[Reader-list] Pay or free? Newspaper archives not ready for openWeb... yet

[Gurstein, Michael]

Rather too pessimistic I think Geert... There is also the question of
"competition", "waves", "technological imperatives" and the "lemming
effect"...

I think it is fascinating to watch the rising tide of Open Archives in
academic publications... Starting with a few very tentative and "crazy"
outliers, academic journals have gone in the space of perhaps 5 years
from being almost totally closed, copyright protected and highly
expensive (with a few nods to charitable donations to monetarily poor
collleagues in LDC's) to the current situation where major institutions
are debating their Open Archive policies (the US NIH among others),
where new on-line Open Archive journals are popping up everywhere, where
existing journals are being forced to revise their business models more
or less in real time and where the only barrier to an almost complete
transformation are generational lags in university Promotion and Tenure
committees (which can only possibly continue for 5 or so more years).

The business model for academic publishing (and with it one of the major
elements in the entire edifice of university based
research/grantsmanship) is in the process of imploding and where it ends
up at this point is still anyone's guess.

Mike Gurstein

-----Original Message-----
From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net
[mailto:reader-list-bounces at sarai.net] On Behalf Of Geert Lovink
Sent: February 21, 2005 9:24 PM
To: Patrice Riemens
Cc: reader-list at sarai.net; Adreesh Katyal; ZESTMedia at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Pay or free? Newspaper archives not ready for
openWeb... yet


Beyond economic models, as Patrice, giving away content is also a 
question of mentality--and mood. Giving content away for free that you 
have worked on for weeks or months, partly, also has got to do with 
your feelings, no to worry, to let go, to trust in the Internet 
(whatever that weird thing maybe--this is nineties thought!). This all 
sounds irrational but that's what it is. This 'problem' cannot be 
solved with the right licenses. To convince people of it as a 'good 
idea'  somehow never worked. You just do it or leave it. Geert

_________________________________________
reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques &
Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to
reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List
archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>