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Analysis: Open Access Out of the Shadows – Now What?

by Matt Rosenberg January 23rd, 2013

There’s an essential piece missing from the blizzard of news and commentary on the tragic recent suicide of Internet hacktivist Aaron Swartz, who was reportedly distraught at a looming federal prosecution for downloading without permission through the network of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about four million academic articles from the subscription fee-based JSTOR database. Open access to scientific research not only helps degreed experts collaborate in their own languages; it is a building block to a better informed citizenry. But capitalizing on its value to the broader society takes focus, effort, and support.

Swartz faced up to 30 years on 13 felony counts, although prosecutors had reportedly offered a plea-bargain that would have yielded only a few months in prison, writes Yale Law School researcher Adam Cohen in Time. However Cohen adds that Swartz bristled at having to accept the status of a felon because what he did was to serve the broader public. Meanwhile, the affair has vaulted the seemingly rarified subject of open access publishing into the spotlight. There could be no better time to examine the pay-wall model Swartz fought – as well as the flip side – which is that the reach of open access is already growing. We also have to consider who should be doing what with this stuff, once it is made public in full and for free. Crucial is the role of an engaged and networked news eco-sphere that cares about science and its impact on the human condition.

MOVE maps digital stories on diet, smoking in King County

by Matt Rosenberg October 24th, 2011

Almost 70 digital stories on healthy diet, obesity prevention and smoking prevention from Seattle and King County residents are mapped online at a new web site called Mapping Our Voices For Equality (MOVE). Featured are digital personal narratives on healthy eating in challenging surroundings, teens learning healthy cooking, finding low-cost exercise opportunities, preventing smoking in shared public spaces, and related topics. The initiative stems from a program developed by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control (CDC).

An easy mapping interface at the site lets users scan the region, then click on locations and view digital stories and videos developed by community members with the assistance of local organizations including Sea Mar, Creative Narrations, Entre Hermanos, Puget SoundOff, International Community Health Services, the REACH Coalition and the government agency Public Health – Seattle and King County. Currently, 69 stories are mapped and more are coming according to organizers. (Stories are found on the map by clicking on large icons and small multi-colored dot clusters which reveal more icons; also, all are indexed at the site’s “stories” page.)

In the Kitchen of FEEST from Mapping Voices on Vimeo.

MOVE arises from a federally-funded campaign called Communities Putting Prevention To Work (CPPW) originated by the CDC which enlists grassroots resources to develop and spread messages counteracting obesity and smoking. Both are major health risks in lower-income neighborhoods. The MOVE site also includes resources for learning, action, and developing new stories.

In a statement, MOVE Project Manager Natasha Freidus said that through the Web site of mapped stories local residents “have become more involved in creating positive changes for their communities while learning new technologies.” Added Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County, “MOVE provides a forum for voices from the community as well as a visually interesting way to capture the exciting changes that are happening in King County” around public health awareness and community engagement. The map has a customizable “changes” view that lets users explore the policy changes that have occurred in King County on healthy eating and fighting obesity and smoking as a result of CPPW’s work.

MOVE has scheduled three community forums this autumn to highlight involvement in obesity and smoking prevention awareness and action. Residents will present the MOVE story map and digital stories, along with their policy priorities, to panels of elected officials. The first of the three events is “International District on the MOVE” Friday October 28 at Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific-American Experience, 719 S. King Street, Seattle. It will include neighborhood tours, free entry to the “From Fields to Family” exhibit at 3 p.m. and a community forum at 4 p.m.

Public Data Ferret’s Public Health archive

Editor’s note: Public Data Ferret or its “mother blog” site Social Capital Review periodically cover community group or non-profit news. Contact matt(at)publiceyenorthwest(dot)org.

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“Renewed civics education” theme of City Club outreach

by Matt Rosenberg October 4th, 2011

The non-partisan non-profit Seattle City Club has launched its 2011 Community Matters Campaign with a special focus on reinvigorating civics education and citizenship. There are online surveys and games, exploration of state and local ballot measures at The Living Voters Guide, plus discussion groups and public forums. City Club explains, at its Community Matters Campaign page:

City Club and Guiding Lights Network are launching an initiative to revitalize civics education because, currently, it’s absent from most students’ school experience. We feel this is a serious problem for our democracy. We’re committed to advocate and develop programming for renewed civics education, but we need your help to create a smart platform for what it should look like. The community input we receive from this year’s Community Matters Campaign will directly inform that platform….Our goal is to create dialogue, buzz and inspiration to act; to engage our whole community with the data, urgency and opportunity for positive change, and as a result, to develop a more engaged community.

You can start by answering three questions in the “Great Citizenship Survey” that’s available online and open until November 17.

The survey questions are:

“What inspires you to be involved in your community?”

“What does a great citizen do?”

“Did you receive any formal civics education?” (Yes/No)

The 2011 Community Matters Campaign also includes “The Great Citizenship Game,” available online. You’re asked to rate the relative importance of nine citizenship components: knowing how government works; knowing American history; understanding media; listening skills; cultural responsiveness; verbal and persuasive skills; collaboration/negotiation skills; ability to foster change; and leadership/empowerment capabilities.

To get an idea of why being engaged and informed actually matters, City Club has a brief quiz on civics education here.

The 2011 Community Matters Campaign includes offline, face-to-face components. You can sign up to attend facilitated 60-minute dialogs that will harvest perspectives on how best to enrich civics education and community engagement. You may also register to attend any of the three remaining public forums on health care, elections, and engagement.

In an interview, City Club Executive Director Diane Douglas said, “A lot of people have felt intense frustration with the gridlock in Washington, D.C. As the elections of 2011 and 2012 approach we all need an antidote to the vitriol we hear all around us. People are yearning for a more civil discourse. It’s time to reboot and repair, to mine the wisdom of the community about the skills and values need to return to a citizenship that’s about listening, constructive action and mutual benefit.”

A final report from City Club detailing community recommendations for renewed civics education is expected to be available by the first quarter of 2012.

RELATED: City Club publications archive.

New UW study assesses “net benefits” in African malaria fight

by Matt Rosenberg September 21st, 2011

SUMMARY: Working with U.S. and African colleagues, researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation, in Seattle, integrated data from several dozen qualifiying health surveys in malaria-prone Sub-Saharan Africa and found that the use of Insecticide-Treated Nets helped actually reduce parasitemia and death in young children to a significantly greater degree than previously estimated in clinical trials. Their research, recently published in a peer-reviewed “open access” (online, free) medical journal and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, concludes that the use of the treated nets should be continued and expanded in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the bulk of the world’s one million annual deaths from the parasitic disease of malaria occur.

Seattle-based EarthCorps teaches stewardship to the world

by Administrator September 1st, 2011

Editor’s note: Public Data Ferret’s “mother blog” site Social Capital Review periodically profiles noteworthy nonprofits or community initiatives with ties to our base coverage area of Western Washington.

By Scott Patton

You already know that Washington’s extensive trail network serves tens of thousands of annual users. But you may not know that it’s also a training ground for 15,000 volunteers a year from all over the globe, who learn outdoor stewardship from the local non-profit EarthCorps, headquartered off Sand Point Way in Northeast Seattle next to Magnuson Park.

On a recent summer weekend, EarthCorps member and crew leader A.J. Velon was helping move rocks that weigh hundreds of pounds to build a turnpike on the Snoqualmie Lake Trail. The Snoqualmie Lake camp used by the crew is an eight mile hike from a fairly remote trail head. The crew of six included participants from Kazakhstan, Peru, and Fiji. The work starts everyday at 7:30 am and goes until 5:00 pm and consists of tasks ranging from repairing campsites, to repairing trails and building drainage structures. This goes on for 11 days.

Georgetown, Seattle startup accents mapped, crowd-sourced story lines

by Matt Rosenberg June 29th, 2011

I’ve been using Intersect since last summer to tell stories, personal and professional. It’s a Web and social media start-up company with offices located in the McKinstry Innovation Center south of downtown Seattle where the SoDo district begins to meet the Georgetown neighborhood, home to a piquant farmers market and some serious outdoor sculpture. Using an embed tool the site offers users, here’s a map – at bottom – of my Intersect stories. Once you open an account and add some stories, you can use easy navigation tools to pull up your map and then if you want, zoom in to, say, a continent, and get embed code of your mapped and linked stories for just that swath. Or your whole map of stories, as I’ve done below.

If you’re exploring someone’s story map on Intersect, or your own, approximate stabs at geography lead to incredibly specific geographic drill-downs. Follow prompts – by clicking on “six stories at this intersection,” or “84 stories at this intersection” etc. – then double-click on a story photo icon to survey a contributor’s stories mapped literally at neighborhood street level. Single-click on a given story photo icon to enter the story. Make sure to use the navigation arrows to explore a contributor’s full map of stories across the globe.

A simple place and time search tool on the main page is another handy tool. Seattle, June 2011? Here’s what you get. London 2010? Texas 2010? Once signed up and signed in (it’s free) – the situational zeitgeist has some collective oomph. Play around a bit and you’ll see.

Intersect’s story-mapping is really an intuitive and engaging use of graphic tools to accent blogged and micro-blogged content and photography, with a potentially big crowd-sourcing function layered in as well. Themed story collections are another prominent feature, one well-suited to use by news organizations and others, as Intersect founder and feature writing Pulitzer Prize-winner Peter Rinearson shows in a recent piece at Neiman Reports, published by the Neiman Foundation For Journalism at Harvard University.

A compendium of commonly adopted keywords for searching major story lines would be a welcome addition, given the current, generally sui generis subject-tagging protocol; special, promoted story themes aside.

Intersect is still figuring out how it will become financially sustainable. In the meantime, consider whether it would be a useful tool for your storytelling or that an employer, non-profit organization, or friend you know.

(Disclosure: I am not now and have never been compensated by Intersect, nor do I have any ownership stake. Just a user; fan; and a friend of Mr. Rinearson. My son is an unpaid intern there this summer).

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