If you are interested in Open Science, the following may be of interest. Chemists Without Borders is hosting a series of conference calls on Open Access, Open Source:

Thursday, April 5 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time / Noon Eastern Time
Heather Joseph: Federal Research Public Access Act
Heather Joseph, Executive Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), will talk about the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). FRPAA is anticipated to be re-introduced this spring. The purpose of this bill is to require all U.S. Federal research granting agencies with portfolios of over $100 million (11 agencies altogether) to develop policies requiring open access to the results of the research they fund. FRPAA has been endorsed by many higher education leaders and the Alliance for Taxpayer Access. Chemists Without Borders is a member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access; should we support FRPAA?
More information about FRPAA can be found on the SPARC website.
As the Executive Director of SPARC, Heather Joseph is very involved in advocacy for FRPAA. Before joining SPARC, Heather worked for many years in the publishing industry, and was formerly Executive Director of the BioOne publishing cooperative.

Thursday, June 7, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time / Noon Eastern Time
Peter Suber: Open Access Questions & Answers
Peter Suber, Open Access Project Director, Public Knowledge Project, author of Open Access News
Peter Suber, one of the world’s leading academics in the area of open access, will join Chemists Without Borders for a question and answer session on any aspect of open access.

Thursday, September 6 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time / Noon Eastern Time
Jean-Claude Bradley: Open Source Chemistry
Chemists Without Borders’ own Jean-Claude Bradley, Coordinator for E-Learning at the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, will talk about the Useful Chemistry approach to open source chemistry, founded by Bradley.

Importantly, you don’t have to be a member of CWB to participate:

Not a member? No problem – contact us and let us know you would like to participate. There is no charge, other than regular long distance rates, to join the teleconference.

I’ve asked, via the web form, whether I might participate in the conference call series; I’ll update this entry when I hear back.

Update as promised: I took part in the July 5 call, and will try to make one of the bi-monthly calls from here on out. Initial impressions are all positive, these are people who are genuinely trying to make the world a better place. If you’re interested in taking part, email me as well as using the web form, since there were a couple of snafus in getting me signed up.