On 2012-08-07, at 7:28 AM, Omega Alpha | Open Access wrote:
Stevan, > I would have guessed BOAI as the first OFFICIAL use. I'm trying to > ferret-out the PRE-HISTORY of the term--even its informal, coincidental or > unconscious use--LEADING UP to the conscious decision of those involved in > BOAI (including yourself, Stevan) to call this thing that we're all now > talking about "open access". Gary, My own recall is this: The issue, from the late 1980's onward was making *online access* to refereed research free for all instead of just *toll-access* (subscription, license, pay-per-view) for those at institutions that could afford to pay. The inspiration was the Internet and Web itself (starting with anonymous FTP). Computer scientists (and later physicists) were providing free online access to their papers early on (computer scientists as of at least the '80's and physicists as of the early '90's). The words "open access" were no doubt pronounced and written during that period (as you saw below), but they were simply informal verbal descriptions of what was needed and what people were providing. There were other ways of referring to it too, but all concerned *online access*, free for all, as opposed to toll-access, for subscribers only. My own use was very explicitly based on contrasting it with *toll access*. The term "open access" only became "official" with the BOAI, and I can tell you that several terms were considered in a prior list discussion. The choice was very explicitly influenced by the fact that we were trying to encourage author self-archiving, and that 2 years earlier in 1999 the "Open Archives Initiative" (originally called the "Universal Preprint Service" and then the "Santa Fe Convention") had created the OAI protocol for making *Open Archives* (later called "repositories") interoperable with one another. So we consciously chose "Open Access" in order to make a clear link between the two Initiatives (BOAI and OAI). I can also remember a distinct moment (in 1999) in a conversation with Herbert van Sompel when it was decided (by Herbert) to call Open Archives "Open Archives" (following some list discussion of various potential names). Hope that helps. Maybe OAI's Herbert von de Sompel or BOAI's Peter Suber will have further recollections. Stevan Harnad Thanks. Gary F. Daught Omega Alpha | Open Access http://oaopenaccess.wordpress.com Advocate for open access academic publishing in religion and theology oa.openaccess@ gmail.com | @OAopenaccess On Aug 7, 2012, at 12:25 AM, goal-requ...@eprints.org wrote: Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 00:00:01 -0400 From: Stevan Harnad <har...@ecs.soton.ac.uk> The term became official with Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read On 2012-08-06, at 6:29 PM, Omega Alpha | Open Access wrote: Greetings. Does anyone know who/when first used the phrase "open access" to refer to toll free publication and/or access to scholarly literature, though not necessarily yet as a technical term? Could this be a candidate? I'm reading the transcript of Stevan Harnad's presentation: "Implementing Peer review on the Net: Scientific Quality Control in Scholarly Electronic Journals" in the Proceedings of the 1993 International Conference on Refereed Electronic Journals, 1-2 October1993. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 1994, 8.1-8.14, and come across the following excerpt: "Enter anonymous ftp ('file transfer protocol'--a means of retrieving electronic files interactively). The paper chase proceeds at its usual tempo while an alternative means of distributing first preprints and then reprints is implemented electronically. An electronic draft is stored in a 'public' electronic archive at the author's institution from which anyone in the world can retrieve at any time?.The reader can now retrieve the paper for himself, instantly, and without ever needing to bother the author, from anywhere in the world where the Internet stretches--which is to say, in principle, from any institution of research or higher learning where a fellow-scholar is likely to be. "Splendid, n'est-ce pas? The author-scholar's yearning is fulfilled: open access to his work for the world peer community. The reader-scholar's needs and hopes are well served: free access to the world scholarly literature (or as free as a login on the Internet is to an institutionally affiliated academic or researcher)?." (8.4-8.5) The use here is clearly not yet technical, and yet it has all the earmarks of future application. The words "access," "open, "and "free" are used repeatedly in the Proceedings, but I was unable to find any the phrase "open access" was used elsewhere. I suppose the next question would be: At what point did this informal and (perhaps) coincidental use become formalized into a technical signifier? Curious and interested. Gary F. Daught Omega Alpha | Open Access http://oaopenaccess.wordpress.com Advocate for open access academic publishing in religion and theology oa.openaccess@ gmail.com | @OAopenaccess
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