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Today, not tomorrow: Sign the whitehouse.gov petition in support of open access!

Please consider signing the petition at whitehouse.gov in support of open access to taxpayer-funded research:  http://wh.gov/6TH

This isn’t just another petition about just another topic.  No, this offers the chance to change the conversation.  Why?  Because the White House makes a formal response to any “We the People” petition that reaches 25,000 signatures in 30 days.  (The petition closes on June 19, so there’s still some time, but, even so, don’t delay!)

There is the very slight nuisance of having to create an account on whitehouse.gov (basically, you give them your name and email address), but if you were ever going to put up with some nuisance in order to sign a petition, this just might be the petition to do it for!

Go! Sign! Share broadly! Soon!

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Join Us on May Day at the Free University of NYC!

This May 1st (tomorrow!), students, faculty, and the public are collaborating on a collective educational experiment: the Free University of NYC. Classes, teach-ins, skill shares, and more will be held in Madison Square Park (details + full schedule).

We’re delighted to be facilitating a teach-in on open access scholarly publishing at the Free University of NYC. Guiding questions may include:

– What is open access publishing?
– Why is it important?
– How can it help students, researchers, libraries, and the public?
– Why are academics boycotting publishing giant Elsevier?
– What are open access mandates and pledges?
– Where can you find open access materials?
– How can you make your own work openly-available?

We’ll be at the South Fountain in Madison Square Park at 10am tomorrow. Look for our sign, and come on out and join us!

–Jill, Alycia, and Maura