---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Kennison  <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 08:45:58 -0500

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Help us launch the Open Access Network!

Rebecca Kennison

December 9, 2014 9:09 AM

This appeal may be one you've already seen — but even if so, please
read it and consider giving! We need your support!

What is open access (OA)? For those unaware of the concept, the
classic definition remains that of the Budapest Open Access Initiative
(http://www.soros.org/openaccess), drafted at a meeting held in
Budapest in December 2001: “free and unrestricted online availability
[of the scholarly literature] … permitting any user to read, download,
copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these
articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or
use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or
technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to
the Internet itself.”

In the more than decade since that definition was first drafted, OA
has taken hold in the scientific community, but still focuses
primarily on articles, rather than the entire scholarly output of all
those participating in the research endeavor, no matter what size the
institution, no matter what the discipline, no matter what the format
of communication. Still more needs to be done to realize the full
promise and potential of OA.

What is the Open Access Network (OAN)?

The OAN, being launched in the next few months by us at K|N
Consultants (http://knconsultants.org/), looks to tackle head-on the
challenge of OA business models for all disciplines, but particularly
in the humanities and social sciences. The OAN provides a broad and
transformative solution for sustainable OA publishing and archiving
that is complementary, not competitive, with other OA funding
approaches. The OAN model, as spelled out in our white paper
(http://knconsultants.org/toward-a-sustainable-approach-to-open-access-publishing-and-archiving/),
proposes that all institutions of higher education contribute to
systemic support of the research process itself, including its
scholarly output. It is a bold rethinking of the economics of OA by
way of partnerships among scholarly societies, academic libraries, and
publishers funded by an institutional fee structure based on a
student-and-faculty per-capita sliding scale. Core to the model is its
insistence on broad institutional support of the scholarly
communication infrastructure itself, not on any particular format
(e.g., books, journals, website).

A not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, K|N Consultants will launch
the OAN in early 2015 and are beginning now to seek funding that will
support a series of pilot projects designed to test the model.

To do this, we need your help to establish a seed fund. Please donate
any amount you can, whether $5 or $50,000 — or anything in between.
All donations are tax deductible in the United States, and all
donations from anywhere in the world are welcomed, with sincere
thanks. Please give generously.

Donations may be made online (http://knconsultants.org/#donate)
(either one-time or ongoing) or by check, payable to K|N Consultants,
sent to 238 West 106th Street 6F, New York NY 10025 USA.

Questions? E-mail us at:  [log in to unmask]