Publishers-for-Development (PfD) discussion group focus topics for 2009
The PfD Advisory Committee, which met on 27 November 2009 agreed that the following topics would be useful, either as topics or discussion questions. We will send out messages to start off discussion on each topic and will produce a summary paper once the topic has run for three months.
Focus on Topic 1: Developing Country Access Initiatives or "Why are publishers cooperating in developing country access initiatives?"
Aim: To provide a greater understanding of how and why publishers get involved in access initiatives. We'll look at:
- the benefits to publishers and to developing countries
- from moral and philanthropic arguments to the business case
- how it can help publishers and researchers to disseminate their publications more widely - serving their authors by getting research to a "new" audience
- how it can help to build the sustainability of research and access to information, enable researchers to update their knowledge and to develop better research and information skills,
- why these access initiatives are vital in developing country research environments
- finally, we'll provide links to further sources of information and access initiatives to help publishers navigate through it all!
Focus on Topic 2: ICT Infrastructure or "How can we make our journals easier to use in a developing country environment?" - to launch in June 2009.
Aim: Guidelines to improve access to publisher websites/information where bandwidth and connectivity are issues.
Aptivate will produce a short briefing document explaining how and why web sites have grown in size and what can be done to reduce their size. They will also hold workshops on "How to halve your Home Page" using a few simple techniques.
Publishers are invited to join this group by sending a message to: join-pubs-for-dev@dgroups.org.