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"Indeed, I felt that they looked set to exemplify the old adage that the sum of some phenomena is always greater than the constituent parts. But if that was right, I wondered, what was the sum in this case?

"I was also intrigued as to why they were emerging now. For while it was apparent that these movements — including Open Source and Free software, Creative Commons, Free Culture, Open Access, Open Content, Public Knowledge, Open Data, Open Source Politics, Open Source Biology, and Open Source Journalism etc. — all owed a great debt to the development of the Internet, it was not clear to me that the network was the only driver.

"The genesis of the Free Software Movement, for instance, could be said to lie in the specific culture of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT in the 1970s, rather than the Internet. And at that time software programs were still generally written as part of large-scale centralised projects, and distributed on floppy disks or tapes. So I suspected that the Internet was not a sufficient explanation on its own.

"Additionally, I was curious about the individuals who had founded these movements: What had motivated them? Why did they feel so passionate about the cause that they had adopted? What did they think the various movements had in common (if anything) with one another? What was the big picture?

"All in all, it seemed to me to be good material for a book; a book that I envisaged would consist primarily of a series of Q&A interviews with the key architects and advocates of what I had come to call the Free Knowledge movement — people like John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, Michael Hart, Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Linus Torvalds, Jay Rosen, Lawrence Lessig, Joe Trippi, Harold Varmus, Vitek Tracz, Stevan Harnad, Paul Ginsparg, Cory Doctorow, Yochai Benkler, Richard Jefferson, Michel Bauwens etc.

"I eventually started publishing the interviews on my blog, as The Basement Interviews. And much to my pleasure I began to receive positive feedback almost immediately. I also felt the big picture was beginning to emerge, although the project remains ongoing for now.

"Many of those who have contacted me have urged me to seek out a publisher. A publisher, they insist, would be able to market the interviews in ways that — whatever the advantages of self-publishing on the Web — I was not able to do. Besides, they added, it would be great to have access to a print copy of the collected interviews.

"Others were less sure. As one reader who emailed me put it, "Now the interviews are in the blogosphere they will surely find their own audience."

"What do you think? I'd be interested to hear. I'd also be interested for suggestions as to who is missing from my list of interviewees. Who else, that is, do you think of as a key architect or advocate for the Free Knowledge movement that has not been mentioned here? I can be contacted at richard.poynder@btinternet.com

"Further details about The Basement Interviews can be accessed here

"The interviews thus far can be read by clicking on the links below:"

     1. Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg
     2. Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software movement
     3. Eric Raymond, a co-founder of the Open Source Initiative
     4. Jay Rosen, a leading proponent of Open Source journalism
     5. Lawrence Lessig, the founder of the Free Culture movement
     6. Cory Doctorow, a cyber activist and specialist in copyright and digital rights management
     7. Vitek Tracz, the first Open Access publisher
     8. Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate, a co-founder of the Public Library of Science, a former director of the US National Institutes of Health and now one of the co-chairs of the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the Obama administration.
     9. Richard Jefferson, the leading advocate for the Biological Open Source Movement
    10. Stevan Harnad, the self-styled archivangelist
    11. Peter Suber, the de facto leader of the Open Access movement
    12. Michel Bauwens, the creator of the Foundation for P2P Alternatives

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Richard Poynder writes about information technology, telecommunications, and intellectual property. In particular, he specialises in online services; electronic information systems; the Internet; Open Access; e-Science and e-Research; cyberinfrastructure; digital rights management; Creative Commons; Open Source Software; Free Software; copyright; patents, and patent information.

Richard Poynder has contributed to a wide range of specialist, national and international publications, and edited and co-authored two books: Hidden Value and Caught in a Web, Intellectual Property in Cyberspace. He has also contributed to radio programmes.

January 1^st 2009

Dear Professors,

It is with great pleasure that we note your recent appointments in the new US administration. The appointment of yourselves, together with other prestigious scientists to advise on energy, the environment, health and conservation issues, so critical to the planet, is extremely encouraging to scientists everywhere. We write as Trustees of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development¹, working with developing country scientists and publishers to promote equality of access to essential research publications, and wish you well in your endeavours.

The resolution, through science, of urgent global problems is a priority for the safety and economic progress of all nations, yet cannot be achieved by any country in isolation. We write to you, therefore, to urge you to ensure that access to publicly funded research is free to all potential users, particularly to those in low economy regions where the costs of commercial journals are prohibitive, yet where the problems are most severely felt. Without an international perspective on disease control, climate change and other global problems, there will always be limited success, since scientific knowledge in the developing world is a crucial element to the implementation of appropriate and sustainable solutions.

The international movement towards the twin approaches to achieving free and open access to research findings² – open access institutional repositories (current total 1239)³ holding deposits of published, peer-reviewed articles, plus open access peer-reviewed journals (current total 3812)⁴ – is already well established. These collectively provide open access to several million refereed published research articles. Additionally, there are now 31 open access mandates from universities and research institutions requiring the deposit of their own research article output, whether institutionally or externally funded, in their own institutional repositories, as well as 30 open access mandates from major research funding organisations⁵ requiring the deposit of articles arising from their financial support.

As measurement tools become established, the usage of such material is now seen to be spectacularly high, indicating the very real need for access to research previously locked in high-priced journals, accessible only to those able to afford them.

It remains of great importance, now that the groundwork is laid, that these developments are supported and extended to all research in every discipline. Already the NIH Open Access mandate exists, together with other mandates in the USA, in Europe (including the European Research Council and 6 of the 7 UK Research Councils), Asia, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, many requiring deposit of research publications in low cost and interoperable Institutional Repositories. Barack Obama’s CTO forum requesting proposals for top priorities for the administration ranks access to publicly funded research information as the 12^th most important, as of today. It is clear from this widespread activity that there is universal support by the global research community for the free exchange of essential scientific information and data, accelerating progress and enabling advantage to be taken of powerful new web technology.

We write in the hope that you will be able to use your good offices to ensure the adoption of Open Access policies by all federal agencies, thus encouraging further equivalent policy adoptions throughout the world. Environmental protection, the cure and treatment of malaria, HIV/AIDS, the containment of emerging new infectious diseases, the conservation of biodiversity and energy are all urgent issues particularly affecting the low economy regions. They cannot be solved without international scientific cooperation, depending as it must on free and open access to research publications.

We wish you much success in your new appointment and urge that the wider needs of the developing world will be high on your list of priorities. Open Access to research findings by mandated deposit in Institutional Repositories is a very low cost and achievable aim with disproportionately large benefits.

With our good wishes for 2009 and your future work,

Sincerely yours,

Barbara Kirsop, Secretary/Trustee,

On behalf of Trustees of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development

EPT - Electronic Publishing Trust for Development and EPT Blog