It gives me much pleasure to come across the FORCE11 movement.
I call it a movement as this represents our collective will to embrace the
inevitable future we all must come to. It is better believed on time that it is
not going to be business as usual as technology continues to emerge and ravage
our modern world. So, we must all be proactive and be ready not only to accept the
challenge technology will throw at us but to see how we can adapt to make it
work for us. Although, the newer models of research communication are emerging
yet the pace remains slow as traditional models still hold sway. The Open
access movement is gaining momentum but there is still much to be done. In my
opinion, part of that much left to be done is what FORCE11 has come to
achieve, taking head-on the future of research communication and e-scholarship
to the center burner of scholarly discuss. And we all must join hands;
librarians, researchers, publishers and all stakeholders to do this.
Information and communication technology (ICT) continues to
exact its telling impact on virtually everything. It has not spared
scholarship. Doing research and communicating same has been hugely affected. Going
are the days one had to wait twice a year to see the articles of a biennial
journal or wait a whole year to see the next conference of a scholarly society organized.
The e (electronic-) is taking over.
E-conferences, e-seminars (webinars), e-journals and lots more are taking over
to further underscore the impact of ICT. In fact, with Open Access and complementary
technologies like the Institutional Repository (IR) libraries are even becoming
publishers themselves. The social networking technology has also added a new
twist to the whole show. Academic Social Networks (Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia.Edu,
etc) gaining strength from open access are also expanding the frontier of
research communication in the digital era.
But one other emerging technology that should be considered
for the great impact it will have on e-scholarship and research communication
in times to come are the Virtual Research Environments (VREs). The VREs are
other areas of technology I will like to direct our attention to as we consider
the future of research communication and e-scholarship. The VRE is like an amalgamation
of several technologies like wikis, blogs, and lots more. The VRE handles well
every stage of the research process, from conceptualization to communication.
The VRE, allows, within a digital environment the collaboration of researchers
beyond the limit of physical borders.
The VRE like HubZero, Open Science
Framework (OSF) and others gives room for collective research. They are good
platforms for research collaboration and peer review. In fact, you can see the
contribution of every collaborator to the project or research work within a VRE.
And real life sharing of research findings is possible within the VRE. This is
what I will desire we consider, how the VRE can be used with growing emerging
technologies to take us to the future we are envisaging for research
communication and e-scholarship.
I am a librarian with interest in emerging technologies and
anything e. I am also passionate
about open access. I am a member of the Open Access Week and regular
commemorator of the International Open Access Week since I know about it. I am
equally a PhD student with interest in Institutional repository. I have gone
through the FORCE11 manifesto and convinced that I have a movement to join. Attending
the conference will in no small measure grant me first hand information on the
future of research communication and enable me to abreast of global efforts
being taken in e-scholarship. It will in no doubt enhance my advocacy skill as
a librarian with interest in emerging technology in scholarship. It will also
empower me to mobilize support for the movement in Nigeria and Africa at large.
I hereby desire to be part of the FORCE2016 in Portland and
future activities of the FORCE11 movement.
Kindly consider me for the Travel Fellowship as this will greatly enhance my participation.
The future we can’t avoid is really here; let’s go and consider
the FUTURE of research communication!
Thank you.
