Friends: We have been carrying out an advocacy campaign for 'open access to scientific and scholarly literature' for the past six or seven years. And yet only about 25 Indian institutions have set up their own interoperable institutional open access archives (or repositories), and about a hundred Indian journals are now open access journals , including those published by the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian NationalmScience Academy. So far our advocacy efforts have been aimed at librarians, research scientists, university teachers and policy makers (at DST, DSIR, CSIR, PSA, etc.). We have hardly reached out to research students in universities, IITs and other institutions of higher learning. It may help if students take up the issue and lead from the front. University students in the USA, South Africa and Peru have formed FreeCulture.org to promote open access to knowledge. We should encourage Indian students to set up chapters of FreeCulture.org in Indian institutions. Once the students take interest, I am sure the OA movement will pick up momentum. Enlightened students in all developing countries will do well to form chapters of FreeCulture.org and proactively mobilize support for open access. Best wishes. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] FreeCulture.org is an international chapter-based student organization that promotes the public interest in intellectual property and information & communications technology policy. A free culture is one where all members are free to participate in its transmission and evolution, without artificial limits on who can participate or in what way. The free culture movement seeks to develop this culture by promoting four things: * creativity and innovation; * communication and free expression; * public access to knowledge; * and citizens' civil liberties. Local Chapters are at the following institutions (not one of which is in India). * Brown University * Bryn Mawr College * Center for Digital Democracy * Chadwick High School * Claremont Colleges * Columbia University * Cornell University * Emerson College * Emory * Florida State University * Franklin and Marshall College * Georgetown University * Hamilton College * Hampshire College * Harvard * McGill University * MIT * Mounds Park Academy * Northeastern University * Northwestern University * NYU * Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru * Princeton University * Reed College * Rochester Institute of Technology * Seattle University (School of Law) * Swarthmore College * Tecnológico de Monterrey * UNC-Chapel Hill * University of Alaska Fairbanks * University of California Santa Cruz * University of Chicago * University of Evansville * University of Florida * University of Iowa * University of Kwazulu Natal * University of Maryland, College Park * University of Michigan * University of Notre Dame * University of Oregon * University of Pennsylvania * University of Southern California * University of Toronto * University of Washington * Virginia Tech ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.