[FC-discuss] Open Access journal literature as an Open Educational Resource

[Gavin Baker]

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Denver Gingerich wrote:
> On 9/5/07, Gavin Baker <grbaker at ufl.edu> wrote:
>> [Blatant self-promotion follows:]
>>
>> I'm the current guest blogger at Terra Incognita, Penn State's
>> open education blog. The post is about open access, and suggests
>> that OA journal literature be considered part and parcel of open
>> education.
>>
>> The series concept at Terra Incognita is to encourage a lively
>> discussion from the community, so I invite you to read and comment
>> on my post:
>>
>> http://blog.worldcampus.psu.edu/index.php/2007/09/05/open-access-journal/
>>
>> I hope this will be a conversation-starter and help sharpen the
>> community's understanding of OA and OERs.
> 
> Indeed it is a conversation-starter, but I think that more people need
> to see it, especially those that support the current royalty-based
> system of academic journals.
> 
> From the article's comments it seems that most of the people that have
> read the article already subscribe to the ideals of free culture so
> it's really not changing anyone's mind.  We need to get people from
> the "other side" of the debate involved because the current royalty
> system will remain until people see why Open Access is better.
> 
> I'm sure this is a common problem in many related areas of discussion
> (F/LOSS, free music, etc.) so I'm wondering if maybe there are people
> on this list that have found methods of reaching the people that don't
> want to change to more free ways of doing things or don't know about
> them.  I'd be interested to hear about these methods.
> 
> Denver

Hi Denver,

Of course, I support the widest-possible circulation of my post. But it
was written with a particular audience in mind, and consciously so.

Clearly, outreach is important. That's most of what FreeCulture.org
does. But I also believe it's important to build a strong free culture
movement. I mean a movement, not any particular organization; indeed, I
don't care if it's called "free culture" -- the name's not what matters
(though I happen to find it an apt one). What matters is:

(1) A concern for human rights, civil liberties, creativity &
innovation, competition, and opportunity in the information society

(2) Mutual awareness, understanding, and ownership among stakeholders in
and advocates for the issues in (1)

To be clear, I am using "free culture" here not in the sense of
"cultural artifacts" but in the sense of "society" -- e.g., a culture of
freedom.

Unfortunately, it's premature to assume that (for example) most free
software advocates know of the existence of the open access movement,
let alone support it or understand its relevance to FOSS. There is a
current and ongoing need for conversation among the movements,
organizations, and individuals who have a stake in the issues described
above in (1).

This is not to imply that movement building is a higher priority than
outreach, and certainly not that one should be done to the exclusion of
the other. Both are valuable, and we should encourage and support both.

Cheers,
- --
Gavin Baker
http://freeculture.org/
gavin at freeculture.org

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