I'm helping to think through a conference in "open access". One idea I'm having is that in Inclusion there is a tension between integrating those already with us, and reaching out to those aren't yet. I appreciate our thoughts.

Andrius http://www.ms.lt

I think that Inclusion is the key purpose of Open Access.

So perhaps a key theme for your conference could be "Open Access: Strategies for Inclusion". My thought is that often our wish for inclusion pulls us in different directions:

- We want to make more content available by encouraging commercial creators. - We want to make content available to more people by acknowledging multidimensional economics ("work for free") or gift economics rather than simply requiring cash payment.

- We want to have more authors (and publishers) make their work available and so we acknowledge them and their wishes. - We want to make work available in more forms and so we encourage collective reuse without restriction.

- We want to have more students able to learn by developing structured learning programs and environments. - We want to allows more people to teach (themselves), develop learning environments, and so we encourage self-learning.

- We want to have standardized qualifications that allow students and teachers to transfer freely across systems for school and work. - We want to find ways to integrate people and so we want portfolio-based evaluations so we can truly appreciate their capabilities.

- We want to have nurturing, sheltering learning environments (and academic disciplines) where people can orient themselves within a particular academic culture. - We want to allow for the "freedom to organize" and "social hacking" that breaks down walls between institutions and disciplines and allows for exchange of ideas.

- We want to follow as leaders those who are able to get things done with all sectors of our society. - We want to invest in leaders who give of themselves to the Public Domain.

- We want to use and develop technologies that give us as much information as possible. - We should use and develop technologies that allow the widest variety of people to participate.

All of these dilemmas are issue of defining "inclusion". And there are more. If we might describe these strategic tensions, then speakers at the conference could talk about how they address one or more of them. We could also have a practical aim at the conference of hammering out solutions - good practices - that for each issue allow for a spectrum of solutions, and let us appreciate them. I think the basic tension is that, in order to be more inclusive - should we focus on better integrating some, or better reaching out to more?

Andrius