(1) Peter Suber - Google+ - Second shoe drops: new White House Directive mandates OA …
peter.suber's bookmarks 2013-02-22
Summary:
"The Obama White House today directed federal agencies to develop open-access policies within the next six months. The directive comes from John Holdren..., President Obama's chief Science Advisor....This is big. It's big in its own right, and even bigger when put together with FASTR <http://bit.ly/hoap-fastr>, the bipartisan OA bill introduced into both houses of Congress just eight days ago. We now have OA mandates coming from both the executive and legislative branches of government.
The two approaches complement one another. FASTR does not make the White House directive unnecessary. FASTR may never be adopted. And if it is adopted, it will be after some time for study, education, lobbying, amendment, negotiation, and debate. By contrast, the White House directive takes effect today. The wheels are already turning. Compared to this executive action, FASTR is slower.....Similarly, the White House directive does not make FASTR unnecessary. On the contrary, we need legislation to codify federal OA policies. The next president could rescind today's White House directive, but could not rescind legislation. (One lesson: Don't let up in efforts to persuade Congress to pass FASTR.)
The White House directive and FASTR pull in the same general direction, but they are not identical...."