Open and Shut?: Fred Friend on the state of Open Access: Where are...

English: Open Access logo and text (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Open and Shut?: Fred Friend on the state of Open Access: Where are...: This is the third Q&A in a series exploring the current state of Open Access ( OA ). This time the questions are answered by Fred Friend...
These series of interviews are just fantastic. So many voices for OA.

The American Library Association Has Given Aaron Swartz Its First Ever Posthumous Award

Open Access and Alternative Medicine Research

research (Photo credit: suttonhoo)

I recently tried to tell a story from my experience about why Open Access is important but failed to get the whole story across to the people because of a number of factors as often is the case certain prejudices about private colleges in inner Sydney got in our way also this was at my work so.. interruptions took us away to other pressing issues. 

So I have decided to do a blog about the problems that some people encounter accessing information who are doing real research for example through a private college teaching alternative modalities (this was before universities in Australia recognised alternative medicines in any way (1994), such as Naturopathy but their place of study does not have the resources for them to access the journals and articles they need to write a major final year paper on echinacea. 

As my example takes place many years ago the journal articles that the student needs to access are still in paper form and luckily several universties hold copies of these in their collections. The student goes to the university library  gathers her journals and copies the articles she wants to cite in her work and all ends well with what is seen by the students lecturer as ground breaking research paper on echinacea and asks that the paper be submitted to a well respected alternative medicine journal where it is published.

Lets now place the same student in our digital world of 2013 writing the same paper the problems that are now presented to that student to access the articles she needs:

• The journals and articles needed to complete the research are now only available electronically and due to licencing restrictions by the publishers that the university library have been forced to agree to make these resources only accessible by students and staff who are members of the universities.

Does the story end here yes it does unless someone breaks the law and gives the student copies of the articles they need they are pretty much stuffed.

Here is a good video that also demonstrates the point well.

Open Access Overview

Open_Access_PLoS.svg (Photo credit: PGRsOnline)

I shared this great resource written and compiled by Peter Suber "Open Access Overview" with my colleagues yesterday because I thought it was important to get off on the right foot or as Peter puts it:

"This is an introduction to open access (OA) for those who are new to the concept. I hope it's short enough to read, long enough to be useful, and organized to let you skip around and dive into detail only where you want detail. It doesn't cover every nuance or answer every objection. But for those who read it, it should cover enough territory to prevent the misunderstandings that delayed progress in our early days." 

New video released: a conversation with philosophers Richard Holton and Peter Suber on open access

English: Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with white background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New video released: a conversation with philosophers Richard Holton and Peter Suber on open access

TED Talk video by Don Tapscott Open Resources

Some more reading.
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/boai-10-recommendations

Open and the cost to Education #oped12

ASSIGNMENT FOR #OPED12

"In your blog/discussion forum reflections, address the distinctions of openness in terms of access vs. cost. What are the concerns that this raises for open universities?"
Once your given a topic to do its amazing the amount of noise one begins to hear in this area it appears that some of the debate reflects a concern that open anything may hurt the viability of education which is a bit sad as we gather from our readings the opposite effect has been fairly well proven through research undertaken.
Looking at these articles again I have strayed somewhat off the path with publication costs oops.

http://theconversation.edu.au/anu-vice-chancellor-issues-moocs-warning-9881#comments

The comments on this by several Australian academic professors is enlightening.

"I think that the funding model for our higher education sector is in need of a major national review. If it does not come in the near future it will come eventually as the government's level of funding fails to keep all current institutions going."
&
"Perhaps one of the reasons university administrators are having trouble getting their head around MOOCs is because its not about revenue, it's about public good."

http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/10/04/does-open-access-tackle-perpetuate-or-exacerbate-the-matthew-effect/

I did even know about this before.

Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit Liber generationis of the Gospel of Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In sociology, the Matthew effect (or accumulated advantage) is the phenomenon where "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer".[1][2] In both its original and typical usage it is meant metaphorically to refer to issues of fame or status but it may also be used literally to refer to cumulative advantage of economic capital. The term was first coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968 and takes its name from a line in the biblical Gospel of Matthew:
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.
—Matthew 25:29, King James Version.

http://www.jmmsweb.org/issues/volume3/number2/pp97-99

"Many OA advocates (myself included), will often frame OA as an almost Socialist ideal: free information for the masses, or at least for those free thinkers who wish to consume it. But we cannot forget that we operate within an academy that has an unnerving habit of co-opting labor in a rather unsavory fashion, as seen in Mark Bousquet’s (2008) blistering How the University Works. There is a danger that the ideals of OA can be utilized by a corporate ideology which seeks to further co-opt unpaid academic labor, as well as [page 99] making professional editing redundant (in much the same way as teaching by tenured PhDs is replaced by the contingent labor of graduate students). Mandated requirements for OA by universities and government agencies certainly have the potential to unbind scholarly communication from the economically privileged. However, when such mandates rely on unpaid labor, they also have the potential to erase the skills of academics and publishing professionals who may otherwise reasonably demand an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. "

#oped12 Why are Australian Universities avoiding this movement?

Benefits of Membership The mission of the OCW Consortium is to serve both the individuals who use OCW and the institutions that make OCW possible. The Consortium provides a gateway to OCW projects and courses for the entire OCW community, fostering the success of the OCW movement and articulating its benefits. Through its public-relations efforts, the Consortium educates general audiences about the movement, directing potential users to resources that best suit their needs. For members, the Consortium marshals broad expertise regarding the ongoing development of open education projects and connects its members with an even broader network of OER practitioners. In other words, the OCW Consortium is an ideal meeting place for people wanting to make structured contributions to the development of open education worldwide.


 I have found a paper that looks at the Australian Universities case in depth.

#oped12, College Textbooks | Read Free Online | Flat World Knowledge

Flat World Knowledge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Flat World Knowledge: Open College Textbooks (Photo credit: opensourceway)

College Textbooks | Read Free Online | Flat World Knowledge

Just started new mooc called:
openness in education

and this is a resource I had not heard of before mentioned in a lecture by David Wiley.

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