Dear Bill,

After 10 days, there are > 500 signatures for a text which
can be abstracted as : "Yes, we would like an open access
Web lite versions for the CSD, ICSD, CRYSTMET and ICDD",
and only 2 signatures for "No".

Many of these signatures are completed by comments.
You may have access to the first 530 contributions at :
http://www.crystallography.net/petition/registerlogy.html

The petition will stay open up to the IUCr Florence meeting
end. It is even possible to search at any moment in the
constantly updated list of contributors, at :
http://www.crystallography.net/petition/search-petition.html

We may reasonably expect much more than 2000 signatures
by the end of August 2005.

These contributions can be considered, in a sense, as "Letters
of support for the COD", if the CSD, ICSD, CRYSTMET and ICDD
do not answer favorably to the petition request.

A large number of the signatures are from South America,
North Africa, Est of Europe, Asia, i.e. developing countries.
Many contributions are also from isolated researchers,
in labs where there are not enough interested people so that
the labs do not subscribe to the databases. Etc. An analysis
of the reasons given by the petitioners will be summarized
in the COD poster during the IUCr meeting.

We urge the IUCr Committee on Crystallographic Databases
to consider the petition request.

Best regards,

The COD Advisory Board