SURF’s views on “Open”
SURF is the Dutch higher education and research partnership for information and communication technology. It aims to improve education and research by means of ICT. SURF removes barriers to functioning, accessibility and cooperation to the maximum possible extent.
Open Standards
SURF strives to apply Open Standards (if available) and to promote their use. Open Standards simplify cooperation and prevent dependence on suppliers. If no Open Standards are available, SURF helps develop them.
Open Source
SURF provides ICT services and stipulates effective conditions for the use of software and services, thus bringing high-quality facilities within the reach of higher education and research.
For the necessary functionality, organisations can in many cases choose between Open and Closed Source solutions:
- For their own use and for services they provide themselves, they can choose on the basis of substantive arguments, taking account of functionality, manageability, expandability, and cost (both one off and recurring).
- Where software provision is concerned, SURF attempts to offer institutions a choice, where possible, between Open and Closed Source alternatives.
If no adequate Open or Closed Sourcesolutions are available, SURF may decide to develop software code or other material itself on the principle that the current range available on the market must not restrict its services. If the results are also interesting for other parties – primarily SURF’s target group – efforts are made to make those results freely available and reusable by all (i.e. to make them open source). Over the years, SURF has in fact made a great deal of software available as open source.
Open Access
Access to knowledge, information, and data is essential in higher education and research. Their use is the basis for the transfer of knowledge (teaching) and for knowledge generation (research).
The “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities” calls on researchers to make their material freely available to all via repositories on the Internet. This means not only articles but also raw data and other research material. Users must be able not only to consult and distribute all this but also make use of derived works. The only condition is that the original author should be credited.
SURF signed the Berlin Declaration on 1 December 2004 and promotes Open Access in the Netherlands. SURF therefore strives for standardised, coherent and interoperable Open Access to scientific and scholarly material. Examples of services: Narcis, LOREnet and the HBO-Kennisbank. Further developments are carried out by SURF through the SURFshare programme, the follow-up of the DARE programme.
Watch a short video in which Dutch leaders in higher education underline the importance of Open Access.