OpenCon Dhaka, 2018

Open Access Movement for Open Data, Education and Research

Published : 18 Feb 2018, 15:04

Jagoroniya Desk

The International Conference, OpenCon, Dhaka-2018 by the Open Access Bangladesh was held on February 17, 2018 in Daffodil International University Auditorium. In this meeting top researchers from the country and SAARC region spoke in front of the early career researchers by emphasizing on use of the Open Access data, education and research. The first session was dedicated to early career researchers and students. In this session Professor Dr. Swapna Banrjee from Calcutta University, Prof. Dr. S. M. Zabed Ahmed from Dhaka university, Imtiaz Hasan from Rajshahi University, Dr. Touhid Bhuiyan from Daffodil University and Prof. Moinuddin Chowdhury from Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) attended as a panel speaker.

In the second and closing session Mr. N M Zeaul Alam, Secretary, Cabinet Division, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh was present as a Chief Guest. In his speech, the secretary said that, Bangladesh Government has taken a number of initiatives for open data flow. For the free flow of data a number of laws were established. Among those laws he named “Right to information Act” and “Whistle blower Protection Act”. He also emphasized that private initiatives like Open Access Movement may speed up the government’s mission for achieving the targets of digital Bangladesh.

Besides the Secretary, The Vice Chancellor of Daffodil International University were present as a special guest. Professor KMA Bari, Professor Dr. Helaluddin Ahmed- Chairman and Head of Dhaka University MIS department, Mr. Mustafizur Rahman- Head of Innovation (a2i) and Abdul Quayum- renowned science writer and journalist; were present as a panel guest speakers of second session. 

The convener of Open Access Bangladesh Mr. Kanok Monirul Islam said,Throughout the globe governments provide most of the funds for research—hundreds of billions of dollars annually—and public institutions employ a large portion of all researchers. Open Access is working to bring out the result of this investment and expectation to the widest possible people. 

He also said, Even though research is largely produced with public dollars by researchers who share it freely, the results are hidden behind technical, legal, and financial barriers. These artificial barriers are maintained by legacy publishers and restrict access to a small fraction of users, locking out most of the world’s population and preventing the use of new research techniques.

To be noted that, The open-access movement is a coalition of global activists that aims to bring down the sufficient flow of data, education tutorials and scholarly publishing and replace it with voluntarism and other nonprofits. It started in the early 90s following conferences in Berlin, Bethesda, and Budapest. 

This global, non-political, knowledge based, philanthropic movement is to promote online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g. access tolls) and free of many restrictions on use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Now, it’s more of an institution than a social movement. 

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