5 ms·

I find it fascinating that the web changed just about every industry out there, apart from the one it set out to change - academic publishing.. It's still an ol

I find it fascinating that the web changed just about every industry out there, apart from the one it set out to change - academic publishing.. It's still an oligopoly, with the same, small number of players acting as gatekeepers

bsenftner 6y ago
So, in a perverse view, the web is civilization's largest, most epic failure: it altered our entire civilization, yet left the one aspect it was intended to change alone.
ConcreteGidget 6y ago
Except I can now pirate. RIP Aaron Swartz
gaudat 6y ago
At least we can enjoy Libgen and Sci-Hub's effort to make those knowledge available for free to us, the motivated. We owe them a big thanks.
- samoa42 6y ago
  while i too apreciate those services, it's not like they invented publication of pirated content.
breck 6y ago
It would be great if a big band of Doctorates got together and committed to renouncing their PhDs if copyright (at the very least in the scientific domain) is not abolished. They have the power to do that. 30 years after the great gift of the web we are still waiting, and Alexandra Elbakyan has shown us how amazing it is to have all scientific papers be available to everyone.
- rcxdude 6y ago
  Why would that make for a reasonable threat to the publishers or government? The power the academics have here is much more direct, if they are organised enough to make such an action: they can simply stop using the journals (indeed many fields and subfields do not use such closed-access journals).
  - breck 6y ago
    Your idea is better than mine. > indeed many fields and subfields do not use such closed-access journals This would maybe make for a good public ranking—showing a list of fields and percentage of open access journals—and hopefully academic in closed fields would adapt quickly to avoid the embarrassment.
specialist 6y ago
Recurring paradox: how military command & control communication technology also fosters spontaneous collaboration. An interesting tension.
sien 6y ago
What about arxiv.org ?
- jonmoore 6y ago
  As a pure means of communication the LANL preprint server, which later became arxiv, made the journals in its core areas of theoretical physics obsolete basically overnight, so vastly superior was it in terms of speed of distribution and ease of access. To me it’s one of the high points of the web and Paul Ginsparg is an absolute hero for setting it up; he reviews some of its history at https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2700 https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2700. I think it’s an interesting social question why other fields have taken so much longer to adopt the arxiv model.

bsenftner 6y ago

So, in a perverse view, the web is civilization's largest, most epic failure: it altered our entire civilization, yet left the one aspect it was intended to change alone.

ConcreteGidget 6y ago

Except I can now pirate. RIP Aaron Swartz

gaudat 6y ago

At least we can enjoy Libgen and Sci-Hub's effort to make those knowledge available for free to us, the motivated. We owe them a big thanks.

samoa42 6y ago
while i too apreciate those services, it's not like they invented publication of pirated content.

breck 6y ago

It would be great if a big band of Doctorates got together and committed to renouncing their PhDs if copyright (at the very least in the scientific domain) is not abolished. They have the power to do that. 30 years after the great gift of the web we are still waiting, and Alexandra Elbakyan has shown us how amazing it is to have all scientific papers be available to everyone.

rcxdude 6y ago
Why would that make for a reasonable threat to the publishers or government? The power the academics have here is much more direct, if they are organised enough to make such an action: they can simply stop using the journals (indeed many fields and subfields do not use such closed-access journals).
- breck 6y ago
  Your idea is better than mine. > indeed many fields and subfields do not use such closed-access journals This would maybe make for a good public ranking—showing a list of fields and percentage of open access journals—and hopefully academic in closed fields would adapt quickly to avoid the embarrassment.

specialist 6y ago

Recurring paradox: how military command & control communication technology also fosters spontaneous collaboration. An interesting tension.

sien 6y ago

What about arxiv.org ?

jonmoore 6y ago
As a pure means of communication the LANL preprint server, which later became arxiv, made the journals in its core areas of theoretical physics obsolete basically overnight, so vastly superior was it in terms of speed of distribution and ease of access. To me it’s one of the high points of the web and Paul Ginsparg is an absolute hero for setting it up; he reviews some of its history at https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2700 https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2700. I think it’s an interesting social question why other fields have taken so much longer to adopt the arxiv model.