Open Access Week in Sandus

20-26 October 2014 is Open Access week, a global event in its eighth year which advocates for “wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.” The event stands for opening up research and scholarship to the public by allowing citizens to access information that is normally held in private, inaccessible stores that individuals must pay for. By opening up access to information for all people, democracy can be better facilitated as information is more accessible to information. This is the trend the State of Sandus has taken in the past few years since the Foundation in April 2011, particularly in 2013 and 2014 with the changing role of Sandus.org and the changing journalism found within Veritum Sandus.

“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Open Access (OA) has the potential to maximize research investments, increase the exposure and use of published research, facilitate the ability to conduct research across available literature, and enhance the overall advancement of scholarship. Research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting a move towards Open Access in increasing numbers every year. Open Access Week is a key opportunity for all members of the community to take action to keep this momentum moving forward.

To celebrate Open Access Week, Veritum Sandus has been granted access to inform citizens of previously inaccessible information about Sandus.

1. In November 2009, in the first year of Sandus’s creation, the People’s State of Sandus (then the government) was caught by a civil war. Except that is not the truth. Beginning on what is now the National Day of Truth (15 November), the civil war was orchestrated by the then-Speaker of the People’s State to make Sandus more fun and appealing. This was a time before Realism, when amusement and fun was the primary purpose of Sandus. The Civil War was between those supporting the Speaker (the current Sôgmô) and others who went against the Socialist government. The Civil War was “concluded” on 24 November, 9 days later, on what is now the National Day of Harmony.
2. The following information has never been released until now. On 20 February 2011, a citizen of the Territory of Sandus, then a territory in the St.Charlian Commonwealth and tantamount to a colony of the Federal Republic of St.Charlie, filed a petition for secession from St.Charlie. This is the petition that we celebrate on 20 February as the Day of Foundation and which was the basis of Sandus’s independence from St.Charlie. The citizen, named William McCarrin, was not whom he said he was — in fact, he was not a citizen of Sandus until a few days prior and had just returned to micronationalism since his departure in early August 2010. That citizen, in fact, was none other than the infamous Robert Lethler.
3. During certain diplomatic disputes that heat up over the years, the Sôgmô keeps close communication with Jacob Tierney, the former Meritarch of Renasia. During these communications, the two — who have long been close and loyal friends — exchange thoughts and inform one another about new events in the disputes, sometimes even news that should be private and remain confidential. When it involves their other close colleague and friend Emperor Jonathan of Austenasia, this close arrangement has been called the Troika — and is an actual informal group. Periodically, however, the Sôgmô and the former Meritarch disagree. On one incident in the summer of 2013, during Tierney’s fifth chairmanship of the GUM, this happened where Sörgel and Tierney disagreed and argued. Both quickly agreed to disagree, but not before the situation escalated to the point Tierney threatened to remove Sörgel as Vice-Chairman of the GUM. Tierney and Sörgel still keep in close communication and advise one another, the last time being the Denton Protocol incident of early August 2014.