OSI was created by the National Science Communication Institute (nSCI), and is being managed by nSCI in long-term partnership with UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Our gracious host for OSI’s first year (OSI2016), George Mason University, supported and managed this effort in a wide variety of ways, and was responsible for making this important global event possible. Special thanks goes out to the University’s Office of the President and the Office of the Provost, and to the leadership, faculty and staff of the Department of Communication, PressForward Institute, University Libraries and its Mason Publishing Group, University Catering, and University Information, and to the students of Comm 331, Alpha Phi Sorority, and the Mason Ambassadors program. In particular, thank you to Anne Nicotera (Chair of the Mason Department of Communication), Eric Olson (Outreach Coordinator for PressForward), Lisa Sevilla (Undergraduate Program Coordinator for the Department of Communication) and Claudia Holland (Mason’s Scholarly Communication and Copyright Officer) for their year-long effort to create and organize the infrastructure needed to support this project. Thank you as well to Mason’s College of Science, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), Maria Carabelli (CHSS Finance Coordinator) and John Warren (Head of Mason Publishing and George Mason University Press), and to the PR team led by Professor Kathy Rowan and Eric Olson, and student volunteers Adetunde Dada, Kristen Dalton, Kira Wilson, Andrew Carter, Andrew Caulk, and Azize Hazou.
We also owe a tremendous thanks to the organizations who have provided financial support for this nascent effort: UNESCO, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Elsevier, Wiley, the PressForward Institute, Springer Nature, Sage Publications, the John and Laura Arnold Foundation, George Mason University, the Copyright Clearance Center and Research Media, with in-kind support from Artefact and nSCI. Thank you! And last but certainly not least, thank you to the staff of the Hyatt Fairfax at Fair Lakes for all of their help and support over the past year in planning this event.