Opening up International Organisations: Open Access at ESA, WIPO, UNESCO and CERN

re:publica 17 - Politics & Society

Owners of a wealth of data and content, International Organisations ESA, WIPO, WHO and UNESCO have recently started implementing Open Access. Their respective OA strategies and policies in practice will be presented, followed by a hopefully lively discussion with you, the tax payers who fund these organisations.

• Marco Trovatello

The International Organisations (IGO) European Space Agency ESA, the United Nations World Intellectual Propoerty Organisation WIPO, the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN and UNESCO, the UN scientific and cultural organisation, have one thing in common: All of them adopted, more or less recently, an Open Access policy for their information and data.

Producing a wealth of data and content such as images, videos, reports, scientific results etc., these have been published until not long ago under traditional all rights reserved licences. With their recent changes in policy, the aforementioned IGO's can now facilitate use and re-use for the general public, media, the educational sector, partners and anybody else seeking to utilise and build upon the material.

“Open access to ESA’s images, information and knowledge is not just necessary to spread Space news and content as widely as possible in today's digital age, but it is also necessary to give back scientific-technical knowledge and insight to the tax payers who fund us” states e.g. ESA.

Most IGO's have decided to release content under the Creative Commons IGO licencing scheme. CC IGO licences were designed for use by intergovernmental organisations.

Marco Trovatello, working for the European Space Agency's Communcation Department, will represent the International Organisations (IGO) Working Group on Open Access to discuss the groups intentions, strategies and their policies in practice, eager to receive feedback and engage in an open dialogue with the audience.