Hipatia issue on Open Access

I'm currently in San Jose, Costa Rica, for aCCCeso - a seminar on creativity, community and science. The event was held from 11-13 November and largely featured representatives from Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, to Peru, Columbia, Chile, Argentina, etc. My colleague Eric Steuer (Creative Director, Creative Commons) joined me from the States to talk about some of our work at Creative Commons. Stay tuned for more about the event in the coming weeks.

On to Hipatia. Early in 2009 I was asked to contribute to an issue of Hipatia, a resource out of ONG Derechos Digitales in Chile. The issue is dedicated to Open Access and the need for more efficient knowledge sharing. Seeing Claudio (Ruiz) from CC Chile this week reminded me of it, and it looks like it came out in February.

So here it is, better late than never :) Many thanks to those at Derechos Digitales for compiling this very important issue. Outstanding work.

(And slides for this past week's presentation are now posted, as well.)

Sciencecommons.org in top 20 list of sites scientists should know

Sciencecommons.org has been listed as one of the Top 20 Web sites every scientist or engineer should know by Baltimore Examiner. It's an informal list, including resources to find papers (ahem, sadly not OA), sort through the acronym soup so many of us find ourselves in daily, and Grants.gov (everyone needs moo-lah).

Nevertheless, we're happy to be cited, and I encourage you all to check out our site. Over the next few months we will be working to make the site more accessible and useful, and will be asking for feedback on what exactly you, our users, need. Keep an eye out for more on that this summer.

ROFLDNA up for sale, proceeds to the commons

Prepare yourself for a heavy dose of awesome. In perhaps the most clever Science Commons fundraiser launched by a third party, the folks over at breadpig and DNA11 have brought us ROFLDNA - a set of leading Internet personalities' DNA and autographs, all being auctioned on eBay. And the best part, all proceeds will go to Science Commons.

Among some of the famous Internet superstars out there (is that the correct way to describe? help me characterize) we have Jay "TRON Guy" Maynard, MC Frontalot and the man behind Chuck Norris Facts - Ian Spector, among others. They've all lent their DNA to the cause - to help make scientific research more efficient through our work here at Science Commons.

And I do have to say, I have to agree with the tagline for the site ... this is some deoxyriboneucleic awesome.

What's even more incredible about this is that is shows how far modern technology and collaboration have gone to drastically lower the costs and barriers to DNA synthesis and synthetic biology. The iGEM competition is a leading example I've pointed to in the past, showing the potential out there for the remix culture in the sciences. Hell, we even own a DNA Explorer Kit (his name's "Dean Nay" ... say it fast, see if you get the nerd humor) that we proudly display in the office. Times they are a changing and the potential for explosions of innovation isn't coming. It's here. Many thanks to the people behind this for yet another incredible example of this, and here's hoping we get some bids. ;)

Support Open Access to scholarly content? Vote us up on reddit.com

So, first and foremost, I have to say - being spotted on Reddit.com, and seeing the story at #2 is really thrilling. Tease me all you want ... I'm pumped.

The fact that the plug is to support our project - specifically increasing access to scholarly content - and elicited such a response from the public makes this extra cool.

And no ... I didn't post the plug. This one is just a delightful surprise pointed out by a dear friend. :)

Support Open Access to scholarly content? Support Science Commons, even if just by voting the story up on reddit.

Jesse Dylan's new video on Science Commons

(Video available under a CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0 license)

Many thanks to Jesse, the members of our staff and board featured here, and to the broader CC community for their ongoing support. Times are tough financially - CC and SC need your help. Every little bit counts.