 Freedom of Information Conference 2000
Below
are abstracts, transcripts, and biographies from the conference. Some
presentations did not lend themselves to transcription. Where possible
we have supplemented them with editorials from the speakers.
We have also commissioned editorial articles from several speakers and
delegates at the meeting.
Conference Program
Keynotes
Harold
Varmus [Biog]
What will the new environment look like?
"The point of increasing access to biomedical information is
to
accelerate the use of scientific data for the benefit of public
health."
Paul
Ginsparg [Biog]
Creating a global knowledge network
"Current
research dissemination is on paper - difficult to produce, distribute,
archive and duplicate."
Session
1: Publishers and Librarians
Pieter
Bolman [Biog]
The effects of open access on commercial publishers
"Information wants to be free? Is this a starry-eyed
egalitarian spoof or ivory tower academics on the loose?"
Elizabeth
Marincola
The effects of open access on society publishers
"Societies may be doing God's work, so to speak, but that does
not exempt them from the possibility of failing."
Marc
Brodsky
Who Pays for the Dissemination of Physics Information?
"If technology is the drive for all this, societies are not
likely to survive. That's the most likely scenario."
Vicky
Reich [Biog]
What Do Librarians Want?
"From a librarian's point of view there's decreased diversity
and that's happened through recent mergers and acquisitions. That
is a bad thing."
David
Lipman
PubMed Central: Still on course to
revolutionise biomedical publishing
"We are now considering a more streamlined approach, giving
us a reliable interface and flexibility for new articles."
Session
2: Technology
Dr
John Wilbur
Prospects for improved access to large document sets
"If you're looking for a document and the computer offers you
a bunch it effectively says here are some options but I don't know
which is right."
Dr
Jim Ostell
National
Center for Biotechnology Information Integration with databases
Professor
Blaise Cronin [Biog]
Bibliometrics and Beyond: Some thoughts on Webometrics
and Influmetrics
"Documents have a social life, they have kinship structures,
and we need to understand how they are socially contextualised."
Andre
Kuzniarek
[Biog]
Structured Document Authoring with Mathematica and Publicon
B.
Tommie Usdin
[Biog]
What is XML and why should you care?
"XML is a data format that exists, works, and was designed
for long life and multi-use. That's why you should care."
Session 3 - The public
Jean
Hoffman-Anuta [Biog]
The benefits to the public of access to primary research: a personal
journey
I am constantly amazed by parents of disabled children
who, with no prior medical or computer background, become knowledgeable
about a medical condition."
Dr
George Lundberg MD
The pros and cons of unfiltered access on the relationship between
patients and healthcare providers
"There is so much junk on the internet and people don't
believe anything they read. I understand that. I never believe anything
I read on paper!"
John
H. Renner MD, Chief Medical Officer
Health Information on the Internet: Curtain calls, Pitfalls
and Pratfalls.
"I bought two jars of T-cells off the internet and told
the company I took them all at once. They said it was okay, they
wouldn't hurt me!"
Session 4 - Scientists
Dr
Barry Markovitz
[Biog]
Measuring Quality of Publication in an Open Access Environment:
Old Tools, New Technology, Different Ideas
"In our current environment the bargain is that scientific
authors sell their soul but don't receive any money for it."
Dr
Fiona Godlee
[Biog]
How will the peer review process change and improve
"We have seen how the impact factor of the journal does
not always map to the quality of the individual articles."
Professor
Pat Brown
How will science and scientists need to adapt to optimize exploitation
of the benefits offered by the new environment
"Scientists should insist their work be treated as a
public resource - unbalkanised and untaxed by the parasites in the
publishing world."
Mark
Doyle
Embracing the electronic age: a physics society publisher speaks
"Our core mission is not necessarily to publish journals,
but to assist more broadly in the communication of physics."
Peter
Singer
When shall we be free?
"If I post an article as an electronic pre-print I cannot
subsequently publish it elsewhere. I have limited my options."
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