More Open Access Videos on Vimeo.
Advocacy: Alliance for Taxpayer Access
Via: WA Open Educational Resources
Related Cultural Research Coverage:
Open Access Week & The Right to Research Coalition
The Digital Natives are Getting Restless: The Student Voice
of the Open Access Movement
Open Access Week takes place October 18th through 24th "everywhere" in support of open access scholarly research.
The above talk given by Nick Shockey, Director of the Right to Research Coalition is featured on the Open Access site and discusses the demographic concept of the "digital native", which with he self-identifies, and open access to scholarly research as a right.
Related Cultural Research Coverage:
Resources: Open Access Videos, Alliance for Taxpayer Access
I'm going to be doing some catch up posts with fairly recent news that should indicate the emerging focus of this blog. Of particular interest, given the disruptive nature of free as a pricing choice, is the news that the tuition-free University of the People and the World Computer Exchange are partnering to:
"expand UoPeople's reach in developing nations and strengthening their shared missions of democratized access to education. WCE is now beginning outreach to our Partners and contacts in the following six countries: Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Liberia, Palestine and Zimbabwe."
That's a great development for UofP given that the idea is to reach students with limited resources which would extend to issues of internet access, a particular concern for online learning.
In other UofP news, I contacted them a while back about offering my skills as a web librarian and have gotten some info but that opportunity is still under development. However, they did recently announce the creation of a Library Services Advisory Committee which probably took a bit of work. I look forward to sharing future developments.
Chris Anderson - Free: The Future of a Radical Price
I recently completed Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price in fragmented bits of reading. It's a great book for thinking one's way into the implications of free as a price and such related concepts as freemium pricing strategies.
At the same time, it's a rather frustrating book if evaluated from an academic perspective with few proper citations and open-ended, uncited use of chunks of Wikipedia and other writers' content!
It's a rare book that merits serious consideration after such excesses have been exposed but Free is just that kind of book. Of particular relevance for this blog, studying ways to monetize free content is very much on the minds of open access advocates searching for sustainable business models. Free offers a great brainstorming tool with notes from related efforts including open source software.
"Free use but paid via other means" is also a key pricing strategies for libraries supported by taxes, donations, student fees and the like. We don't pay each time we take out the books but we or other folks like us pay by other means. Open access business models often take similar routes.
The interrelationship of free web content and open access publishing also was explored in the release of free editions of Free for limited time in digital formats.
So, yes, I'm recommending Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price with reservations because, if taken for what it's worth, it's quite a good book!
Chris Anderson blogs or blogged at The Long Tail where you can currently find a downloadable list of "notes and sources for the book" Free.
Wired Magazine:
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
The Office of Science & Technology Policy is in the midst of a "Public Access Policy Forum" that signals good news for the future of government mandated open access to publically funded research.
Josh Hadro digs in a bit and also reminds librarians of their need to get involved. That's a key point. Marketing ourselves and educating the public by participation in open forums is crucial for the future of the profession.
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