First the logistics, the conference is in Bíó Paradís, Hverfisgata 54, 101 Reykajvik. Here is the link to the site and here is the Facebook Event Page. I planned to attend this conference but unfortunately, have a whole bunch of meetings and commitments that I cannot get out of is preventing me from participating. There is an event in Faktory in the evening, maybe I will go there. The speaker line up looks interesting, however I have a problem with conferences like this, here is my rant… there is no stated purpose, why this is important or why I should attend or for that matter why should anyone attend this conference. I have a lot of respect for Academic work but they seem to miss the point in most things. I don’t even know if people understand what Open Access means and how it is related to what they do everyday… I did what any self respecting researcher should do… Googled it and of course my savior was Wikipedia

Open Access (OA) is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. OA is also increasingly being provided to theses, scholarly monographs and book chapters.[1]

Maybe its just me, should this not be the norm? why would you not publish your work right away and get feedback right away? I guess this is the Customer Development mentality that I think we need to bring into Academia, oh, well, we cannot change everything. I will try my best to participate and support the initiative.

Here is the schedule:

09:00 Coffee and registration
09:30 – 10:30 Keynote: Open Access in Europe: how is it progressing? – Alma Swan, SPARC Europe
10:30 – 10:50 Open access to scientific research data, Guðmundur Þórisson, University of Iceland
10:50 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 – 11:35 Iceland’s participation in OpenAIREplus – Sólveig Þorsteinsdóttir, National University Hospital
11:40 – 12:00 Open Access and the Research Funds at Rannís – Hallgrímur Jónasson, Rannís

12:00 – 13:00 Award Ceremony and Lunch

13:00 – 13:50 Lightning talks organized by Hakkavélin
14:00 – 15:00 Keynote: Before and After SOPA – Glyn Moody, freelance journalist
15:00 – 15:20 Accused of thievery by FTT – Dagþór S. Haraldsson
15:20 – 15:50 Coffee break (30 minutes)
15:50 – 16:10 The Full Potential of the Internet – Jonas Öberg
16:15 – 16:35 Ebooks and accessibility – Birkir Gunnarsson
16:40 – 17:00 Mining for freedom in the european institutions – Stefan Marsiske