Holiday pat on the back
Glenn Hampson
I’m so proud of this group. Here’s a reminder why.
Back in late 2014, a few dozen of the original OSI gang---Rick Anderson, Joyce Ogburn, David Wojick, Joann Delenick, Richard Poynder, and 85 others---participated in our original “OSI” conversation (see Mapping the Future of Scholarly Publishing). With the blessing of Bhanu Neupane at UNESCO, we were able to invite many more leaders from around the world to join this conversation in 2015. By early 2016, we had kicked off the largest, highest-level, most diverse conversation in the world about what the future of open scholarship should look like. Two full conferences later, plus one leadership summit, six policy reports, 20 conference presentations, 30 workgroup reports, 10 thousand listserv emails and countless side conversations with policy leaders around the world (from the AGU to UNESCO to AAS, OSTP, SciELO, STM and beyond) OSI has become a unique resource.
No one else has made this journey. Many groups picked an ideology and stuck to it; others focused on different spokes on the wheel. But you have kept engaged trying to understand the big picture. This isn’t the kind of work that generates fundraising support because it doesn’t make donors angry, and it doesn’t promise miracles. Understanding generates more yawns than dollars. And yet in our day and age, understanding is what we need more than anything.
So thank you. Thank you for contributing your ideas and expertise over the years, for speaking up, and for helping your colleagues around the world understand this issue better. Your efforts have made a difference. You have helped make the conversation in this space more collegial, broaden our thinking about issues, and influence policy for the better.
But there’s still more to do. You can leave all your hard work in a final report or two and walk away, or you can continue to try to make something of it---to keep sharing your ideas with policymakers around the world, help create solutions, and keep listening to ideas and perspectives so the future of research communication can reach its full potential.
You are the action hero of this story, but your work isn’t finished yet.
You can help in two main ways: (1) Stay intellectually active in OSI for its final two years (2024 and 2025), and (2) Give financial support to OSI to help make OSI’s “last mile” work possible. Support from your own pocketbook is tough---I get it. Thank you so much to those of you who have done this regularly over the years (I’m looking at you Joann, Deni and Mel). Donations from companies isn’t necessarily easier but it does add up faster. To Rob Johnson, Simon Linacre, Brooks Hanson, Vicky Williams, Wim Van der Stelt, Bhanu and others who have arranged corporate donations over the years, thank you.
We have set a modest goal of raising $5,000 before the end of the year. To give today, click here (https://givebutter.com/SCIFriends).
Thank you all, and happy holidays.
Sincerely,
Glenn
Glenn Hampson
Executive Director
Science Communication Institute (SCI)
Program Director
Open Scholarship Initiative (OSI)
