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RedSevenOne - September 13th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

15 January, 2016 - 09:27
Available under Creative Commons-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/f6522dce-7e2b-47ac-8c82-8e2b72973784@7.2

The 'Except for those without a boat,' argument has been a long standing one in many fields. 'We cannot', more often 'Will not' help 'X' until 'Y' happens. I have always practiced the 'Build it and they will come.' model which has served our whole endeavor well.

    As an analogy, allow me to relate a story which occurred some years ago: There was a toxic spill on the Fraser River in British Columbia which result in a major fish kill. When the situation got to court two years later it was at a time when a large number of the plaintiffs in the case were out on the fishing grounds and could not attend the hearing. The counsel for the defense attempted to delay the proceedings which did not sit well with the judge who heard about, and the ordered the implementation of a very unique, for its time, 1975, solution. A network was set up using the Environment Canada Weatherfax network which distributed the daily reports from the court and allowed the plaintiffs to then advise counsel.

    While this example is not directly related to Open Access, it illustrates that if the initiative is taken on one end, it will be met on the other. As I said before, Camp One exist because Open Access exists and not having a level field of access is no reason for not providing it, as the ROARMAP is a testament to.