Synchroblogging competition for Open Access Day - get writing this weekend

Why does Open Access matter to you? Post a blog on October 14th 2008 and enter our competition – you could win a bag of swag.

If you like to blog, support Open Access and want to enter a competition to win a bag of swag (including Scienceblogs.com/PLoS goodies), then we need you to draft a post this weekend.

On October 14, 2008, wherever in the world you live, we want you to tell everyone why Open Access Matters to you in celebration of the first ever Open Access Day. We want the cumulative effect of all these posts to show the blogosphere how Open Access touches the lives of many many people. Apparently, experts tell me that this activity is known as synchroblogging.

There are 4 key points that we would like you to address in your post (these are the same questions that we asked the stars of the Voices of Open Access Video Series that we will also release on that day):

• Why does Open Access matter to you?
• How did you first become aware of it?
• Why should scientific and medical research be an open-access resource for the world?
• What do you do to support Open Access, and what can others do?

To enter the competition, all you have to do is blog on this topic on October 14, 2008. We'll use Google News/Technorati to track entries - to make this easier please use the phrase "Open Access Day" in your post. We’ve assembled a small team of judges who will review all these posts and vote on a winner. The winning post will have their entry cross posted on some or all of the sites where the judges blog on October 14h or thereabouts depending on space and other deadlines.

The panel includes:

• Bora Zivkovic – Scientist, blogger from A Blog Around the Clock and Community Manger for PLoS ONE.
• Aaron Rowe – Scientist, blogger from Wired Science
• Liz Allen – PLoS

The winner will also receive a bag of swag that includes: a 1 year print subscription to Seed magazine, a PLoS travel mug, a couple of cool PLoS t-shirts and other items plus their post will be cross posted to the blogs where the judges blog.

In your eagerness to get involved, please don’t post before October 14, 2008, we really want to make a noise for Open Access Day.