Knowledge is a weapon

Innovation Medal 2016 – Acceptance Speech

Your Honours

the Minister,

the Chairman of the CNRS,

the Presidents and Vice-Presidents,

the Directors of Institutes,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Receiving the Innovation Medal 2016 is, in my eyes, so much more than a personal accolade.

Most of all, it marks the coming-of-age of what is now a twenty-year-old movement, but which has long remained on the sidelines: the open access movement, that is to say digital publishing stripped of any technical, legal or commercial barrier to the reader.

It is also about recognising the crucial role that the humanities and social sciences play in our understanding of the world. Understanding the world in its immense complexity: that is a noble and necessary ambition – both for the mind and for action. Because understanding the world is the first step towards changing it. In these troubled times, more than ever before, knowledge is a weapon – the most noble and pacific of weapons. And OpenEdition is our canon of common ideas.

That applies to all the domains which OpenEdition promotes through its 400 journals on Revues.org, its 3,000 books on OpenEdition Books, its 1,500 research blogs on Hypotheses, and its 30,000 events on Calenda. The field is vast.

From the environmental sciences to the sociology of religions, from sustainable development to communications issues, from the French Journal of Pedagogy to the history of women and gender, from the sociology of work to the study of the relations indigenous peoples have with their environment, from research against poverty to sinology, from research in economics to studies on the transformations of family life, from the study of the Muslim worlds to the anthropology of health, from public ethics to geography, from African studies to rural studies, from American studies to inaugural lectures delivered at the Collège de France … This random sample should whet your appetite. It indicates the fundamental areas of research and the stakes involved when it comes to how society appropriates these results.

But all knowledge would be invisible were it padlocked behind tolls. It would be sterile, restricted to a few oases of knowledge in a desert of ignorance.

Thanks to open access, OpenEdition attracted 30 million unique visitors in 2015, i.e. 30 million readers. The 10 000 authors published on the OpenEdition platforms have thus been connected to their readership, their whole readership. Not a bad result for a literature with a reputation for being soporific, er … I mean “scientific”!

Receiving the Innovation Medal 2016 is also an opportunity to underline the close cooperation that exists between the human and social sciences and information science, which is way to do digital humanities. In concert with Patrice Bellot, we are leading research & development programmes co-funded by Investments for the Future and Google.

Receiving the Innovation Medal 2016 is also an opportunity to thank the institutions that have placed their trust in us: the University of Avignon, the EHESS, the CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Last, but definitely not least, receiving the Innovation Medal 2016 is an opportunity to thank all the fellow travellers who believed in this adventure that is the wide and open diffusion of knowledge. Despite what some claim, society has never read more than it does today. It’s up to us to feed it with sound and comprehensible content arising out of the best research, and, more generally, with bibliodiversity.

None of this would have been possible without the contribution of over 200 people. I first and foremost wish to thank all the members of the Centre for Open Electronic Publishing (Cléo), past and present, as well as the members of OpenEdition’s Academic Boards. Through their skills and day-to-day work, through their expertise and dynamism, they have striven to build what has become a research infrastructure of international scope.

I cannot conclude before thanking those close to me, who were there when the storm was rumbling, and most of all Antonin, Ludivine and Lili. They know very well that without them, nothing would have been possible.

I hope I have whetted your appetite for knowledge and convinced you to drink, every day, at the spring of the humanities and social sciences. If knowledge is a weapon, that is because it is food for the mind.

******

Video (in French)

Marin Dacos, directeur d’OpenEdition par CNRS

*******

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to OpenEdition (1999–2016)!

1. Abbou Julie
2. André Pierre
3. Andreani Matthieu
4. Angelinetti Nahuel
5. Audet René
6. Azofra Elena
7. Barthonnat Céline
8. Barts Nicolas
9. Beigbeder Juliette
10. Bellot Patrice
11. Benkoussas Chahinez
12. Beorchia David
13. Bérénice Élodie
14. Berland Yvon
15. Berra Aurélien
16. Berthaud Christine
17. Bertin Denis
18. Bertrand Jean-Baptiste
19. Bertrand Paul
20. Bester Emma
21. Blanchard Antoine
22. Blidon Marianne
23. Boistel Romain
24. Boivin Remy
25. Bonijol Christophe
26. Boubekki Amirouche
27. Bourdelais Patrice
28. Bremond Emilie
29. Briatte François
30. Brouard Thomas
31. Burgat Camille
32. Camp Romain
33. Carmona Mélanie
34. Cassé Corinne
35. Castro Felipe
36. Cavallo Delphine
37. Caverni Jean-Paul
38. Cénou Bruno
39. Chabrol Arnaud
40. Chakor Zahia
41. Chambost David
42. Charnay Daniel
43. Chatelain Cédric
44. Chènetier Marc
45. Chérifa Boukacem
46. Cibois Philippe
47. Cixous Mikaël
48. Clavet Martin
49. Clivaz Claire
50. Clouet Florentin
51. Cluze Christelle
52. Cordier Arnaud
53. Cornet Séverine
54. Contat Odile
55. Courel Marie-Françoise
56. D’Andrea Eve
57. Dang Aline
58. Danyel Jürgen
59. Daudé Raphaëlle
60. Dazin François-Jean
61. del Río Gimena
62. Delhaye Marlène
63. Donati Caroline-Sophie
64. Dozo Björn-Olav
65. Droz Rahaël
66. Ducasse Jean-Paul
67. Duchemin Éric
68. Dulong Martin
69. Dulong de Rosnay Melanie
70. Dupuy Lise
71. Durand Anne
72. Escalier Ingrid
73. Faath Élodie
74. Fajri Mokhtar
75. Faure Mireille
76. Faury Mélodie
77. Fays Clara
78. Fernandes João
79. Ferrah Samia
80. Fleury Emmanuelle
81. Fouga Céline
82. Gabas Aliette
83. García Jurado Francisco
84. Gaultier Cédric
85. Gendre Patrick
86. Gentil-Beccot Anne
87. George Lisa
88. Gersmann Gudrun
89. Giglia Elena
90. Gilet Julien
91. Girardin Sophie
92. Giraud Frédérique
93. González-Blanco Elena
94. Grosdemouge François
95. Gruselle Elise
96. Guigonis Sandra
97. Guillaud Hubert
98. Guilleux Céline
99. Gunthert André
100. Haber Peter
101. Hamdan Hussam
102. Hammou Karim
103. Haroutiounian Roland
104. Hautcoeur Pierre-Cyrille
105. Hernandez Émilie
106. Hervieu-Léger Danièle
107. Heuzé Mathieu
108. Holguin Véronica
109. Horstkemper Gregor
110. Htait Amal
111. Huber Martin
112. Igounet Stéphane
113. Jacob Christian
114. Kaiser Michael
115. Kempf Jean
116. Kim Young-Min
117. Koenig-Pralong Catherine
118. Kohle Hubertus
119. Kulesz Octavio
120. Lauer Gerhard
121. Le Marec Joëlle
122. Le Pape Loïc
123. Lemaire Sonia
124. Lemardelé Elise
125. Lemercier Claire
126. Lenclud Gérard
127. Lepape Annick
128. Lhuillier Laurent
129. Maia Marta
130. Malafosse Sophie
131. Mandin Delphine
132. Marziani Lara
133. Mas François-Xavier
134. Masse Jean-Pierre
135. Masclet de Barbarin Marie
136. Mayaud Jean-Luc
137. Mazella Florence
138. Mazmanian Anna
139. Mercklé Pierre
140. Mignot Pierre-Alain
141. Miraucourt Bastien
142. Monnet Éric
143. Moulin Claudine
144. Mounier Pierre
145. Murzilli Nancy
146. Muscinési Frédérique
147. Nutten Nicolas
148. Olivier Myriam
149. Ollagnier Anaïs
150. Orban de Xivry Mathieu
151. Pacaud François
152. Parlati Luigia
153. Paveau Marie-Anne
154. Pellen Marie
155. Pellicer Ingrid
156. Pereira de Resende Pedroso de Lima Maria Antónia
157. Perret Mélanie
158. Petiteau Natalie
159. Peyssard Jean-Christophe
160. Pfanzelter Eva
161. Picard Élodie
162. Picard Ghislain
163. Picard Emmanuelle
164. Pirastru Andrea
165. Piron Sylvain
166. Placial Claire
167. Playe Adeline
168. Poplimont Stéphane
169. Prieto Hélène
170. Puelles Andoni Alonso
171. Pumain Denise
172. Rabier Christelle
173. Radovič Daša
174. Rapp Andrea
175. Renard Chloé
176. Rey Olivier
177. Rivière Jean-Francois
178. Roignant Lucie
179. Romary Laurent
180. Rosso Stéphanie
181. Roulet Solène
182. Roux Dominique
183. Roux Sophie
184. Sama Acedo Sara
185. Santoni Jean-André
186. Sauter Catherine
187. Secondat de Montesquieu Inès
188. Seiler-Juilleret Hélène
189. Smaniotto Alessia
190. Sofio Séverine
191. Soille Benjamin
192. Spriet Thierry
193. Tamarin Michel
194. Tavernier Jade
195. Terrier Caroline
196. Texier Amandine
197. Thérizols Julie
198. Théry Hervé
199. Thibault Françoise
200. Tomlinson Helen
201. Torny Didier
202. Trouvé Mathieu
203. Verger Emmanuelle
204. Vettori Benjamin
205. Vidal Frédéric
206. Vilches Alvarez Pamela
207. Vital Claire
208. Weber Yann
209. Zaharia Alina
210. Zotian Elsa

 

 

 

---

---