--- On Sun, 10/4/11, IAN JOHNSON (0616285) wrote: From: IAN JOHNSON (0616285) Subject: Global Open Access Portal: Call for consultants To: Date: Sunday, 10 April, 2011, 15:15 Global Open Access Portal: Call for consultants 06-04-2011 (Paris) Open Access logo UNESCO, with the support of Colombia, Norway and United States of America, is developing a portal on Open Access (OA) to present a high-level snapshot of the state of OA around the world. Entitled Global Open Access Portal (GOAP), the tool is supposed to be the first destination for users seeking information on OA. OA experts will collect, analyse and filter information related to the subject from different countries. This information will include: major national projects and initiatives; national and regional funding agencies; deposit mandates; and key organizations and institutions that are able to support Open Access initiatives. GOAP aims to assist UNESCO Member States in understanding the current state of Open Access and in taking appropriate decisions. UNESCO is soliciting the interest of individual experts and institutions working on Open Access to serve as short-term consultants to provide content from the five regions: Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. For more details about the consultancy and the information on how to join the OA Community, please contact: Sanjaya Mishra, UNESCO, Information Society Division (s.mishra@unesco.org). The promotion of Open Access, with a particular reference to scientific information published in journals, is one of the UNESCO approaches to build knowledge societies. UNESCO believes that research literature should have the highest visibility and be freely available to all. The Organization is advocating, therefore, for OA and participating in debates and discussions to coordinate and organize the OA field through capacity building activities and the creation of a Community of Practice (CoP). The seminar that was organised by the UNESCO Office in New Delhi (India) on 16 March 2011 is one of UNESCO’s activities in the OA field. Over 60 delegates from research institutions in India gathered at the seminar, which was also attended by participants from Bangladesh, Brazil, Italy, Nepal, Netherlands and Sri Lanka. Discussions focused on potentials of Open Access, and good practices and business models around it. The Open Access Community, recently built by UNESCO on the WSIS platform, has already more than 1000 members and hosts many discussions about various issues of interest to stakeholders. OA practitioners are encouraged to join the community and to enrich the debates.   Robert Gordon University is the best modern university in the UK (The Times Good University Guide 2011) Robert Gordon University, a Scottish charity registered under charity number SC 013781. This e-mail and any attachment is for authorised use by the intended recipient(s) only. It may contain proprietary material, confidential information and/or be subject to legal privilege. It should not be copied, disclosed to, retained or used by, any other party. If you are not an intended recipient then please promptly delete this e-mail and any attachment and all copies and inform the sender. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Robert Gordon University. Thank you. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.