Annual Report 2003

January 23, 2004

On behalf of the Directors of the Alliance for Innovation in Scientific and Technical Information, I am pleased to submit the 2003 Annual Report.

In February of 2003 we held a second workshop with Jude Heimel and learned her highly directed approach to accomplishing goals. We developed a financial policy and incorporated. We held our first meeting in Washington D.C. in the spring. Looking back on that trip, I was pleasantly surprised to learn how dynamic AISTI was as an organization. The group was introduced to dSpace in the summer and Rick Luce presented ideas about new ways to configure ourselves and evolve our organization. Finally, the mini-conference has grown into a highly productive introduction to initiatives taken by digital libraries in the U.S. and Canada.

Two themes which we touched upon this year have relevance to larger, web-based innovations: the "copyleft" movement (where intellectual property is licensed so that it cannot be sold) and peer production (as opposed to monetary or market-based production).

Throughout the year we struggled with the dilemmas inherent in carrying out a collaborative project; specifically, to build an AISTI eprint server. A grant to begin the project was awarded in early 2002 and by 2003 we began to recognize how difficult implementation is. Not only did each AISTI member face the institutional barriers to cooperating by supplying content (what Jackie Stack called "upstairs" issues), but project administrators ("downstairs" to use Jackie's excellent metaphor) found it difficult to herd the disparate membership. These challenges will continue with us in 2004.

It was a pleasure to serve as chair and be an active part of such an innovative, flexible, evolving organization.

Margaret Alexander, Librarian
AISTI Chairperson 2002, 2003
Santa Fe Institute
1399 Hyde Park Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-946-2707
505-982-0565 fax
mba@santafe.edu