I had also surveyed about organizing when I was in Silicon Valley, most of the techies didn't really understand how much influence they could have if they organized. I also think academia may be more receptive to a publishing union to keep their work open as intended. The most important process in the academic publishing is recognized and legitimate peer review, which must be maintained what ever the publishing method.
It would be interesting to make a site dedicated to discussing a forming a academic publishing union and seeing how many professionals would sign up. No policy, just a mission statement, real identities, and the means to let policy and consensus among academics form. **************************** Greg Sonnenfeld “The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Nicholas Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Interesting, Sarbajit. Thanks. N > > -----Original Message----- > From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf > Of Sarbajit Roy > Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:20 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Self publishing > > I have interests in a niche family publishing business in history / social > sciences in India.. > But we mainly publish European authors (the Romance langages) in excellent > quality in small runs (ie. low thousands) which nobody else handles.. > > Authors: > http://www.transbooks.com/auth.html > > We publish print journals / books at 30% (possiby less) of what it would > cost in the USA.without compromising quality. > > On 2/15/12, Nicholas Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: >> Thanks, Russ. >> Why, exactly, do we need them anyway. Can't any list of a hundred >> experts (like FRIAM, for instance) become a peer-review journal with >> everything published to the web? I have wondered about this before. >> Let's say we announce the FRIAM journal of Complexity Science and >> Scatology. Now, anybody can send us a paper 5 dollars and somebody >> will read it and assign to it a number of stars, lets say between 0 >> and 5. Now, when the author receives the review, he may publish the >> paper with the assigned number of stars, or he may revise the paper. > Readers of the "journal" can set number >> of stars as a reading criterion. We could have a second popularity > index, >> for people, not on the editorial board, express approval or >> disapproval for an article. >> >> Some one of you is doing this already, right? Who? Where? How's it >> working. >> >> Nick >> >> >> From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On >> Behalf Of Russ Abbott >> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 10:14 PM >> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Self publishing >> >> See this NYT article >> <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/researchers-boycott-elsevie >> r-jour nal-publisher.html> and sign up here >> <http://thecostofknowledge.com/> . >> >> >> -- Russ Abbott >> _____________________________________________ >> >> Professor, Computer Science >> California State University, Los Angeles >> >> Google voice: 747-999-5105 >> >> Google+: https://plus.google.com/114865618166480775623/ >> >> vita: <http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/> >> http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/ >> _____________________________________________ >> >> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:39 PM, Nicholas Thompson >> <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: >> >> Hi, everybody, >> >> >> >> I have signed perhaps a dozen Publishers Agreements over my life time >> and each one was more onerous, self-serving, and stupid than the one >> before. My favorite was the publisher who asked me to "hold the >> Publisher harmless for anything that might occur as a consequence of the > publishing of the work." >> I asked a lawyer if this meant I was liable if a printer got his hand >> caught in the press while my book was running and he answered, "Well, >> probably not." And then he thought for a moment and said, "Oh, >> they'ld never come after you for that!" Early contracts limited my >> liability to the income from royalties, and one publisher actually >> provided authors' insurance for a modest premium. But no more. >> >> >> >> Well today, I got an author's contract for a paper I am contributed to >> an academic collection that asked me to warrant that the work had been >> commissioned by the publisher and was "work for hire". Now, work for > hire >> means that one's surrenders ALL rights to the work including the right >> to claim it as one's own work. It's the kind of contract you sign >> when you write jacket copy for a publisher. ( The publisher in this >> case was Oxford University Press, in case any of you are thinking of >> doing business with >> them.) I am a wishy washy fellow, but somehow I could not sign a >> document that said that my original work was "work for hire." Couldn't do > it. >> >> >> >> It's too late for this work. I will have to sign the rights over to >> my [young] collaborator, because she desperately needs the paper for >> her career. But MAN! It got me to thinking. WHAT ABOUT self >> publishing. With, say, Amazon" Does anybody on the list have any >> experience with Amazon or other self publishing services that they would > like to share? >> >> >> >> My Dad was a book publisher, and I grew up with conversations around >> the dinner table about "developing authors" and trying to find new >> authors, and how a few books might have to be published before a new > author caught on. >> They published Churchill's Memoires and Mein Kampf (!) and the Peterson >> Field Guides, among many others. Now, it seems, publishers do very > little, >> and academic publishers, in particular, do nothing but scavenge off >> the fetid bits coughed up the publish or perish system. Is is it time to > dump >> them? I am sure this is a party I am late to. Where do I get invited. >> >> >> >> Nick >> >> >> >> Nicholas S. Thompson >> >> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology >> >> Clark University >> >> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ >> >> http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe >> at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at >> http://www.friam.org >> >> >> >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, > unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
