[FC-discuss] Free Thesis Project Released Today

[Fred Benenson]

This may seem trite, but a favorite aphorism of mine has always been "Its
easier to kick over a sand castle than it is to build one." And it seems
particularly appropriate here.

So, Matthew, what are the specifications of the sand castle that you would
build? It seems you take particular objection with the choice to endorse the
institution of the University by encouraging dissemination of traditional
theses. If so, that is an objection that doesn't belong here.  While Free
Culture is willing to take on copyright, censorship, impediments to
innovation, and so on, I'm not sure we're interested in disintegrating the
institution of the university or the thesis. Indeed, some of us might even
find those things valuable allies in the pursuit of free culture.

Fred




On 5/4/07, Rob Timberlake <timberlj at reed.edu> wrote:
>
> >     As to the public good: how is digitally archiving theses to help
> >     prevent damage a bad thing?
> >
> >
> > What is the "thesis tower?"
> >
> > What "damage" is being prevented?
>
> Ye Olde Priviledged Students of said university are (at times and whilst
> intoxicated) shitty towards the theses that have been checked out of the
> library (read: thesis tower). By digitally archiving them, students can
> access them at home (dorms or other side of the country) without busting
> their asses down to the library and praying that the one thesis they
> need has not already been checked out /  isnt damaged.
>
> >
> > Why do individuals need systematization in order to even be motivated at
> > all to publicly display their thesis? It just seems like a tool is being
> > provided that would only be beneficial to those minds who otherwise
> > wouldn't have cared, but now, opportunistically, see something that they
> > would submit to if only as another reason for them to appear laudable --
> > to score more scholastic brownie points. Unless I'm completely confused,
> > cannot any individual simply upload his or her thesis to the internet
> > (and anywhere on the internet at that, vs. some closed-in, nationalistic
> > university resource storage system)? Does the university otherwise take
> > full control of the thesis and treat it as property? I'm just really not
> > sure what is being transgressed here at all!
>
> Where did we say transgression? We are trying to open the doorway to
> more educational material that represents a year of highly specified
> study. Why the fuck not make things easier to people? Why look down on
> those that would not normally take the time to find a site where they
> could publish their thesis? Where does nationalistic even come into the
> story?
>
> >
> >     FreeCulture works to promote Open Access,
> >     how is using a repository hosted on a library server and offering
> the
> >     students a free and easy way to net their work not an admirable
> goal?
> >
> >
> > Because it precludes their self-organization in attempting that goal.
> > Throwing into a mass (and university-specific) pot like this might be
> > nice, but its effortless and doesn't really show any sort of potent
> > intent on the individuals side. It just shows that there was an easy
> > mechanism set up for privileged university students.
>
> I had to look up precludes just to make sure that I understood this
> usage correctly. How does this prevent/exclude/obstruct their
> self-organization? I feel that it aides those with little time on their
> hands to worry about other shit than meeting graduation requirements.
> Helping others just seems to make sense, somehow. "Potent intent" is fun
> to say. As for the "easy mechanism" for "privileged university students"
> you should check out DSpace. While made by the "privileged university"
> MIT, its open source and pretty sweet. Hell, you could set up your own
> repository and transgress anything you want!
>
> >
> >     I feel that many of the projects that this organization undertakes
> >     strive to educate others about existing oppotunities in creative
> >     expression and providing a way to make that expression easier. We
> are
> >     pushing to provide a selection of CC licenses to allow the students
> to
> >     decide how "free" they want their work to be. This is just the first
> >     step in the process, letting the Library, Computer Information
> >     Services, and the Administration know our goals and how we seek to
> >     implement them.
> >
> >     Why be so dismissive? You seem to think that college students like
> >     (assumedly) yourself have nothing to offer. Is promoting open access
> >     to student's work merely an pointless approbative function?
> >     -Rob
> >
> >
> > Nah, I'm not in college or university. I just think that this sort of
> > promotion has little to offer (not that the theses themselves have
> > little to offer -- just this mode of distributing them).
>
> So... using an open source repository to aide the publication of theses
> that have something to offer is a bad idea?
>
> > I would have liked to see it extend outside of some official university
> agenda if
> > anything.
>
> We are putting this on the university agenda as a way to make it
> compliant with library standards, a good goal when setting up a
> repository and system for archiving.
>
> > Plus, I guess I just have a taste for stronger and more
> > unexpected individual initiative. But... in not relegating myself to the
> > restrictions of the schooling system from square one, I might be missing
> > a lot of the point. I just like to see supposed "transgressions" move a
> > little bit further than the scope of a university-inclusive feedback
> > loop. It might be neat to have grander visions.
>
> When did we call this a transgression again? Are you quoting yourself or
> are those scare quotes? I never said that this was our single mission or
> our greatest goal, I just think its a good one to have. I still cannot
> figure out how making theses easily available to a wider public is a bad
> idea...
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