Science Commons' John Wilbanks has produced a 6-minute video on the Health Commons which explains succinctly what is broken about the current approach to health discovery, and how a health commons could make a difference.
The current approach emphasizes profit; this makes the weight problems of the wealthy a higher priority than river blindness, a serious affliction for millions of people around the world.
The world wide web makes it possible to create new approaches to science discovery, based on open sharing of knowledge and collaboration.
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Health Commons video
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Repositories without frontiers
Repositories without frontiers (news release from BioMedCentral)
* Médecins Sans Frontières implements Open Repository service
* Growing momentum of the open access movement highlights the benefits of BioMed Central's platform
Today, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) adopts 'Open Repository' - the service from BioMed Central, which allows institutes to build, launch, host, and maintain their own repositories.
Whilst MSF is well known for its humanitarian medical work, the organisation also produces important research based on its extensive field experience within vulnerable populations. Its studies have often changed clinical practice and have been used for further humanitarian advocacy.
Through the implementation of the Open Repository system, MSF is now able to provide a personalized in-house repository that maximises the distribution of their research at a fraction of the cost of other commercial systems.
Speaking of the new system, Tony Reid, Medical Editor for Médecins Sans Frontières said: "The vast majority of our medical work, and by extension our research activities, take place in poorer countries where access to scientific publications is often difficult and expensive to obtain. With Open Repository, we are able to make MSF's research experience available to health workers, policy makers and researchers in those countries in an easily-searchable format at no cost."
Reid went on to add "Throughout the development process for this site, I have been most impressed by the support and professionalism provided by BioMed Central's Open Repository team. They have been unfailingly helpful and cooperative and I believe the final product demonstrates excellent quality."
There is ever increasing number of funding bodies mandating open and unrestricted access to published research. This has necessitated institutions like MSF to look for innovative ways to store and publicise their open access research. BioMed Central's Open Repository service provides an extremely cost effective solution for institutions looking to showcase their open access research. Not only does the system help institutions comply with open access mandates, but it can also be fully customized to help organizations raise their profile and showcase their intellectual output.
Médecins Sans Frontières is just one of 15 organizations who have adopted the Open Repository solution since its inception.
"Open Repository provided our organization with a hosted solution that was quick and simple to set up, customizable to our needs and extremely easy to use," said Adam Edwards who adopted the service in 2007 "We switched from our previous repository service with Digital Commons because Open Repository offered much better value for money and all of the features we required."
Open Repository is built upon the latest version of DSpace, an open-source solution for accessing, managing and preserving scholarly works. Customers of Open Repository benefit from updated system features not only from DSpace themselves, but also from BioMed Central's team who are continually working to enhance their repository service.
-ENDS-
Media Contact
Matt McKay
Head of PR, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7079 4845
Mob: +44 (0) 7825 257 423
Email: matthew.mckay@biomedcentral.com
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an independent online publishing house committed to providing immediate access without charge to the peer-reviewed biological and medical research it publishes. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is essential to the rapid and efficient communication of science.
Médecins Sans Frontières (http://www.msf.org/) is an international humanitarian aid organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in more than 70 countries.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Tejon Ranch conserved
I live very close to the Grapevine in Southern California, and this is truly a huge deal.
Click on the title to check out the story.
ELMO
Friday, May 02, 2008
Rust Could Be the Key to Arsenic-Free Water: Scientific American
Rust Could Be the Key to Arsenic-Free Water: Scientific American:
Another interesting technology is described here, published in 2006 (original Science article here). I don't know what stage it's at currently.
The Scientific American report ends as follows: "Given the batch nature of this process, it is unlikely that homes in the developing world can be outfitted with filters placed directly on taps, but getting poison-free water by the tank load is still a step in the right direction." I immediately pictured the technology in conjunction with a water tower and indoor plumbing. Is that what the people we serve would really want?
Is this something about which our Engineers Without Borders colleagues can advise? (I also thought about Plumbers Without Borders - not the first time that idea has arisen, it seems.) Perhaps it's already happening and I just don't know about it. That happens a lot.
The Superbug That Cures Arsenic Poisoning
The Superbug That Cures Arsenic Poisoning
Check this article out, for it bears on what we are doing. There's exciting new stuff happening all the time. Also, the source web site MedIndia.net is packed with valuable information. There's an RSS feed for research news.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com
Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com
Chemists Without Borders promotes open source solutions. The above link, and other links therein, point to excellent resources for running Windows machines entirely with freeware programs. For those who wish to avoid Windows altogether, there are excellent Linux implementations like Ubuntu and Xandros which offer comparable desktops and resources.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Jan Egeland on Charlie Rose
This is a fascinating and informative inverview with Jan Egeland, former Undersecretary-General (USG) for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC). He talks about the many successes of the the various humanitarian efforts, as well as current critical issues and what to do about them.
Egeland's new book on these issues, A Billion Lives : An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity that looks worth a read.
President Carter on Charlie Rose
This is a very interesting perspective from former President Carter.
Monday, April 28, 2008
25 Tools: A Free Toolset for Learning
25 Tools: A Free Toolset for Learning
This is a site with useful links. Slideshare, for example, is a popular way to create presentations and make them available to specific users or to the general public. We may use this for our continuing education and personal development program.
Bego
Thursday, April 24, 2008
As Food Prices Soar, U.N. Calls for International Help
(Once again the NewsHour on PBS provides excellent analysis of current issues. You can read the transcript and listen to the audio. There are additional links to other relevant discussions.)
Here's an opportunity for us: Chemistry claims to be "The Central Science". If so, we are central to the issue of food and energy. The "silent tsunami" of rising food prices is exacerbated, for example, by the diversion of corn from food to fuel. Millions of lives are jeopardized not by the scarcity of the food, but by the price of the food. (I once heard that the 1,500,000 deaths during the notorious Irish Potato Famine of 1845 were more caused by prices rising beyond the reach of the poor than by an actual lack of potatoes.)
There are already many intelligent people addressing this problem, but it is by no means solved. Imagine the impact of bringing the minds of a half a million or so chemists worldwide to bear on the question. Add to that the medical profession, the architects, the designers, the financiers, the businesspeople, etc., etc., etc., not to mention the students most importantly, and you have a huge pool of people with minds trained to identify and solve problems.
If 70% of your $1-a-day income goes on food for the family, and the price of rice and wheat rapidly doubles, your family goes from 2 meals a day to 1 meal a day, and then .......
What then must we do?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Long Slide For R&D Energy Spending
The US General Accountability Office recently reported in Advanced Energy Technologies: Budget Trends and Challenges for DOE's Energy R&D Program that federal R&D dropped from $6 billion in 1978 to $1.4 billion in 2008, adjusted for inflation. Fossil and nuclear will get an increase of 34% and 44% respectively in 2009, while renewable energy R&D will drop by 1%. What do you think of that?
- GAO-08-556T March 5, 2008
- Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 15 Pages) Accessible Text (HTML)
Green Chemistry R&D Bill S.2669 Introduced
US Senate measure aims to prevent pollution by encouraging cleaner and safer chemicals
The purpose of the Green Chemistry Research & Development Act of 2008 is to advance research into environmentally friendly chemicals. Check it out and please contact your Senators and Representatives to express your opinions.
Interesting Argument About Global Warming
I like the simplicity of this argument. The choice is yours. Please let me know what you think.
http://view.break.com/311805 - Watch more free videos
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Fuel economy standards to rise for 2015
Happy Earth Day! Click on the title for the story.
ELMO
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sarah Chayes: Hope is irrelevant. It's determination that counts.
I recently saw on PBS this wonderfully enlightening Bill Moyers interview about Afghanistan with Sarah Chayes, former New York Times correspondent. At the end of the conversation, they have the following dialogue:
BILL MOYERS: There's a thin line. As I listen to you, there's a thin line we sometimes walk, we human beings, between hope and folly.
SARAH CHAYES: Hmm.
BILL MOYERS: Are you very close to that line?
SARAH CHAYES: I don't think that hope is relevant. I think determination is all that counts. You just have to try. It doesn't matter if you hope you're going succeed or not. You have to keep trying.
I agree with the opinion about hope. It is indeed determination which counts. (Mind you, I wouldn't use the word "try" either. In the words of the great Yoda: "Do or not do, there is no 'try'.") Consider this: At the end of the ABC World News on television, Charlie Gibson finishes with , "I hope you had a nice day." I never understand what he means. Hope is about the future, if anything, so how does it apply to the day that has already passed?
I think "hope" is a word worth dropping from the vocabulary, as are words like "struggle", "desperate" and "try". When Victor Frankl talks in "Mans' Search for Meaning" about how people like him survived the Nazi concentration camps, it's not "hope" that he talks about; it's about a commitment to an idea that some day he would be reunited with his family (didn't happen -- they were all murdered), and that he would be standing in front of audiences answering the question, "How did you survive when so many others didn't?"
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02222008/watch2.html
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, April 13, 2008
Bradley's Open Notebook Science: Must-Read for Science Librarians
Chemists Without Border's Jean-Claude Bradley recently did a presentation for my class at UBC on Open Notebook Science that has been called a must-read for science librarians. Chemists are sharing information openly, from every step of an experiment to sharing molecules on Chemspider. This can advance our knowledge much more rapidly, for example in Malaria which Jean-Claude's group is working on; it also makes our knowledge available to everyone, making it possible for every Chemist with an internet connection to keep up to speed; this will make it easier for developing countries to create programs to teach new Chemists. For more details and the links, please see my post on The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics.
In other recent open access news, EBSCO has created a free database for environmental information called GreenFILE, which includes bibliographic information and a fair bit of full text, too. Congratulations and thanks to EBSCO.
Monday, April 07, 2008
OA Week to celebrate US National Institutes of Health new OA mandate policy
Researchers are celebrating OA Week, in honour of the US National Institutes of Health new policy requiring open access to the results of NIH-funded research, which took effect today!
For details on how to join in the festivities - and support the NIH in this important move which certainly takes us beyond borders - see Peter Suber's post on Open Access News.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
European Universities Association (EUA) urges universities to develop clear strategies to advance open access
The European Universities Association (EUA), at their spring meeting in Barcelona, unanimously endorsed a recommendation to develop and support open access at every university in Europe. Details of the recommendation have been posted in the EUA Newsletter.
Details of the policy and my comments can be found on The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics.
Thanks to Bernard Rentier and Stevan Harnad.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Online NewsHour: Report | Climate Change Worries Bangladesh | March 28, 2008 | PBS
Online NewsHour: Report | Climate Change Worries Bangladesh| March 28, 2008 | PBS
You can view the video (recommended), hear the audio and read the transcript.
This is an excellent report on the flooding of Bangladesh and the impact of even a modest rise in sea level of just a few feet, a process which seems already to have begun. The consensus is that such a rise is quite within the realm of possibility (for an intelligent overview, see, for example, http://urltea.com/31jr and click the Go button).
In Bangladesh, they get it from both sides, the rising ocean on the coast, and the increasing expansion and flooding of their major rivers owing to increased runoff from snow melting in the Himalayas. The latter leads to major flooding in central areas within Bangladesh. indeed, a good half of the entire country has the potential to flood as land-based ice melts around the globe.
For some perspective, Bangladesh occupies an area of 144 km² , about the same size as New York state (142 km²). The US itself is about 9.6 million km² . The population of Bangladesh (about 150 million) is about half that of the United States. The aforementioned flooding has the potential to displace a good half of the population of Bangladesh, 70 million people! As this climate change progresses, irrespective of the cause, we can expect massive population shifts globally during the current century. Massive opportunities exist to prepare for and capitalize on the increasing need for goods, services, transportation, distribution, housing, etc.
Think big, think bigger, plan, do. Involve other people.
Online NewsHour: Report | Fighting TB in Bangladesh | March 27, 2008 | PBS
Online NewsHour: Report | Fighting TB in Bangladesh | March 27, 2008 | PBS
A success story about fighting tuberculosis in Bangladesh!
I recommend watching the video on this page. There is also an audio link and transcript.
One of the things that struck me about his was that this is not really an issue of technology, science or medicine, but of distribution, monitoring and compliance. The skills required for effectiveness are organizational and relational. So many of us are focused on what we know rather than on what our customer, client, consumer or end user actually needs. It is crucial to have direct contact with the people we serve in order to know what and how to provide what is needed.
This TB treatment and prevention program is worth understanding and possibly duplicating for some of our own efforts. Indeed, for some things that we may wish to do, perhaps we would utilize their existing system of people and resources.
Friday, March 28, 2008
CARB lowers standards
CA Air Resources Board caves to auto industry pressure yet again (click on the post title for the link).
If I remember correctly, the National Research Council said within the last 2 years that it was achievable to raise fuel economy standards by 5-7 MPG without a significant effect on the cost of a vehicle.
Oh yeah, and see here:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
ELMO
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Author's Rights 2-minute video
The 2-minute Author's Rights Video by the Association of Research Libraries explains clearly and succinctly what scholars can do to make sure they retain the rights to use and share our work in the ways we would like to - including making them open access and so freely available to colleagues in the developing world.
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, March 21, 2008
Tap water better than bottled water?
Ever been to Hetch Hetchy?
"Earlier this month, the American Waterworks Association Research Foundation tested 20 of the nation's water systems for compounds typically used in medicines, household cleaners and cosmetics and found San Francisco's water almost alone in being free of contaminants. And blind taste tests have also shown that the city's water tastes as good as, and in some cases better than, bottled water."
SF water comes from Hetch Hetchy, a beautiful resevoir north of Yosemite. After all of the recent reports on pharmaceuticals in the tap water of many areas of the country, it is nice to know that the tap water in San Francisco is still drinkable.
ELMO
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Ride a bike vs...?
This is just a sad story all around. I feel for the Deputy and the cyclists:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/15/BAFJVKPDS.DTL&tsp=1
We need to share the road, meaning: give as much room to cyclists as you can without compromising your safety with oncoming traffic. If it looks like you can't pass safely, then please WAIT! until it is clear to pass. Please don't forget that bicyclists are considered to be vehicles on the road, too, and your car is much heavier that they are!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/15/BAFJVKPDS.DTL&tsp=1
Just think of the CO2 you're saving by riding a bike to work!
ELMO
UPDATE: the numbers are out from the CA CHP:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MNU3VOB22.DTL
As a cyclist, I think these numbers are skewed against us, but I have also seen many unsafe riders.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Growing corn for ethanol
Perhaps the real problem with producing ethanol from grains- it makes food too expensive for poor people:
Sheeran (UN) noted that in some countries food was available, but cost too much for the poor to buy it, or, as she put it “markets full of food with scores of people simply unable to afford it. These conditions have triggered food riots from Cameroon to Burkina Faso to Indonesia to Mexico and beyond.”
Food, she reminded the European Parliament, is a geostrategic issue, just as oil is.
“This challenge may be one of the most critical peace and security issues of our time. Fragile democracies are feeling the pressure of food insecurity; food riots have erupted throughout the globe,” she said.
Don't forget about water rights...
ELMO
Thursday, March 13, 2008
EPA and ozone
Line of the day:
When the OMB's Susan E. Dudley urged the EPA to consider the effects of cutting ozone further on "economic values and on personal comfort and well-being," the EPA's Marcus Peacock responded in a March 7 memo: "EPA is not aware of any information that ozone has beneficial effects on economic values or on personal comfort and well being.
Click the title for a link to the WaPo article
ELMO
Chemical Abstracts Services (CAS) to contribute to Wikipedia
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society, has announced that they will contribute to Wikipedia!
CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, is pleased to announce that it will contribute to the Wikipedia project. CAS will work with Wikipedia to help provide accurate CAS Registry Numbers® for current substances listed in Wikiprojects-Chemicals section of the Wikipedia Chemistry Portal that are of widespread general public interest.
The CAS Registry is the world’s most comprehensive collection of chemical substances and the CAS Registry Number is the recognized global standard for chemical substance identification.
CAS views Wikipedia as an important societal tool for the general public, and this collaboration with Wikipedia is in line with CAS’ mission as a Division of the American Chemical Society.
We look forward to working with the Wikipedia volunteers over the next few weeks to make this happen.
Kudos to CAS and the American Chemical Society - what a great contribution to Open Chemistry!
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News.
Friday, March 07, 2008
CA Salmon = 12% of average
As water gets more and more scarce in CA, the price of salmon is going to go up.
(click on the headline for the article).
ELMO
Friday, February 22, 2008
Open Access Advances
The February 18, 2008, issue of C&EN reports that Harvard University's arts and sciences faculty members now back the open-access movement in scholarly publishing. See also Harvard Library Director Robert Danton's editorial in the Harvard Crimson.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, February 07, 2008
Mission Accomplished
Returning to the US is always like diving in from outer space. It does not seem real.
This years trip to Cameroon was a difficult one. On arrival two children in our school died on Malaria, two easily preventable death. Four year old Benwih (picture) survived because her mother knew how to turn adult malaria pills into pediatric drugs. One funeral after another followed week by week. Nothing worked according to plan. Nothing happened the way it had been anticipated. But the expectations on us as "givers" where sky high. This was in part fueled by our last years capacity of gifts/donations carried by six volunteers. There was no way for me to match this.
Having said that the trip was also utterly successful. We as in AIDSfreeAFRICA strengthened our relationships with Cameroonians and made many more friends. I trained a technician at the Cameroonian Baptist Convention on how to produce a diagnostic reagent that is usually in short supply but urgently needed by AIDS treatment centers and hospitals. We delivered donations in form of vitamins, skin lotions, mosquito nets, tooth brushes, sewing supplies, and crocheting yarn. 
On the pharmaceutical side of our work, the trip was in part supported by a grant from Tibotec, a Belgium based Pharmaceutical outfit. With their help I established the a non-profit program selling an antifungal at cost. To accomplish this we were enabled to hire four Cameroonians for the various aspects of the project. They are Eric the sales manager (picture next to me), Tamukum the medical delegate (picture middle), Suh Theresia Bi our secretary and Richard a pharmacist who will be conducting a feasibility study. The jobs are not full time and as of yet limited to a year or less but they create jobs for Cameroonians who educated themselves and would otherwise have to leave the country for employment. Pharmacist Charles Boyo (picture far right) from Bamenda joined us as well. We appreciate his generous gift of his expertise in handling this project. 
Now back in the US my job is very clear: We need to raise US$ 50,000.00 to buy and ship a blister packaging machine to Cameroon. This machine is the missing link between now and the start of production - with production meaning packaging drugs bought as bulk tablets from India - Acquiring this machine for Diamond Pharmaceutical is a pivotal step that has more impact than what is visible to the bare eye.
I challenge everyone - no I beg everyone of you to send a check or go on-line to our web site www.AIDSfreeAFRICA.org and use paypal for your most generous contribution. Please ask your friends, colleagues and tell your neighbors. The US Ambassador Janet Garvey put it succinctly when she said: "Cameroonians will be so proud when they learn that their country produces drugs." Yes, so am I am and so should you. Thank you everyone at home in the US, Europe and in Cameroon.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Unanimous OA Recommendations from the European University Association
The 791 universities from 46 countries of the European University Association have unanimously endorsed some very strong OA recommendations, which Peter Suber has summarized as follows:
* Here's a digest of the most important of the recommendations. European universities should...
1. launch OAI-compliant institutional repositories (A2)
2. adopt OA mandates for their research output (A3)
3. educate faculty about copyright and encourage the removal of permission barriers at least for users in the author's institution (A4)
4. consider paying publication fees for faculty who publish in fee-based OA journals (A5)
5. work with public funding agencies with OA mandates to encourage deposit in institutional repositories (B1)
6. educate university rectors about the importance of OA (B2)
7. support OA mandates for publicly-funded research in the EU (C1)
Kudos especially to Lesley Wilson, Secretary General of the EUA, and Sijbolt Noorda, chair of the Working Group on Open Access. Thanks to Stevan Harnad for breaking the news, and to Peter Suber for comments and summary.
My comments: this is huge; it sets the direction for European universities. It will take some time, of course, for each university to set its own policies and procedures, and a bit longer for these policies and procedures to take effect. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow the European example, each in its own time. Even if the impact is not felt immediately, the importance of this endorsement should not be underestimated.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Two major open access announcements this week
Some major events in open access this week:
The final text of the NIH policy has been posted:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html
and a very interesting FAQ
The European Research Council has announced an exemplary Open Access Policy - open access to funded research within 6 months, no loopholes, and an indication that the 6-month maximum will be shortened! For links and a summary, see Peter Suber's Open Access News.
As always, the best way to keep with the latest developments is to tune into Peter Suber's Open Access News.