About the Berlin7 Conference
"OPEN ACCESS REACHING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES"
The 7th Berlin Open Access Conference will take place at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris on 2-4 December 2009. As well as taking stock of past activities, the conference will focus on the question of how to get the different communities more actively involved.
About the Berlin Declaration
In 2003, leading European research institutes and the scientific community signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities on the Internet. The declaration followed on from the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2002. In signing the declaration, governments, research institutions, funding agencies, libraries, archives and museums committed themselves to taking concrete steps to promote the Internet as a medium for disseminating global knowledge.
Since 2003, the signatories have met annually at international conferences to report on the significant headway made in open access to the results of scientific research.
The commitment of French research to Open Access
The leading research institutes in France have played an active part in the Open Access Initiative from the outset. A Memorandum of Understanding signed by the universities and most of the country’s foremost research organisations strengthened the commitment of the French scientific community to Open Archives. The choice of the Sorbonne as the venue for the 7th Berlin conference is a further indication of this commitment.
Berlin 7 is an international showcase, during which France will be able to highlight its efforts in favour of open access to scientific knowledge, as well as the involvement of all the various players. It also provides an opportunity to present the concrete measures taken in this area by French research organisations, in particular through achievements such as the national HAL (Hyper Article on Line) platform.
