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From the February SPARC Open Access Newsletter, by Peter Suber Every research funding agency should have an OA policy, many already do, and most are probably thinking about it.  Here's a guide to the major decisions which come up in framing a new policy, reviewing an older one, or thinking about policies elsewhere.  Peter Suber starts with the choice-points facing funding agencies (1-12), and then look briefly at the choice-points which only arise for universities (13-18).  He offers a recommendation for each. 

A grapple with how such funds should be administered.

Save the Libraries. Cut University Funding Instead. - Interesting argument

Seth Godin takes a novel approach to self-publishing - thinking about promotion and distribution at the beginning of the process - and finds funding through KickStarter.

In 2007 the JISC national e-books observatory project was set up to undertake market research to help e-book publishers, aggregators, libraries and funding bodies understand the behaviours of e-book users and to assess the impact of free at-the-point of use course text e-books on traditional print sales to students

This week, California took a big step forward in open-source education. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a proposal to create a website that will allow students to download popular textbooks for free. The legislation contains two bills: One, a proposal for the state to fund 50 open-source digital textbooks, targeted to lower-division courses, which will be produced by California's universities. The other bill is a proposal to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host those books.

Conventional wisdom says that entrepreneurs who start a Web-based business will do so with VC money. Read enough stories of Internet ventures that enjoy lucrative exits in the millions (in some cases billions) of dollars, and it's easy to assume that the only path to success is to begin by securing deals with investors who are far less interested in helping a start-up build a substantial brand as they are in realizing a return as quickly as possible. Bootstrapping simply isn't sexy anymore. But for many start-up publishers, bootstrapping is a way of life, and VC money isn't an option.

October 14 is Open Access day. Co-sponsored by the Public Library of Science, open access is gaining ground, but PLOS, SPARC, and Students for FreeCulture are hoping to get a little boost with this first OA Day.

GP Taylor is one of self-publishing's success stories. The former vicar sold his motorbike to fund the first print run of his children's novel Shadowmancer; its popularity, driven by the author's tireless campaigning, led to a publishing deal with Faber & Faber and a career as a New York Times bestselling author. What used to be seen as a last resort is fast becoming the most successful trend in writing.