John Willinsky[1] in an article[2] argues that initiatives like opensource software, open access to research and scholarship, and openscience are based on common commitments and priciples. All theseinitiatives are committed to resist any barriers to exchange ofinformation and ideas. Even the business model is almost similierbased on the principles of (1) the efficacy of free software and research; (2) the reputation–building afforded by public access and patronage; and, (3) the emergence of a free–or–subscribe access model. Still, with this much in common, the strong sense of convergence amongthese open initiatives has yet to be fully realized, to the detrimentof the larger, common issue. He talks of three principles: Principle One: Before software was open, it was freePrinciple Two: The economics of patronagePrinciple Three: Free or subscribe Some extracts of his article: .."To pursue a strictly business perspective on open source softwareonly serves to prevent readers from realizing open source's closeconnections to the long–standing traditions of open science.".. .."The publishing economy of scholarly journals is dominated by arather perverse property relation, in which the last investor in theresearch production chain — consisting of university, researcher,funding agency, and publisher — owns the resulting work outrightthrough a very small investment in relation to the work's overall costand value.".. .."Open source software is also free like free beer, in most instances.".. .."With the use of open source code, no less than with scholarly work,the property right at issue is almost entirely a matter of respectingthe authorship of the original work".. .."Scholarship has long strived to open its processes to critique andcontribution, even if at best those processes are shaped inhistorically contingent ways. The open access movement is no lessdevoted to lowering barriers by enabling more researchers and studentsto read the current published literature.".. .."perhaps 15 percent of the current literature is being posted byauthors in archives.".. .."Open access has the potential to make very close to the entire bodyof literature available to anyone with an Internet connection ... Thiswould make a considerable difference to a wide range of scholars,students and others who are otherwise unable to obtain or affordaccess. What is holding back this far greater circulation ofknowledge, at this point, is general lack of faculty awareness andinterest in increasing access to published literature.".. References: 1.John Willinsky is Pacific Press Professor of Literacy and Technologyat the University of British Columbia http://www.lled.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/willinsky.htm 2."Unacknowledged convergence of open source, open access, and open science"First Monday, volume 10, number 8 (August 2005), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_8/willinsky/index.html ------------Sukhdev Singh, NIC.http://openmed.nic.in