Opportunity Knocks - Ross Mounce

Use the link to access the BBC Radio 3 broadcast described as follows: "A few months ago I gave a short talk about the Open Knowledge Foundation and its activities as relevant to academics at a small (but good!) palaeontology conference in Cambridge (which I blogged about previously). I didn’t need to give this talk. Neither the OKF nor my academic progression required me to give this talk. I just felt it might be helpful to let my friends and peers know who the OKF are, what they’re trying to achieve, and what my Panton Fellowship is about. That optional talk has now paid HUGE dividends: enabling me to talk live on BBC Radio 3 last night about Open Access and the beneficial impact this will have on research with our Minister for Science & Universities, David Willetts MP & Dame Janet Finch (writer of ‘the Finch report’). I got some good time at the end after the show to speak with David about encouraging efficiently run ultra low-cost journals like the Journal of Machine Learning Research. I hope this will have had some influence, if not, I certainly tried! So how did this come about? Nick Crumpton, PhD student at the University of Cambridge, and one of the student organisers for Progressive Palaeontology 2012 (ProgPal) is also a BBC Online British Science Association Media Fellow and thus has good contacts at the BBC. They were apparently looking for a young scientist to come on the show and give an informed opinion from ‘the coalface’ of research so Nick kindly remembered my impassioned talk from ProgPal on OKF & openness in academia and recommended me. I got in touch with the programme producer, and was invited to join the live radio debate later that night.  …and that’s how it happened.  With Open Access Weekcoming up very soon, 22-28 October, I guess the point of this post is:  No matter how small your contribution towards the advocacy of Open Access might seem; every little helps. Keep at it. Keep speaking out about OA until all publicly funded research everywhere (glares at the US) is Open Access.  Postscript: That same day Sir Mark Walport was also interviewed on BBC Radio, partly about Open Access – I highly recommend & agree with his opinions; the link is here..."