http://elgg.ell.aau.dk/ryberg/weblog/353.html

I think this is very important! Ensuring free and open access to publicly funded or EU-funded research. If you agree you can sign a petition here: It calls for open access to journal articles and so on after half a year after the publication date. I think this is very important - not only to the general public in EU but certainly also for universities in developing countries who might not have the financial capacity to pay for the subscription to some of the scientific journals. The Journals are owned by very large publishers Elsevier, Sage, Blackwell etc. who have almost a monopoly through buying out smaller publishers.

It seems prices are unreasonable and from what I have read in the Danish paper Information (information.dk) the Norwegian University Libraries have now stopped their subscription to some journals and I mean - it is not like Norway is a poor country!!!

It also seems to be an all-in-all very strange systems - the public pay to universities, who hire researcher to do research for the benefit of society...now all these researchers publish their work in journals, who then the university - and hence the general public - have to pay s**t-loads for purchasing the journal articles...so not only do the public pay to have researchers doing work - they also pay so that the researchers can actually get access to what they are producing...do think that's a strange system...well - sign the petition straight away.

Now, journals do have a role to play - or rather - the process of peer-reviewing has a role to play. This is basically essential for research...but actually I act as a reviewer for a journal...I have never been paid for this work! I wonder how many journals that basically rely on the free work of researchers doing peer-reviews?

I don't see why the peer-reviewing process can't be funded by alternatives to journal e.g. every university in the world could grant time to their researchers for doing reviews...or the money that the libraries spend on purchasing access to the journals could be used to pay academics for doing the peer-reviews? 

Maybe, you would say - well, there needs to be commercial options and privately owned journals - else the quality will wither and fall...Well, I guess that was the argument people would use against - say Wikipedia, Linux, Moodle, Elgg and the thousands of other really cool and good open content or open source systems out there... but I am still a young, idealistic researcher - so let me hear any counter-arguments you might have!

http://elgg.ell.aau.dk/ryberg/weblog/356.html

I think what we really need is an idiot-proof shield. Apparently the Danish Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs want Denmark to invest in a new missile shield (as proposed by the US). The missile shield is especially targeted at various terrorist groups sending of single missiles. As the minister of foreign affair expresses the need (I'll try to translate the profoundly stupid tone)

"If one can be put in a situation, where you're secured from getting a missile in your head, then I wouldn't mind being in that situation" Per Stig Møller (K) - Source 

Yes, we're trying to defend ourselves against those well-known terrorist who set up missile launch pads in the midst of Europe, fire one missile (well, this will now be history with the magnificent missile shield). We of course all benefit greatly from this!?!?! - some more than others; and the latter are the weapons manufacturers. We have already spent 2 billion Kroner in our little Iraq adventure, which have cost the lives of more than 500.000 Iraqi people, but this of course have paid off well. A few days ago I read that Danish Weapons Systems manufacturer Therma now need to hire 400 people in the city of Grenå (which the mayor is really happy about). Now of course we need to invest in missile shields as well (so future terrorists are kindly asked not to use home-made bombs put in bags or put chemicals in the water - please use to no-go option of firing expensive and hard-to-get missiles). Yes, we need an idiot (or greed) proof shield...I really feel like Lisa Simpson after Homer has lobbied for an expensive Bear Patrol (first bear in Springfield ever):

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.
Lisa: That’s specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn’t work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It’s just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don’t see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

Just to add a note - after fighting off the bear and having spent all their money on a "high-tech rock", the people of Springfield find a new reason for their sudden lack of funds - the immigrants...well, that is no solution for Denmark - been there, done that and got the filthy, morally stained T-shirt - (we wont even give asylum to the Iraqi translators that have helped out the Danish Military (that's 20 persons)...but they will probably be just fine...!?). Sweden has given asylum to 9000 Iraqi people (out of four million that are refugees - 2 internally in Iraq) - Denmark has given asylum to 13 people...but as the Prime Minister says, when confronted with a question of if we don't have a moral obligation to help people in Irag - "well, we're not the one's killing people"...Big Kudos to the Swedes - you guys rock! And Denmark...well, fair to say "There is something rotten in the state of Denmark"

http://elgg.ell.aau.dk/ryberg/weblog/385.html

"This week, the environment ministers from the world's biggest contributors to climate change will be meeting in Germany. The outcome of this meeting will play a critical role in determining the world's response to global warming. We will be presenting this petition to the chair of this meeting, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel at 4pm on Thursday 15 March in Potsdam. To have maximum impact we need to get as many signatures as possible before then. Please add your voice now!"

You can sign the petition here » 

http://elgg.ell.aau.dk/ryberg/weblog/406.html

I'm just testing out the FireFox add-on ScribeFire, which is:

ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.

Actually it should say "to your blogs" as ScribeFire can handle multiple blogs and accounts. There is a nifty, little guide where you can just paste in the link of your blog and the ScribeFire chooses a way to communicate with the blog (so you don't have to choose some weblog-api yourself). It immediately found the correct API for Elgg and it has even imported all my community blogs as well...I guess this must equally be kudos to the elgg-developers...but I am not very knowledgeable about blog-APIs.

But it really looks like it is a very nifty tool!!


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