA of IUCN)Philippine Society for the Protection of Animals (Web link not available)Réseau Africain pour la conservation de la Mangrove (RAM)Red HatRegional Centre for Development Cooperation (RCDC), Centre for Forestry and Governance, IndiaRio TintoSalim Ali Centre for Ornithilogy and Natural History (SACON-India)Shell ExplorationSociety for Conservation GISSouth African National Biodiversity Institute - SANBI *The African Conservation FoundationThe Big Sky Conservation InstituteThe Natural History Museum, LondonThe Nature Conservancy *The Rainforest AllianceThe Smithsonian InstitutionThe World Conservation Union, PakistanThe Zoological Society of LondonTRAFFIC InternationalTROPI-DRY: forest research network (based in U.Alberta) UNDPUNEP WCMCUnescoUniversity of Maryland - Global Land Cover Facility *Wetlands of India (hosted by SACON-India)Wild Bird Club of the PhilippinesWildlife Conservation SocietyWorld Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA of IUCN)WWF BrazilWWF International
What is GenBank?
GenBank® is the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences ( Nucleic Acids Research 2005 January 13;33(Database Issue):D34-D36). There are approximately 59,750,386,305 bases in 54,584,635 sequence records in the traditional GenBank divisions and 63,183,065,091 bases in 12,465,546 sequence records in the WGS division as of February 2006.
The complete release notes for the current version of GenBank are available on the NCBI ftp site. A new release is made every two months. GenBank is part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, which comprises the DNA DataBank of Japan (DDBJ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and GenBank at NCBI. These three organizations exchange data on a daily basis.
An example of a GenBank record may be viewed for a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/
Submissions to GenBank?
Many journals require submission of sequence information to a database prior to publication so that an accession number may appear in the paper. The WWW-based submission tool, called BankIt, for convenient and quick submission of sequence data. Sequin, NCBI's stand-alone submission software for MAC, PC, and UNIX platforms, is available by FTP. When using Sequin, the output files for direct submission should be sent to GenBank by electronic mail.
There are specialized, streamlined procedures for batch submissions of sequences, such as EST, STS, and GSS sequences.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/
“This Action Plan is a product of the Biodiversity Informatics Subgroup (BIS) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Megascience Forum's Working Group on Biological Informatics. This document provides a provisional Action Plan for implementing the GBIF. Once initial governance and staffing for the effort are in place, this plan will be further improved and refined.
“The GBIF will be established under the aegis of the OECD. Its Governing Board will be constituted by those countries that choose to support the GBIF. The Governing Board will be responsible for the selection and hiring of the Director and staff of the GBIF Secretariat, and for deciding among tenders for the siting of the GBIF Secretariat. The Secretariat staff will be accountable to the Governing Board, and will be advised as necessary by ad hoc Scientific and Technical Advisory Groups. The initial term of service of the Director and other Secretariat staff will be approximately 5 years. Scientific and Technical Advisory Groups will serve for only the amount of time needed to produce their reports, as requested by the Governing Board and the Secretariat.
“Once five or more countries have elected to participate in the Governing Board and have appointed their individual delegates, the Governing Board can begin to function on an initial basis. The target is for the Governing Board to hold its first meeting before January 2000. Countries may elect to support GBIF at any time, and send delegates to future meetings of the Governing Board.
“The GBIF Secretariat will work internationally to co-ordinate national and regional efforts. In addition, it will manage (through a competitive granting mechanism) a small amount of seed money (that is, a small percentage of the total funds necessary for the activities that it will encourage) to be used for leveraging activities being conducted by other agencies/countries.”
Action Plan for Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/facility/BIrepfin.pdf
The American Museum of Natural History has published ca. 6,000 publications and 240,000+ pages of scientific literature.
This entire corpus of literature was digitized (with the support of the AW Mellon Foundation) and in January, 2006 was made available through an (open source) DSpace application. To mid-May, 2006 ca. 250,000 documents complete pdf’s had been downloaded.
SEE:
http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/
The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project
prospectus
The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project
Participating libraries:• American Museum of Natural History• Harvard University Botany Libraries• Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library
of the Museum of Comparative Zoology• Missouri Botanical Garden• Natural History Museum, London• The New York Botanical Gardens• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew• Smithsonian Institution
MEMORANDUM OF COOPERATION to develop a
PARTNERSHIP FOR THE BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE LIBRARY PROJECT
The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project (BHL) is an international library collaboration of natural history museums and botanical libraries to facilitate the digitization of the
published literature on biodiversity.
MissionThe published literature on biological diversity is rare or has limited global distribution and
is available in only a few select libraries. From a scholarly perspective, these collections are of exceptional value because the domain of systematic biology depends -- more than any other science -- upon historic literature. Yet, this wealth of knowledge is available
only to those few who can gain direct access to these collections. This body of biodiversity knowledge is thus effectively withheld from wide use for a broad range of
applications.We intend to establish a major corpus of digitized publications on the Web drawn from the
historical biodiversity literature in our collections. This material will be available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global Biodiversity Commons. We will work with the global taxonomic community, rights holders and other interested parties
to ensure that this biodiversity heritage is available to all. We will seek and obtain funding for this project.
