The OAK Law project is hosting an international conference on Wednesday 24 September-Thursday 25 September 2008, with Post-Conference Workshops on Friday 26 September at Stamford Plaza, Brisbane.

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) along with many other institutions throughout the world has pioneered the establishment of management practices and the necessary infrastructure to promote access and innovation. This landmark conference will bring together experts from Australia and around the world to speak on a range of topics such as:

• Evolving publishing models • Repository management
• eResearch • Policy development
• Data access and reuse • Legal and technical issues

Keynote speakers and distinguished commentators include:

John Wilbanks, Executive Director of Science Commons
Alma Swan, Founder of Key Perspectives: Consultants to the scholarly information industry
Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President of the External Research Division of Microsoft Research
Dr Terry Cutler, Principal, Cutler & Company
Professor Mary O’Kane, Director and Executive Chairman of Mary O’Kane & Associates Pty Ltd
Dr Peter Crossman, Assistant Under Treasurer (OESR) and Government Statistician
Stevan Harnad, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Dr Richard Jefferson, CEO & Founder, CAMBIA and the BiOS Initiative
Professor Arun Sharma, DVC QUT Research and Commercialisation
Professor Tom Cochrane, DVC QUT Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support
Professor Brian Fitzgerald, OAK Law Project and QUT Law Faculty
Dr Rhys Francis, Executive Director, Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council
Maarten Wilbers, Deputy Legal Counsel, CERN Legal Services
Together with Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Professor Paul Roe, Professor Bernard Pailthorpe, Colin Steele, Roger Clarke, John Houghton and Professor Arthur Sale.

To register or for more information, including the conference program, visit the official website www.oar2008.qut.edu.au

OAK Law Project Manager Scott Kiel-Chisholm and OAK Law Researcher Dr Anne Fitzgerald have given a presentation at The Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) Open Access Collections. As part of the one day workshop on the challenges and opportunities of open access publishing for Australian universities held on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at Customs House in Brisbane, Dr Fitzgerald and Mr Kiel-Chisholm addressed the topic ‘Managing Copyright for Open Access’.

The slides from the presentation can be accessed here.

The APSR Project aims to establish a centre of excellence for the management of scholarly assets in digital format.

APSR works closely with research communities, information professionals, technical staff, and higher education policy makers on a series of development projects, surveys, publications, seminars, and training workshops. The Partnership aims to help create the systems required for managing data and information in a research environment and simultaneously to increase the capability of Australian researchers to do so.

QUT’s OAK Law Project has developed a web-enabled database containing information about publishing agreements and publishers’ open access policies and practices. It is designed to facilitate greater access to research, especially that which is publicly funded.

The launch of the OAKList on Thursday, 7 February 2008, went fantastically. John Wilbanks, Executive Director of Science Commons, did a great presentation on the development of open access and brought the OAKList to life with the push of a button.

The URL for the OAKList is www.oaklist.qut.edu.au.

More information on the launch is available here.

Scott Kiel-Chisholm, OAK Law Project Manager
Photographer, Rachel Cobcroft, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 Licence at Flickr.