Nonprofit Academic Permission Request

Fri Oct 7 09:08:41 EDT 2005

Good morning, Jennifer.

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. We are preparing to 
release a new build of the database next week, and I am still learning the 
process. I assure you, it normally does not take this long to respond.

Upon receiving your email, we reviewed your website and project goals. It 
looks like an excellent project, and fits with our goals of making our 
resources available to the global community. Thank you for contacting 
Gramene about this opportunity. Gramene curates publicly available data and 
puts it into the Gramene database in order to provide agricultural 
researchers and plant breeders with invaluable and compiled  biological and 
genomic information on rice and other grasses. Rice is the first crop 
genome to be fully sequenced and is a model organism for research within 
the grasses. Understanding the rice genome, which is comparatively small, 
can assist in research on agriculturally important features in rice and 
similar genes in maize, wheat and other grasses.

One of our current goals is to examine how to better distribute the 
database, expecially in developing countries. We know that this data is of 
great interest in Africa, for example, but providing our resources on slow 
connections, or to those without internet connections, has been an 
increasing concern for Gramene. Quarterly releases in January, April, July 
and October keep online researchers up-to-date with new information and 
tools, but the database growth also contributes to the large size  which 
can be a problem on slow connections. Some individuals download the 
database to use with their own data on their own machines, so intranet or 
hard-drive access is certainly feasible. But others need to keep abreast of 
the new information and tools in each release, so these sources would 
frequently need to be updated.

Gramene is a curated, free for use, web-accessible data resource for 
comparative genome analysis in the grasses.  It is supported by the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) award #0321685, the USDA Initiative for 
Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) (grant no. 00-52100-9622) and 
USDA-Agricultural Research Service specific cooperative agreement (grant 
no. 58-1907-0-041). The database and the curated datasets are freely 
available for local use and installation. We would like to join you in your 
efforts in distributing educational information and resources to the global 
audience.

Please let me know how we can best work with you. For the specific details 
obtaining our digital resources I would be happy to put you in touch with 
our database professionals, as well as for obtaining the quarterly updates.

Sincerely,

Claire Hebbard
Gramene Outreach Coordinator

415 Bradfield Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853

Phone - 607-255-4199 or 607-255-3103
e-mail: cer17 at cornell.edu

At 02:45 PM 9/29/2005, you wrote:

>subject: Nonprofit Academic Permission Request
>
>to: 
><mailto:gramene at gramene.org?subject=Nonprofit%20Academic%20Permission%20Request&body=Dear%20unknown:%0DAfter%20reviewing%20Gramene:%20A%20Comparative%20Mapping%20Resource%20for%20Grains,%20published%20on%20the%20internet%20at%20http://www.gramene.org/,the%20WiderNet%20Project%20would%20like%20to%20ask%20your%20permission%20to%20include%20this%20web%20content%20in%20the%20eGranary%20Digital%20Library.%20Before%20you%20decide,%20please%20let%20us%20tell%20you%20about%20The%20WiderNet%20Project%20and%20the%20eGranary%20Digital%20Library.%0DThe%20WiderNet%20Project,%20a%20non-profit%20organization,%20aims%20to%20improve%20digital%20communication%20and%20access%20to%20information%20for%20students%20and%20scholars%20in%20developing%20countries.%20You%20can%20find%20more%20information%20about%20the%20WiderNet%20Project%20at%C2%A0http://www.widernet.org.%0D%0DMany%20of%20the%20institutions%20we%20work%20with%20do%20not%20have%20Internet%20connections%20or%20have%20slow,%20unreliable%20and% 
>20very%20expensive%20ser>gramene at gramene.org
>
>body:
>Dear unknown:
>
>After reviewing Gramene: A Comparative Mapping Resource for Grains, 
>published on the internet at 
><http://www.gramene.org/>http://www.gramene.org/, the WiderNet Project 
>would like to ask your permission to include this web content in the 
>eGranary Digital Library. Before you decide, please let us tell you about 
>The WiderNet Project and the eGranary Digital Library.
>
>The WiderNet Project, a non-profit organization, aims to improve digital 
>communication and access to information for students and scholars in 
>developing countries. You can find more information about the WiderNet 
>Project at <http://www.widernet.org>http://www.widernet.org.
>
>Many of the institutions we work with do not have Internet connections or 
>have slow, unreliable and very expensive service. Often, professors and 
>students must pay per minute while online and it literally takes days to 
>search a website. The eGranary Digital Library delivers digital 
>information directly to Web servers inside the institution, bypassing the 
>problem. With the eGranary Digital Library, students and scholars access 
>the information over their local area networks quickly and at no cost.
>
>If you consent, your materials will appear in the eGranary Digital Library 
>without modification, retaining all citations, copyright information, 
>author information, and credits – exactly as they appear on the Internet 
>now. You can find more information about the eGranary Digital Library, 
>including a list of authors and organizations already donating materials, 
>at 
><http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary>http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary.
>
>Specifically, we would like permission to:
>
>-- Mirror (copy) the following materials for future versions of the 
>eGranary Digital Library:
>
>--<http://www.gramene.org/>http://www.gramene.org/
>
>--Distribute the Internet content you donate to participating educational 
>institutions via hard drive installation and/or satellite transmission 
>(when that becomes available),
>
>--Allow project participants to make your materials available to their 
>educational community without cost, via their intranets (but not on the 
>Internet,)
>
>--Create an archive copy of your material on our password-protected 
>intranet server (for use in the event that your publicly available link 
>ceases to function.)
>
>
>
>Please reply directly to this email, and tell us if you give:
>
>FULL PERMISSION (Donate requested materials and updates as they become 
>available)
>
>PARTIAL PERMISSION (Donate only materials that you specify, or limit our 
>delivery of your content to only hard drive installation or only satellite 
>transmission.)
>
>NO PERMISSION (Prefer not to help institutions in developing countries at 
>this time.)
>
>
>We hope that you will join our efforts to provide students and scholars 
>around the world with access to educational information and resources.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Jennifer Mills
>
>jenn at widernet.org
>
>----------------------
>The WiderNet Project
>University of Iowa
>226 International Center
>Iowa City, IA 52242
>
>USA
>tel: (319) 335-2200
>fax: (319) 335-0820
>
>
>
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