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Yeah, the author seems caught up in his idealism. "The problem with Academia.edu is that it is a commercial enterprise. It is not created to serve the common g

Yeah, the author seems caught up in his idealism. "The problem with Academia.edu is that it is a commercial enterprise. It is not created to serve the common good – diffusing knowledge. It is also not created to serve democratic ideals, but to make money." I wonder if this guy has a mortgage or kids, and how many unpaid hours he puts in per week "for the common good". I could understand if they were gouging people, but as you say 8 euro per month hardly seems unreasonable. The site owners are under no obligation to run a charity simply to appease Mr. Maly's morality.

a3_nm 10y ago
Most of academic research is not a for-profit enterprise and aims at serving the common good: scientists don't make direct monetary profit from the articles that they write. Knowing that this "idealist" system appears to work, one would expect that a not-for-profit service analogous to Academia.edu would not be a completely unrealistic dream... This is why Academia.edu is disliked by the author and other academics: they are building a for-profit service on top on the not-for-profit system of academic research.
- OJFord 10y ago
  > Most of academic research is not a for-profit enterprise and aims at serving the common good: scientists don't make direct monetary profit from the articles that they write. It is, usually, however their job and career: they do make indirect monetary profit.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  Academia.edu is awful, but it's silly to think that just because academics work at non-profit institutions that all their tools should be provided by non-profits. I've purchased many pieces of software to help with my research and I don't expect the developers to do it out of the kindness of their heart.
- scottLobster 10y ago
  They do get paid, just more indirectly in the form of grants. It may not be for "profit", but scientists don't work for free or publish purely out of altruism. As for building for-profit services on top of not-for-profit research, I don't see the issue. Would it be equally immoral to sell or even lease Bibles to churches since churches are financially reliant on donations? The beauty of Capitalism is it tells you what people are willing to put money/time towards. If enough of the scientific community feels so strongly that academic research should be accessible for free via some sort of charity, they are welcome to start and manage said charity and/or refuse to buy subscriptions to Academia.edu. I honestly wish them luck, a free, open service for such knowledge would be awesome! However, proclaiming that others are morally obligated to provide that charity, simply because they market their service to "charities", sounds rather arrogant to me.
- jasonlotito 10y ago
  If this is true, why don't they just release their work on their own sites under a permissive license? It seems like such a simple problem to solve.
CJefferson 10y ago
True, but Mr. Maly has no need to help, or support Academia.edu. I went to some early talks from them, and they make a big deal about how they weren't like the big old evil journals. If they are just going to turn into something much like the old journals, and lock our data behind a paywall, then what advantage do they provide? In particular, they themselves don't provide open access to the database they are building, so if they ever decide to take their ball and go home, we've lost everything they collected.

a3_nm 10y ago

Most of academic research is not a for-profit enterprise and aims at serving the common good: scientists don't make direct monetary profit from the articles that they write. Knowing that this "idealist" system appears to work, one would expect that a not-for-profit service analogous to Academia.edu would not be a completely unrealistic dream... This is why Academia.edu is disliked by the author and other academics: they are building a for-profit service on top on the not-for-profit system of academic research.

OJFord 10y ago
> Most of academic research is not a for-profit enterprise and aims at serving the common good: scientists don't make direct monetary profit from the articles that they write. It is, usually, however their job and career: they do make indirect monetary profit.
jessriedel 10y ago
Academia.edu is awful, but it's silly to think that just because academics work at non-profit institutions that all their tools should be provided by non-profits. I've purchased many pieces of software to help with my research and I don't expect the developers to do it out of the kindness of their heart.
scottLobster 10y ago
They do get paid, just more indirectly in the form of grants. It may not be for "profit", but scientists don't work for free or publish purely out of altruism. As for building for-profit services on top of not-for-profit research, I don't see the issue. Would it be equally immoral to sell or even lease Bibles to churches since churches are financially reliant on donations? The beauty of Capitalism is it tells you what people are willing to put money/time towards. If enough of the scientific community feels so strongly that academic research should be accessible for free via some sort of charity, they are welcome to start and manage said charity and/or refuse to buy subscriptions to Academia.edu. I honestly wish them luck, a free, open service for such knowledge would be awesome! However, proclaiming that others are morally obligated to provide that charity, simply because they market their service to "charities", sounds rather arrogant to me.
jasonlotito 10y ago
If this is true, why don't they just release their work on their own sites under a permissive license? It seems like such a simple problem to solve.

CJefferson 10y ago

True, but Mr. Maly has no need to help, or support Academia.edu. I went to some early talks from them, and they make a big deal about how they weren't like the big old evil journals. If they are just going to turn into something much like the old journals, and lock our data behind a paywall, then what advantage do they provide? In particular, they themselves don't provide open access to the database they are building, so if they ever decide to take their ball and go home, we've lost everything they collected.