John Willensky gave the keynote address on June 21 at JCDL 2007 while waving a sheaf of paper notes to emphasize his departure from Power Point presentation technology in the interest of communicating directly with the audience assembled in Vancouver. He referred to this style as, “An homage to openness.”

Willensky, a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education University of British Columbia, began by explaining to the “well-informed and already converted” that open access is not just about resources being free and inexpensive. “There is something larger and older at stake,” he said.

In spite of his extensive background with projects such as the Public Knowledge Project, he still sees himself as “An amateur in a privledged position in the argument for openness. You have ‘guild knowledge’ that you have to deliver to me and other educators.”

Willensky’s own assessment of ‘open’ as a paradigm for instructing people in how to participate in knowledge creation was illustrated by a story he related of a peer-reviewed journal edited by a group of eighth grade girls in Vancouver. After the launch the editors decided to substitute a fashion section for a feature entitled, ‘Philisophical Musings.’ He argued that open access to information and tools was not only self-instructional in this case, but also changed the intellectual focus of the editors over time.

Echoing other conference presentations, and calling for increased integrity in information systems to preserve all versions and processes leading to final versions of digital content, Willensky suggested that the basis of knowledge is the ability to integrate parts of a whole concept. “Context is everything. Access will be open and expanded in relation to the degree to which content and context are integrated.” Where, when, and how often individuals leave their fingerprints on data and documents is important.

Open access also has to do connecting the general public to a larger context for understanding evolving news. Citing astronomy as an example of a discipline that has steadily gained public mindshare over time he said, “We have not begun to plumb the depths of public interest in science.” He envisions a system that might connect news articles with current research and government policies. Particularly because the public funds scientific research, and should reap the benefits of that investment by being able to understand how discoveries relate to events in their lives.

“What you have is only as good as the secret you keep,” suggested Willensky in referring to quality as an “exuberant irrationality” in evalutating the scholarly journal economy. “There is no relation between quality and price. We need alternative economic models to break the guild notion.”

Focusing on metrics for the quality of knowledge he suggested several issues that need to be addressed to create true open access:

• Openness at the data level

• Adequate curation

• Interoperability

• Legal issues

Willensky concluded by presenting three principles that should guide open access intitiatives into the future:

1. A focus on human rights, as defined by Eleanor Roosevelt in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

2. Attention to preserving and expanding the right to know, particularly as it pertains to participation by countries and individuals in the developing world.

3. Maintaining academic freedom by allowing for the transparency of knowledge and processes.