Open Access Week: Open Data Speakers Corner at DANS

DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) will host a virtual Speakers Corner during the international Open Access Week from 19 through 23 October with the aim of giving a big push to the debate on free access to research data. Famed experts are gearing up to provide contributions that will be talked about.

The Open Access Week calls for attention to the importance of free access to scientific publications. DANS, the Netherlands national institute for storage and accessibility of research data in the social sciences and humanities, seizes that week to force the free availability of research data in particular higher on the agenda. When such data become widely available for reuse, many more opportunities for innovative research will ensue.
 
To that end, DANS is organizing the Open Data Speakers Corner at http://www.opendataspeakerscorner.nl . Each day of the week, the discussion will be opened from the special point of view of a well known person in the realm of scientific research, policy, publishing and the libraries. Three tried and tested debaters, especially asked to do so by DANS, will respond after which visitors are free to step onto the soapbox as well. All invited contributions wil be posted in Dutch and English.
 
On Monday 19 October, the special angle will be that of science policy, with VSNU chair Sijbolt Noorda as kick-off columnist. On Tuesday 20 October, the vision of the data users will take center stage when economic historian Jan Luiten van Zanden opens the discussion. Wednesday 21 October will be used to highlight the perspective of scientific libraries. Director Bas Savenije of the National Library of the Netherlands is scheduled to set the tone that day. On Thursday 22 October, the science publishers will be headlining and Rafael Sidi, vice president Product Management at Elsevier ScienceDirect, will perform the countdown. Finally, the perspective of the data producers will be featured on the last day of the week. Director Marcel Das of CentERdata will have the first word.
 
Contributions were procured from, among others, Theo Mulder (KNAW), Ron Dekker (NWO), Marlene Sikkens (OCW), John Mackenzie Owen (University of Amsterdam), Kees Aarts (Twente University), Maria Heijne (Technical University Delft), Kurt de Belder (Universiteit Leiden), Andrew Treloar (Australian National Data Archive), Saskia de Vries (Amsterdam University Press), Cees van ‘t Veen (Natural Heritage Board) and Jan Donner (KIT) as debaters.
 
The web site for the occasion will go live on Monday morning early. It can also be accessed via the web site of organizer DANS: http://www.dans.knaw.nl .