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Good morning, Jennifer.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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<sup>
</sup>(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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Sincerely,<br><br>
Claire Hebbard<br>
Gramene Outreach Coordinator<br><br>
415 Bradfield Hall<br>
Ithaca, NY 14853<br><br>
Phone - 607-255-4199 or 607-255-3103<br>
e-mail: cer17@cornell.edu<br><br>
<br><br>
At 02:45 PM 9/29/2005, you wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>subject: </b></font>Nonprofit
Academic Permission Request<br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>to:
</b></font>
<a href="mailto:gramene@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@gramene.org</a> <br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"><b>body:</b></font> <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">Dear unknown:<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">After reviewing Gramene: A
Comparative Mapping Resource for Grains, published on the internet at
<a href="http://www.gramene.org/">http://www.gramene.org/</a>, 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.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">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
<a href="http://www.widernet.org">http://www.widernet.org</a>. <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">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. <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">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
<a href="http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary">
http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary</a>.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">Specifically, we would like
permission to:<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">-- Mirror (copy) the following
materials for future versions of the eGranary Digital Library:<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">--<a href="http://www.gramene.org/">
http://www.gramene.org/</a> <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">--Distribute the Internet content you
donate to participating educational institutions via hard drive
installation and/or satellite transmission (when that becomes available),
<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">--Allow project participants to make
your materials available to their educational community without cost, via
their intranets (but not on the Internet,)<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">--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.)<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">Please reply directly to this email,
and tell us if you give: <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">FULL PERMISSION (Donate requested
materials and updates as they become available)<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">PARTIAL PERMISSION (Donate only
materials that you specify, or limit our delivery of your content to only
hard drive installation or only satellite transmission.)<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">NO PERMISSION (Prefer not to help
institutions in developing countries at this time.)<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"><br>
We hope that you will join our efforts to provide students and scholars
around the world with access to educational information and
resources.<br><br>
Sincerely,<br><br>
Jennifer Mills<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">jenn@widernet.org<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">----------------------<br>
The WiderNet Project <br>
University of Iowa <br>
226 International Center<br>
Iowa City, IA 52242 <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times">USA</font><br>
tel: (319) 335-2200 <br>
fax: (319) 335-0820<br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font><font face="arial" size=2> </font></blockquote></body>
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