Tomorrow (May 1, 2010) Google will turn off FTP updating for Blogger.  The old FTP-based Blogger blogs can migrate to a new Google-hosted site where FTP won't be necessary.

I just mailed the April issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter . This issue reviews some reader-suggested verbs to replace "to provide OA to". The roundup section briefly notes 117 OA developments from March.

The word contest in my March newsletter is generating some enthusiastic responses.  In the first 24 hours, I've received 79 suggestions from 16 people.

I just mailed the March issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter .  This issue takes a close look at how "market-oriented" economic sectors differ from "mission-oriented" sectors, and where scholarly publishing belongs on this spectrum.  The roundup section briefly notes 112 OA developments from February.

Happy birthday to the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which is eight years old today.

Prepping for your Graduate Record Exams? Here's a sample essay topic from a GRE study guide: See GRE Exam 2009 Edition Comprehensive Program , Kaplan Publishing, June 2008, p. 231.

I just mailed the February issue of the SPARC Open Access Newsletter .  This issue takes a close look at four analogies between the political fortunes of open access and the political fortunes of clean energy.  The roundup section briefly notes 116 OA developments from January.

The public comment period on the Obama administration's consultation on OA for federally-funded research expires this Wednesday.  The original deadline was January 7, but was extended until January 21. If you haven't already submitted a comment, use your weekend to write one and send it off no later than Wednesday.  You can submit your comment by email or through the OSTP blog.

Now that Gavin has departed, and my time is still occupied with other OA work, what will become of Open Access News? To understand my answer, first allow me to recap a little history.  When Gavin came aboard two years ago, there was already more OA news than one person could cover alone, and with his help we made a substantial gain on adequacy.  But soon there was too much news for two people to cover together.

Gavin Baker joined Open Access News as assistant editor in February 2008, two weeks shy of two years ago.  When he started, there was already too much news for me to cover alone.  His help was indispensable to the blog and to me personally.  After July 2009, when I took a new position and had to curtail my own blogging, he carried virtually the whole, still-growing load at OAN on his own.

For the past two years, my work on Open Access News has been funded by SPARC. My funding ends today, and with it my tenure at OAN. I'll leave it to Peter to say what becomes of OAN from here. The Open Access Tracking Project, which we launched last year, continues.