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November 2014

If you continue to describe previously criminal acts as "illicit" will we have "illicit suicide", "illicit abortion", "illicit gambling"?

I've seen the "Imitation Game" post in which it gets a PG-13 rating for "advanced math". I was more anxious by the claim of "illicit" sex.

Top tip: if you title your article "Open access: what it is and what it is not", be sure that you actually know what it is and is not.

"We will preserve our stuff". "We will make our stuff accessible". "Open stuff". Need specifics when thinking about data. Which "stuff"?

I always mentally replace "data" with "stuff" whenever someone is speaking. Great for assessing the practicalities of their proposal.

. @eferwerda articulated something well today: we do OA because we have been told the book is in crisis, unread. We do it to save the book.

There's currently an exhibition in the Library of Congress about the Civil Rights Act and Movement. Presented as history. It isn't.

Tech fetishism wants there to be no negotiation on old values or regulation on damage done to individuals through economic reconfiguration.

People often internalise (economic) constraints that technology then modifies. In right circumstances, losing old values yields benefits.

There is also a /lot/ about the development of the first academic journal (Transactions) in there & the fears of piracy surrounding it.

Was also struck by some of the contemporary comparisons: some were happy with the idea of universal library, so long as it was inaccessible.

One of its most important features is looking at the evolution of copyright and its tensions with enlightenment dissemination.

I spent the journey reading Adrian Johns's /Piracy/, which is an amazing history that I think anyone interested in #openaccess should read.

Just travelling to Glasgow today after hospital discharge was a bit of a killer. Exhausted but packed train where I could only read was good

Now officially North! Anyone in Glasgow, do come to the SPARC Europe OA and the Humanities roadshow tomorrow, featuring @eferwerda and me.

Sounds like the excellent @gbilder is off on one on #ShakingItUp14 - he's a seriously smart guy and well worth listening to.

Does extremism in that new government legislation have a specific tie to violence, or is anyone whose views are outside the norm "extreme"?

Interesting that the Gates Foundation understands the value of open access but wanted to destroy open source/free software for whole career.

Of course, many caveats to that interview. If you found yourself going "but...", then it's likely better covered in the book.

But the data never just speak for themselves. I feel uneasy that such a corporate entity is now @ the heart of supposedly important rankings

Once symbolic capital like that is accrued it's far harder to lose than it was to gain. They'll claim it's "just providing data"...

That THE and Elsevier partnership is a prime example of how existing publishers gain prestige that comes with real material effects.

Ubiquity Press's Journal of Open Research Software might be of interest to #opencon2014 @up_jors - also has a fun acronym to pronounce

If we are made to compete for students, the logic goes, we have to offer exclusive perks to them. Disincentives openness. #OpenCon2014

In my view there is one huge block to big progress on open education: the privatisation of universities worldwide. #OpenCon2014

Sorry I won't be at the #opencon2014 reception tonight - am somewhat unwell and grabbing an early night. Looking forward to tomorrow though!

Suspect @CharlotteRock would be interested in the type of DH portal/infrastructure provision that @pfyfe is discussing at #TriangleSCI

When you write a blog post then don't post it because you can foresee the tedious polarised debate unfolding regardless of pre-empting it.

Publisher MakerSpace group at #TriangleSCI thought about "publishing in 2030". That's an age in tech. but not long in social academic terms.

Call by @foundhistory for #TriangleSCI teams to consider what "the crowd" means to them. It's an interesting term. What are connotations?

"The retreat" alters time: short spans of time but the creative constraint means that amazing things are done #TriangleSCI @foundhistory

. @foundhistory traces backdrop of #TriangleSCI to other retreats like "One Week, One Tool". External spaces of reflection and making.

Post-publication book reviews are part of the scholarly genealogy of validation, but little incentive for senior faculty to write them.

I think the "predatory publishers" issue is both overrepresented and unfairly tagged on OA. Many sub/sale-based "predators" #chs14

Will be interested to see what a new usage study for monographs might look like. All measures are flawed proxies at present, IMO. #chs14

We're also expecting report from the UK's Higher Education Funding Council on their findings on monograph economics early next year #chs14

"Too many monographs are being published". In other words, greater desire to publish for accreditation than there is to read. #chs14

Mellon giving planning grants to three institutions to investigate allocation mechanisms for author-side payments #chs14

Digital, accessible medium, new standards for peer review, social aspects of tenure criteria identified by Mellon as important areas #chs14