|
To Jimmy Carter: On Rights of Online Scientific Scholarship
|
Seth Johnson
|
Aug 18, 2002 19:38 PDT
|
(Forwarded from Digital Bearer Settlement list; originally
from International Relations Discussion list)
-------- Original Message --------
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 20:05:59 -0400
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <ra-@shipwright.com>
To: Digital Bearer Settlement List <db-@philodox.com>
--- begin forwarded text
To: "International Relations Discussion List"
<irth-@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Eduardo Saguier" <sagu-@ssdnet.com.ar>
Mailing-List: list irth-@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 20:36:06 -0300
The Carter Center
Public Information Office
One Copenhill
453 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30307
Dear Jimmy Carter:
I have the honor to address you in order to install in the
public debate one of the most glaring civil and human rights
violations experienced in the electronic age by researchers
and scholars in less developed countries: the boycott of the
rights to practice scientific research, to communicate and
be scholarly informed. The strong need to break the
isolation and censorship, and consequently the demand to
overcome the violation of academic freedoms, to which
research institutions in less developed countries are
subjected --with respect to paid licenses of full-text and
online journals-- is becoming every day more demanding, to
such a degree that an appeal for an international solidarity
has become imperative.
A text inspired in Richard Sclove ideas is herein submitted
with the goal of promoting debate as to what extent the
practice of scientific research should or should not be
regarded as a fundamental civil and human right, to what
degree electronic information for academic study should be
subject to democratic deliberation rather than to market
forces and business profits, and how the scientific
institutions of less developed countries could reach the
electronic connections and the paid electronic licenses to
periodical journals published online. It is my hope that
unlimited access to electronic information firmly combined
with more democratic intellectual practices should be raised
and endorsed as a legitimate demand in the struggle against
commercial-academic censorships and new types of privatized
and monopolized knowledge and on behalf of academic
freedoms, extended democracy, and the principles of open
communication and education and equal opportunities
worldwide.
As one of thousands of isolated scholars in less developed
countries, the obstacles and difficulties to reach and
challenge international organizations, multinational
electronic editors and corrupt governments are innumerable
and overwhelming. Therefore, I got convinced that this is
not merely an academic issue but essentially a political
issue and that the only way to raise it successfully and at
a global scale is to appeal to those who have become
internationally acknowledged as hard defenders of human
rights. Hence, I have realized that up to date, Nelson
Mandela, Mary Robinson and you, are the only world statesmen
to whom any scholar and research institution in less
developed nations could trust the defense of these new kind
of rights. As an historical corroboration, in countries of
Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America --like Cambodia,
Rwanda, Bosnia and Argentina, where more elementary human
rights were traumatically violated-- you showed to the world
how decisive and sacred have been your commitments.
I have sent the text that follows this message to hundreds
of Associations, Academies, scientific institutions, and
communication and education departments at European,
Australian and Northamerican universities; and to
associations, journals, newspapers and forums that belong to
Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern
Europe. The list of those associations, grouped by
discipline, together with their electronic addresses, is
also attached to this message. However, I feel that my
capacity to summon an international collective will has
reached its limits.
Yours truly,
Eduardo R. Saguier
Senior Researcher (CONICET, Argentina)
----
August 5th, 2002
Dear Chairman:
I have the honor to address you in order to install one of
the most glaring civil and human rights violations
experienced in the electronic age by researchers and
scholars in less developed countries: the boycott of the
rights to practice scientific research, to communicate and
be scholarly informed. The strong need to break the
isolation and censorship, and consequently the demand to
overcome the violation of academic freedoms, to which
research institutions in less developed countries are
subjected --with respect to paid subscriptions or licenses
of full-text and online journals-- is becoming every day
more demanding, to such a degree that an appeal for an
international solidarity has become imperative.
The relevance of these online and full-text journals for the
excellence of our research performance and for any country
that wants to engage in science and research activities as a
platform for an economic and cultural takeoff (such were the
cases of Ireland and Finland) is obvious. However, we find
ourselves in circumstances similar to those experienced by
the most backward and oppressed European and Middle East
countries during the Renaissance --when Gutenberg invented
the printing press-- being condemned to continue using
parchment, papyrus and clay tablets. Moreover, the amazing
electronic incommunication or censorship to which we are
subjected by corrupt governments has relatively increased in
the recent times because the number of paid subscriptions to
online Databases has enlarged while the number of free
access scientific sites have dramatically decreased.
On the contrary, at the opposite extreme of this irrational
and corrupt behavior, governments of less developed
countries are desperately trying to break their financial
incommunication with international banking. We believe that
this contradictory behavior is hypocritical and a double
discourse. These contradictory practice and this hypocrisy
in discourses, that no crisis can justify, offend our
scientific researchers, leads to a persistent brain drain,
and makes it impossible for young scholars living in the
First World to return to their countries of origin.
Moreover, the contradiction and the hypocrisy of less
developed governments could partially be undone if
superfluous expenses be punished, and if their budgets could
be reassigned. Adversely, research institutions permanently
suffer budget cuts and incur extra expenses, that should be
reallocated. These state research institutions have
sistematically boycotted the paid subscription to those
online Databases, monopolized by multinational electronic
editors, such as J-Store, Pro-Quest, Elsevier, Carfax, Sage,
Kluwer, Blackwell, II Mulino, Swets Backsets Service, Frank
Cass, Chadwyck-Healy, Bell Howell, Gale«s Ready Reference
Shelf, Project Muse, CERN Library, Spring Harbour Laboratory
Press, Allen Press, MALMAD, and Medline among many other
Databases.
However, governments in these less developed countries
persist in giving priority to the resolution of the
financial gap with institutions of international banking,
without any respect whatsoever to the scientific and
cultural incommunication we are experiencing, condemning us
to practice a marginal and obsolete science, unable to
compete with the cutting edge research of First World
countries. Finally, I appeal to your solidarity, urging you
to debate within your Association any kind of ideas
susceptible of supporting our struggle.
Yours truly,
LIST of ASSOCIATIONS CONSULTED
NAME
E-MAIL
Science Associations
American Association for the Advancement of Science
webma-@aaas.org
American Society for Information Science and Technology
as-@asis.org
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
re27-@deere.com
The Mathematical Association of America
maa-@maa.org
Association for Computers and the Humanities
jmu-@virginia.edu
International Association of Mathematical Physics
spo-@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
European Association of Nuclear Medicine
off-@eanm.org
European Association of Chemistry and the
Environment
<mailto:montserra-@cabe.unige.ch>montserra-@cabe.unige.ch
The European Chemical Society
mar-@chim.ucl.ac.be
European Biophysical Society
<mailto:hru-@peter.bpc.uni-frankfurt.de>hru-@peter.bpc.uni-frankfurt.de
The European Society for Evolutionary Biology
deborah.ch-@ed.ac.uk
The European Society of Ethnopharmacology
guy.m-@his-ulp.u-strasbg.fr
Humanities Associations
American Anthropological Association
<mailto:bda-@aaanet.org>bda-@aaanet.org
European Association of Social Anthropologists
beate.eng-@iwf.de
European Anthropological Association
<mailto:benn-@antrolab.ku.dk>benn-@antrolab.ku.dk
Institute of Race Relations
in-@irr.org.uk
Archaeological Institute of America
<mailto:ai-@aia.bu.edu>ai-@aia.bu.edu
European Landscape Architecture Student Association
<mailto:elasa-inte-@slu.se>elasa-inte-@slu.se
European Academy of Criminology
long-@imet-tlc.it
Middle Eastern Dance Association
shal-@shaw.ca
American Economic Association
<mailto:wwals-@unl.edu>wwals-@unl.edu
European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy
abar-@fbk.eur.nl
Association for Science Education
david-@ase.org.uk
American Association of Geographers
<mailto:ga-@aag.org>ga-@aag.org
European Geography Association
mbed-@hotmail.com
The American Historical
Association
<mailto:mha-@theaha.org>mha-@theaha.org
The Australian Historical Association
<mailto:david.c-@ntu.edu.au>david.c-@ntu.edu.au
The European Society for the History of the Human Sciences
j.m.m-@durham.ac.uk
The European Society for Environmental History
verenna.w-@univie.ac.at
World History Association
<mailto:rou-@csn.net>rou-@csn.net
British Society for the History of Science
<mailto:bs-@hidex.demon.co.uk>bs-@hidex.demon.co.uk
American Oriental Society
<mailto:jrod-@umich.edu>jrod-@umich.edu
Fernand Braudel Center
iwal-@binghampton.edu
American Association of Applied Linguistics
<mailto:aaalo-@aaal.org>aaalo-@aaal.org
African Literature Association
alabul-@drexel.edu
The Palaeontological Association
presi-@palass.org
The American Philosophical Association
apaon-@udel.edu
African Association of Political Science
<mailto:aa-@samara.co.zw>aa-@samara.co.zw
American Political Science Association
<mailto:ap-@apsanet.org>ap-@apsanet.org
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
bai-@sipri.se
American Academic of Psychiatry and the Law
exec-@aapl.org
American Psychoanalytic Association
<mailto:apsa-@compuserve.com>apsa-@compuserve.com
The American Academy of Psychoanalysis
104676-@compuserve.com
The Asian Association of Social Psychology
sus-@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Australian Association for the Study of Religions
<mailto:mfra-@metz.une.edu.au>mfra-@metz.une.edu.au
American Sociological Association
<mailto:hill-@asanet.org>hill-@asanet.org
European Sociological Association
<mailto:esapre-@wiko.berlin.de>esapre-@wiko.berlin.de
The European Society for Rural Sociology
ERS--@listserv.funet.fr
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences
<mailto:ww-@amacad.org>ww-@amacad.org
The Academy of American Poets
<mailto:acad-@poets.org>acad-@poets.org
European Film Academy
ef-@europeanfilmacademy.org
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
coat-@fas.harvard.edu
African Studies Center
<mailto:all-@ucla.edu>all-@ucla.edu
International Associations
International Association of Music Libraries
jrob-@library.berkeley.edu
International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology
be-@ac.wfunet.wfu.edu
International Association for the Study of Popular Music
anah-@optonline.net
International Association of Music Information Center
off-@iamic.net
International Sociological Association
is-@sis.ucm.es
International Society for Comparative Psychology
bryan.-@bbsrc.ac.uk
International Political Science Association
ip-@alcor.concordia.ca
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: ra-@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation
<http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and
antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been
found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire'
|
|
 |
|
