Re: Conference copyright policy versus the web and scientific progress [was Re: CfP Web Semantics (WebS) 2010]

I fully agree with David's remarks...
I was able to negotiate with Springer that SWSA be able to make the 
papers of the entire ISWC conference series (from 2006 onwards) freely 
available on the web (while still maintaining Springer's paid service, 
SpringerLink). These can be accessed as Linked Data on 
data.semanticweb.org.
A similar policy has been in place for even longer for the WWW 
conference series.
  I encourage everybody who is organizing events around the Semantic Web 
(and not only...) to use this service - the nickname for this site, for 
those who don't yet know, is "Dogfood Server", guess why ;-).

It was not easy, but after a firm threat to move the ICWS conference to 
IEEE CS press (which DID allow that, apparently different from the 
parent IEEE Press, which is separate), they agreed. As 
conference/workshop chairs, we should take a stronger stand on these issues.

Cheers
Daniel
On 19/02/10 17:13  - 19/02/10, David Booth wrote:
>
> The workshop sounds interesting, but the IEEE copyright terms are a
> throw-back to the pre-web era.  I personally find it quite annoying when
> scientific publications are locked behind pay-to-view policies.  I would
> not expect you to be able to change the policies for this workshop, but
> I hope that future events will permit authors to make their works freely
> available on the web, as that is what best advances science.
>
> Perhaps the credo:
>    "If it isn't on the web, it doesn't exist"
> should be elaborated further as:
>    "If it isn't freely accessible on the web, it doesn't exist"
>                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> My reaction may be due in part to the coincidental announcement of the
> Panton Principles that immediately preceded your message:
> http://www.pantonprinciples.org/
> Those principles nicely acknowledge the importance of freely available
> information to scientific progress.
>
> I fully recognize that the costs of running conferences and reviewing
> and publishing scientific information must be born somehow.  But
> "pay-as-you-view" is not the right model for scientific information.
>
> Thanks,
> David Booth
>
>    


-- 

Daniel Schwabe
Tel:+55-21-3527 1500 r. 4356
Fax: +55-21-3527 1530
http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~dschwabe  Dept. de Informatica, PUC-Rio
R. M. de S. Vicente, 225
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22453-900, Brasil