At the Berlin 10 Conference, the key word was confidence

Use the link to access the full text article from College and Research Libraries News The article opens as follows: "Confidence. That is the word that best summarized the atmosphere at the tenth meeting of the Berlin Conference on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, which was held in November 2012. The conference convened at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, its first meeting on the African continent. But it was not by any means the first discussion of open access in South Africa; we quickly learned that this was a conversation that had been going on for quite a while, and was the subject of discussion, research, and negotiation at several South African universities. So why was confidence the overwhelming sense that delegates got from the speakers? Because it was clear that a lot of reflection had gone in to the problem of growing the research enterprise in Africa, and that all of the speakers knew that a big part of the ongoing efforts—efforts at better research, greater visibility, and economic development in general—was open access to scholarship and research data. We were told repeatedly that the question of whether open access was an important part of the future for scholarly communication was decided long ago. Most of the speakers were not asking whether, and they were not trying to convince their audience that open access was the wave of the future. Instead, they focused on how to achieve a more open climate for research, scholarship, and publishing. And they knew that they could achieve that goal, sooner or later. One of the most interesting illustrations of this focus came when the delegates were addressed by Derek Hanekom, minister for science and technology in the South African government, during our gala dinner after the first day of the conference. When Hanekom began, it was clear that he was reading a speech that had been prepared for him by others. But as he read, he began to depart from his text and comment on the importance of open access specifically in the South African context. These digressions became more frequent and detailed as delegates watched the minister begin to internalize what he was saying. We saw the dawning realization that open access really does offer an important step for better research and faster economic and social development. After the speech, Hanekom asked the representatives from the Max Planck Institute, one of the sponsors of the Berlin Conference, for a meeting to discuss open access policy..."