On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Eric F. Van de Velde
<[email protected]> wrote:
If Open Access is the only goal then all we need to do is follow Stevan's
advice. However, the goal of Open Access itself is to change the scholarly
information system into a system suitable for the 21st century. In this
sense, Green Open Access is an incremental change, which is expected to
lead to more fundamental changes over time. It is disheartening to witness
how hard it is to implement this incremental change.
It is also clear that Green OA fixes our view of publishing in the last century.
It does not encourage change. It holds the "paper" (sic) as the element of value
and the publisher as an essential component and legislates for the continuance
of both. It also builds in inefficiency into the system.
However, it does not matter. Major disruption will come. When it comes, it
will be sudden and chaotic. We have witnessed it before. It has been
documented extensively. Most people in technology have read Clayton
Christensen's seminal work The Innovator's Dilemma, and whoever has not
should do as soon as possible. We are right in the run-up to a classical
disruption where a low-margin/low-overhead business replaces a
high-margin/high-overhead business. Initially, the low-margin business is
sneered at because it offers low quality. By the time the high-margin
business realizes it is in trouble it is too late.
I completely agree. The tensions in the earthquake zone are palpable. Among the
most obvious ones are:
* the increasing failure of the academic-publisher system to follow the rapid
development of technology. Sending manuscripts off to be retyped must be one of
the most inefficient activities on the planet.
* no evidence of the social web revolution
* the impatience of the younger generation with the closed minds of the present.
These are additional to the other tensions of:
* financial strain in the system
* the mismatch between traditional citation analysis and more modern forms of
assessment
* the voice of the scholarly poor
There are more, but that's enough.
This disruption (or one similar to it) is inevitable. The only
question is when it will happen, and the precise path it will take.
Yes - anyone getting it right and backing it stands to become rich and famous.
There is a huge opportunity for well-directed investment.
P.
--
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
[ Part 2: "Attached Text" ]
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