World Intellectual Property Organization Secretariat, Dissemination of Patent Information, report to the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (Geneva, March 23-27, 2009). From the executive summary: See also Sisule F. Musungu, Commentary on WIPO’s Study on Dissemination of Patent Information, Ideas in Development, March 25, 2009.

The Concept Web Alliance launched earlier this month.

Yesterday 10 major science organizations issued a joint statement (in German) explaining the rudiments of OA and reaffirming that OA does not violate copyright or interfere with the freedom of publication.  Read it in German or Google's English. The joint statement is an answer to the objections and misunderstandings of the Heidelberg Appeal, a sign-on petition against Google Books and OA launched earlier this week.

NASA and Microsoft to Make Universe of Data Available to the Public, press release, March 24, 2009. See also this related press release on WorldWide Telescope. WorldWide Telescope is available OA as a Windows download or on the Web with Microsoft's Silverlight software.

The Open Access Directory (OAD) just opened a list of Early OA journals for community editing.  The list covers peer-reviewed OA journals launched in or before 1993.  Remember that OAD is a wiki. You can help the cause by adding or revising entries to the OAD lists.

Lots of online chatter about the JISC annual conference, Opening Digital Doors (Edinburgh, March 24, 2009): Conference presentations Posts from the event blog and across the Web See especially notes on the open access session by Joe Wilson and Owen Stephens

Here are some more comments on MIT's OA mandate from the press and blogosphere.

Peter Murray-Rust, Would the NIH policy destroy the ACS?, A Scientist and the Web, March 25, 2009.

Peter Brantley is the new Director of the Internet Archive.  He has been the Executive Director of the Digital Library Federation. He's also often quoted on this blog.  Congratulations, Peter!

Molly Redden, Kevin Donovan talks about Students for Free Culture at Georgetown, Vox Populi, March 23, 2009.

Overlay journal infrastructure for Meteorological Sciences was a JISC-funded project which ended February 28. (Thanks to Branwen Hide.) See also the project site and this poster on the project.