[FC-discuss] Free Thesis Project Released Today

[Chris Morris]

On 5/4/07, Gavin Baker <grbaker at ufl.edu> wrote:
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> Well, the people who actually implemented the project can tell you why
> they did it that way, but from where I sit, I'm looking at this as a
> pilot project -- to see whether it would be worthwhile to build a
> "universal" open repository for student papers, and how best that would
> be implemented.
>
Granted. All the more reason to bring up a lot of questions now before
this goes "live" to other places.

> There's various reasons why IRs are SOP, including collective action
> problems: e.g. schools get higher visibility for having an IR (more
> accessible work frequently has a higher citation factor, etc.), so
> they're willing to pay to maintain it, but they're less willing to pay
> to maintain the "big universal repository in the sky," because the
> benefits of that contribution are less apparent (e.g. "my contribution
> doesn't make a difference, so I won't chip in").
Well, I am be wrong, but the reason for this isn't to have a lot of
people cite my thesis, but to increase the availability of scholarly
works. The fact that this is run by FC and not the schools means we
can do it however we want.

> More practically, the repositories store their metadata in a
> standardized way, which should make it easy to find stuff, no matter
> whose repository it's in. And if the contents are freely licensed, then
> anyone can mirror the whole repository, which allows for redundancy. So
> I really don't think it makes much practical difference.
>
> Frankly, I find this whole discussion to be akin to suggesting that I
> shouldn't have my own blog, I should just get a MySpace, because that
> way we'll all be on the same site. What's it matter?
Well, a blog lives or dies on my effort alone. If I want to run my own
web server to host it, I am responsible for it. What happens when I
upload my thesis to my free culture chapters site and 10 years later,
the chapter no longer exists, and the site is taken down? If someone
is mirroring it, why don't they much a universal site. What about the
students at the vast majority of universities that have no free
culture club?

Chris