Official Welcome from UdeM and SFU
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Bouchard, Frédéric
Owen, Brian
Official Welcome from UdeM and SFU at the PKP 2017 Conference.
 Welcome to the University of Montreal. Good afternoon. So we're now going to start the official program for our 2017 PKP conference. To get us started we have a few official welcomes and I'd like to call the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montreal up to the podium here. You can't have a conference at the University without having somebody wearing a tie. Now we have two actually going on stage. I just want to say a few words. I'm also, so I'm Dean of Arts and Sciences, but I'm more importantly, I'm Chairman of the Board of Iridzi who is of course deeply involved in development of publishing of scholarly research in Quebec and in Canada. But more importantly, I'm a philosopher. So let me say a few words as a philosopher. You're dealing with issues that are especially whether it's technical or more in terms of principle you're dealing with issues where human beings are especially bad. Human beings are very bad thinking about the future. And you're dealing with the future not just in terms of what's coming next, but in terms of how do we transmit knowledge through generations in a way that is sustainable, whether it's economically or socially or politically. You need to be very forward looking when you're dealing with any issues in the either publication or dissemination of knowledge. And that makes your challenge huge because Homo sapiens is really bad thinking about the future in a constructive way, I should say. We can think about the future, but usually it's not very constructive. And that means you need to convince a lot of people that the tools you're developing or the processes you adopt are worth distributing at large. And that takes me to the fundamental mission of universities. So universities are very good thinking about the very long future. Why? Well, because the fundamental mission is of course the creation and transmission of knowledge, but it's fundamentally about human flourishing. So universities are deeply optimistic. We think that if we co-create, transmit, share knowledge, it's for the betterment of humankind. So that's a noble mission and something that you won't find many enemies. There are very few people saying we're against human flourishing. And those that believe it won't say it or will lie about it, but it's easy to find partners. So this is the place where you're at where you're dealing on temporal frames where the species is maladapted. You're dealing with issues about the future of publishing or the future, more fundamentally the future of knowledge transmission. And that makes it very difficult to deal because human beings are not good at that. But you're dealing within an ecosystem, more importantly universities that are in some sense built to think about the deep future. And I want to end this very impressionistic, philosophical amusing about what you'll be doing with a wish or a hope, and if you work at Université de Montréal, an exhortation. But don't forget the students. So you're dealing with in some sense you'll be talking about economics or you'll be talking about coding, you'll be talking about standards, you will be talking about various aspects of publishing. But keep in mind that if universities are to be the honest partners with what you're doing, it's much easier for deans and for other people wearing ties or boring clothes to get on board if you've got a very clear and powerful story as to how it helps the human flourishing of our students. So this will take different forms depending on the organization you're involved with. But if you can think about how to get more students involved, not necessarily advocacy is nice, it's important. But beyond advocacy, in terms of, you know, do they feel like they own the means of production, or do they feel like they can contribute knowledge in an easier fashion by helping you out, you'll be on much stronger footing with your respective universities or university partners. Because you're talking about the future, you're talking about transmitting knowledge through generations, and you're talking about human flourishing in a very concrete way for universities and that's the human flourishing of our students. So I hope you all have a great meeting and that you share a lot of interesting and subversive thoughts. But don't forget, whether it's in your conversations or in your future plans, how can you better involve students in your projects so it contributes to their human flourishing and to our collective human flourishing. Thank you very much. Thank you, Frederick. By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Brian Owen, the Managing Director of the Public Knowledge Project. But now I'm going to pretend that I'm here on the behalf of Simon Fraser University where I'm the Associate Dean of Libraries at the SFU Library. And as part of that, it's been, I think Frederick was alluding to this PKP and ARUD, and I want to give a big shout out to Tanya and all of the people at ARUD who are co-hosting the conference here in Montreal with us and all of the local arrangements you've been enjoying so far have really been undertaken by ARUD and some of their staff. Is Gwendol anywhere here? He's probably out busy doing something else, but it's been fantastic the support we've gotten from them. But I do want to just sort of disentangle some things because in some ways we've got two very large universities here in Canada that are represented as part of this endeavor, the University of Montreal and Simon Fraser University. At the same time, we've got two very active and significant projects that inhabit that scholarly publishing ecosystem, ARUD, which is housed here at the University of Montreal, and the Public Knowledge Project. And I want to say a little bit about that because in many respects the Public Knowledge Project, we do a lot of our activities in largely a virtual environment. A lot of the people that work on PKP are scattered all around the world. They work in different time zones which presents some interesting challenges, but we're quite accustomed to working in that mode, which means maybe once a year at best we actually get together at events like this and have an opportunity to actually talk face to face. I've met at least four people that have been working with PKP for the past year. This is the first time I saw them in person. And that's great and we really enjoy working in that environment. We have a lot of partners, other academic institutions. They range from some of our big development partners, all of whom are represented here at the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, the Ontario College and University Libraries. We have University of Pittsburgh that's another major partner, and I could take five minutes to list all of the other partners. But the key thing is all of us that are here in one way or another probably have an association with a larger academic institution. I realize I'm not sort of bringing greetings from SFU, but it's a very good opportunity for me just to acknowledge and express our thanks and appreciation for how large academic institutions are often instrumental to how we can conduct projects like this. More often than not, PKP can't just exist purely in a virtual environment. We actually have to deal with the real world. And we've been very fortunate since 2005 at SFU Library, but more generally Simon Fraser University has been willing to provide that home base for us. So all of the mundane and bureaucratic things that we often need to deal with, human resources policies and procedures, financial systems and budgets, procurement, legal details, MOUs, agreements, research grants, it's SFU as an academic institution that provides that home base for us. And that's a really key part of all of our activities. So rather than bringing greetings from SFU, I just wanted to use that as an opportunity to express the appreciation of PKP and I'm sure that AROD has that similar very strong relationship with the University of Dayton, Montreal. So that will conclude the opening comments, but now I'm going to segue to my next role here, which is to introduce our speaker today. And I could get off easy and say, here's a man that needs no introduction and you know who he is, but no, let's not take the fast, cheap, easy way out of here. John Wilinski is the founder and director of the Public Knowledge Project and that goes right back to 1998, which is almost 20 years ago. When John was, no I'm not going to say a modest humble faculty of education professor at University of British Columbia, but nonetheless he was there and that's where the whole genesis of public knowledge and that concept that it was really important that the work that comes out of the academy should be more widely available. That in turn led to what became a very interesting software project. John has continued to be our director and in many ways our visionary and a lot of the things that drive PKP come from John. But he's got a few official designations too. Here's the COSLA Family Professor in the Faculty of Education at Stanford University. Quite coincidentally, and this ties back to my earlier comments about SFU. He just also happens to be a part-time professor in the SFU Publishing School, which is a very critical linkage and part of, again, the important role that SFU plays for us. Probably many of you know John as a very ardent and persistent advocate for open access. John's publication, The Access Principal in 2006 is one of those hallmark monographs that people often quote or reference when they're talking about the development of open access. But John continues to be a scholar. And I'm going to give a plug for his latest monograph that was just published in 2017 by the University of Chicago. And that's the Intellectual Properties of Learning, which is basically a multi-century review of just intellectual foundations, concepts like the comments. So John is more than just the director of PKP. He's a man of many talents. Now we made the mistake possibly when John said, so what am I supposed to talk about today based on past experiences? What the heck? John disguised the limit. We may regret that. I think we did ask, perhaps you could tie in the odd reference to PKP or ARUD or any of the other folks around the room here. And I'm sure you will. So without further introduction John, I will turn the floor over to you. Thank you.
 Welcome to the University of Montreal.  Good afternoon.  So we're now going to start the official  program for our 2017 PKP conference.  To get us started we have a few official welcomes and I'd like to call  the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montreal  up to the podium here.  You can't have a  conference at the University without having somebody wearing a tie. Now we have  two actually going on stage. I just want to say a few words.  I'm also, so I'm Dean of Arts and Sciences, but  I'm more importantly, I'm Chairman of the Board of Iridzi  who is of course deeply involved in development  of publishing of scholarly research  in Quebec and in Canada.  But more importantly, I'm a philosopher. So let me say a few words  as a philosopher.  You're dealing with issues that are especially  whether it's technical or more in terms of principle  you're dealing with issues where human beings are especially  bad. Human beings are very bad  thinking about the future. And you're  dealing with the future not just in terms of what's coming next, but in  terms of how do we transmit knowledge through generations  in a way that is sustainable, whether it's  economically or socially or politically.  You need to be very forward looking when you're dealing with  any issues in the either publication  or dissemination of knowledge. And that makes your  challenge huge because  Homo sapiens is really bad thinking about the future  in a constructive way, I should say. We can think about the future, but  usually it's not very constructive.  And that means you need to convince a lot of people that the tools you're developing  or the processes you adopt  are worth distributing at large.  And that takes me to the fundamental mission of universities.  So universities are very good  thinking about the very long future.  Why? Well, because the fundamental mission is of course  the creation and transmission of knowledge, but it's fundamentally about  human flourishing. So universities are deeply optimistic.  We think that if we  co-create, transmit, share knowledge,  it's for the betterment of humankind. So that's  a noble mission and something that you won't find  many enemies. There are very few people saying  we're against human flourishing. And those that believe it  won't say it or will lie about it,  but it's easy to find partners. So this is the place where you're at  where you're dealing on temporal frames where the species  is maladapted. You're dealing with issues about  the future of publishing or the future, more fundamentally the future  of knowledge transmission. And that makes it  very difficult to deal because human beings are not good at that.  But you're dealing within an ecosystem, more importantly universities  that are in some sense built to think about the deep  future. And I want to end  this very impressionistic, philosophical  amusing about what you'll be doing  with a wish or a hope,  and if you work at Université de Montréal,  an exhortation. But  don't forget the students. So you're dealing with  in some sense you'll be talking about economics or you'll be talking about  coding, you'll be talking about standards, you will be talking about  various aspects of publishing. But keep in mind that  if universities are to be the honest  partners with what you're doing,  it's much easier for deans and for  other people wearing ties or boring clothes  to get on board if you've got a very  clear and powerful story as to how it helps the human  flourishing of our students. So this will take different  forms depending on the organization you're involved with. But  if you can think about how to get more students involved,  not necessarily advocacy is nice, it's important. But beyond  advocacy, in terms of, you know, do they feel like  they own the means of production, or do they feel like they can  contribute knowledge in an easier fashion by helping you  out, you'll be on much stronger footing with  your respective universities or university partners. Because  you're talking about the future, you're talking about  transmitting knowledge through generations,  and you're talking about human flourishing in a very concrete way for universities  and that's the human flourishing of our students. So I hope  you all have a great meeting and that you share a lot  of interesting and subversive thoughts.  But don't forget, whether it's in your conversations or in your  future plans, how can you better  involve students in your projects so it contributes  to their human flourishing and to our collective human flourishing.  Thank you very much.  Thank you, Frederick.  By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Brian Owen, the  Managing Director of the Public Knowledge Project. But now I'm going to pretend  that I'm here on the behalf of Simon Fraser University where I'm the  Associate Dean of Libraries at the SFU Library. And  as part of that, it's been, I think Frederick was alluding to this  PKP and ARUD, and I want to give a big shout out to Tanya and all of the  people at ARUD who are co-hosting the conference here in Montreal with us  and all of the local arrangements you've been enjoying so far have really been  undertaken by ARUD and some of their staff. Is Gwendol anywhere  here? He's probably out busy doing something else, but it's been fantastic  the support we've gotten from them. But I do want to just  sort of disentangle some things because in some ways we've got  two very large universities here in Canada that are represented as part of this  endeavor, the University of Montreal and Simon Fraser University.  At the same time, we've got two very active and significant  projects that inhabit that scholarly publishing ecosystem, ARUD, which is  housed here at the University of Montreal, and the Public Knowledge Project.  And I want to say a little bit about that because in many respects  the Public Knowledge Project, we do a lot of our activities in  largely a virtual environment. A lot of the people that work on PKP  are scattered all around the world. They work in different time zones which presents  some interesting challenges, but we're quite accustomed to working in that  mode, which means maybe once a year at best we actually get together at events  like this and have an opportunity to actually talk face to face.  I've met at least four people that have been working with PKP for the past year.  This is the first time I saw them in person. And that's great and  we really enjoy working in that environment. We have a lot of partners, other academic  institutions. They range from some of our big development partners, all of whom are represented  here at the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta,  the Ontario College and University Libraries. We have University of Pittsburgh  that's another major partner, and I could take five minutes to list all of the other partners.  But the key thing is all of us that are here in one way or another probably have  an association with a larger academic institution.  I realize I'm not sort of bringing greetings from SFU, but it's a very good opportunity  for me just to acknowledge and express our thanks and appreciation  for how large academic institutions are often instrumental  to how we can conduct projects like this. More often  than not, PKP can't just exist purely in a virtual  environment. We actually have to deal with the real world. And we've been very fortunate  since 2005 at SFU Library, but more generally  Simon Fraser University has been willing to provide that home base  for us. So all of the mundane and bureaucratic things that we often need to  deal with, human resources policies and procedures,  financial systems and budgets, procurement, legal details,  MOUs, agreements, research grants, it's SFU  as an academic institution that provides that home base for us.  And that's a really key part of all of our activities. So rather than bringing greetings  from SFU, I just wanted to use that as an opportunity to express the appreciation  of PKP and I'm sure that AROD has that similar very  strong relationship with the University of Dayton, Montreal. So that will  conclude the opening comments, but now I'm going to segue to my next role here, which is to  introduce our speaker today. And I could get off easy and say, here's a man  that needs no introduction and you know who he is, but no, let's not take  the fast, cheap, easy way out of here. John Wilinski  is the founder and director of the Public Knowledge Project and that  goes right back to 1998, which is almost 20 years  ago. When John was, no I'm not going to say a modest  humble faculty of education professor at University of British  Columbia, but nonetheless he was there and that's where the whole genesis  of public knowledge and that concept that it was really important that  the work that comes out of the academy should be more widely available.  That in turn led to what became a very interesting software project.  John has continued to be our director and in many  ways our visionary and a lot of the things that drive PKP come from John.  But he's got a few official designations too. Here's the  COSLA Family Professor in the Faculty of Education at Stanford  University. Quite coincidentally, and this ties back to my  earlier comments about SFU. He just also happens to be a part-time professor  in the SFU Publishing School, which is a very critical linkage  and part of, again, the important role that SFU plays for us.  Probably many of you know John as a very ardent and persistent  advocate for open access. John's publication, The Access  Principal in 2006 is one of those hallmark monographs  that people often quote or reference when they're talking about the development of open access.  But John continues to be a scholar. And I'm going to give a plug for  his latest monograph that was just published in 2017 by the University of Chicago.  And that's the Intellectual Properties of Learning, which  is basically a multi-century review of just  intellectual foundations, concepts like the comments. So John  is more than just the director of PKP. He's a man of many talents. Now we made  the mistake possibly when John said, so what am I supposed to talk about today  based on past experiences? What the heck? John disguised the limit.  We may regret that. I think we did ask, perhaps you could  tie in the odd reference to PKP or ARUD or any of the other folks around  the room here. And I'm sure you will. So without further introduction  John, I will turn the floor over to you.  Thank you.
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