[FC-discuss] Students recognized as new SPARC Innovators

[Gavin Baker]

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Not to toot our own horns, but..

http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/07-1211.html
http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/

SPARC highlights five students for leadership and activism on open access

Washington, DC -- December 11, 2007 -- SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing
and Academic Resources Coalition) has recognized five student leaders as
the new SPARC Innovators. Hailed as "Agents of Change," students point
to the promise of a more open system for information sharing.

December's SPARC Innovators include:

* "The Technologist," Benjamin Mako Hill, Graduate of the MIT Media Lab,
current Researcher at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, Fellow in
the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, and engineer of the 2007
"Overprice Tags" project at the MIT library.

* "The Professional," Gavin Baker. Political Studies graduate of the
University of Florida, Open Access Director for Students for Free
Culture, and co-mastermind of the National Day of Action for Open
Access, February 2007.

* "The Politician," Nick Shockey. Current undergraduate and Student
Senator at Trinity University in San Antonio and author of the
second-ever student senate resolution in favor of public access to
publicly funded research results.

* "The Diplomat," Elizabeth Stark. Student of Law at Harvard University,
Affiliate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, founder of
Harvard Free Culture, and architect of one of the first student free
thesis repositories.

* "The Evangelist," Nelson Pavlosky. Law student at George Mason
University, co-founder of Students for Free Culture, and ally of the
Student Global AIDS Campaign and Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines.

"Despite different backgrounds and interests, these students share a
common interest in ensuring ease of access and use of electronic
information," said SPARC Director Heather Joseph. "As members of a
generation raised with the Internet, sharing is second nature to them.
When it comes to open access, they just get it."

The December SPARC Innovator profile is the first of several
student-centered initiatives from SPARC. The January SPARC-ACRL forum at
ALA will explore "Working with the Facebook Generation: Student
Engagement on Access to Scholarship" and will feature the winners of the
first SPARKY awards for student videos illustrating the value of
sharing. The forum will also mark the introduction of a dedicated SPARC
campaign to engage students on the topic of open access.

"The more we have the opportunity to work with students, the more we see
their creativity and commitment to opening access not only to research,
but to textbooks, software, and information of all kinds," said Diane
Graves, University Librarian at Trinity University. "It's a pleasure as
well as a learning experience to collaborate with these Innovators and
their peers on these issues."

The SPARC Innovator program recognizes advances in scholarly
communication realized by an individual, institution, or group.
Typically, these advances exemplify SPARC principles by challenging the
status quo in scholarly communication for the benefit of researchers,
libraries, universities, and the public. SPARC Innovators are featured
on the SPARC Web site semi-annually and have included Ted and Carl
Bergstrom; Melissa Hagemann of the Open Society Institute; the
University of California; and Herbert Van de Sompel of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory. SPARC Innovators are named by the SPARC staff in
consultation with the SPARC Steering Committee.


- --
Gavin Baker
http://www.gavinbaker.com/
gavin at gavinbaker.com
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