Let’s Make Open Access Work
Let’s put aside all the controversy about open access publishing and come up with an OA plan that will work.
If You Can’t Stand the Heat: Open Dialog and Open Access
The Scholarly Kitchen is a venue for open dialog. Yet a few open access advocates consistently try to intimidate people in order to squelch discussion.
An Interview with Kent Anderson at WritersCast
Interview with Kent Anderson on various issues concerning scholarly publishing and the life of the writer.
Do Free E-Books Drive Print Sales? Other Forces Seem More Powerful Than “Free”
A study making the rounds about free e-books and their effect on sales has major flaws, both micro and macro.
A Renowned Literary Author Self-Publishes
Is this a watershed moment for independent publishing?
Science Blogging as a Public Outreach Tool — Unfulfilled Potential or Unrealistic Expectation?
A recent study points out that science blogs are failing to provide much in the way of community outreach and education to the non-scientist public. Is this really a failure, or is it an unrealistic expectation?
Penguin Previews How Books Might Look on the iPad
Penguin is experimenting with the iPad, and sharing what they’re thinking in this video demo. It’s pretty amazing stuff.
Shirky at NFAIS: How Abundance Breaks Everything
“Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does. Society knows how to react to scarcity.” Clay Shirky speaks at the opening session of NFAIS.
Books As Software — O’Reilly Makes It Happen
O’Reilly launches the “live book,” a way to extend the useful life of a book by turning hardware into software.
Old PhDs and the Matthew Effect — Is the Attention Economy of Scholarship Making Science Too Staid?
Older PhDs, longer postdoc stints, the rich getting richer, and other factors are creating a “founder effect” and consolidating power at the upper end of scholarship. Is it a Ponzi scheme? Can grassroot efforts change things?
“You Are Not a Gadget” — Why Open Culture and Technocentric Philosophies Are Ruining Our Lives
Jason Lanier’s manifesto about the open culture exposes its lack of ingenuity, its commercial depredations, its amoral world view, and its elitist predilections. It’s worth reading in full.
E-books Get a Leg Up from CrossRef
CrossRef moves into the reference works area for e-books, with a linking approach and pricing that might just work.
Lessons from a Neighboring Industry — Demand Media’s Disruptive Impact on Journalism
Demand Media has created a journalism and custom content platform that disrupting neighboring publishing models. Can we learn something from their approach?
Are Google and Microsoft Squaring Off Over Public Domain Works?
Why Google apparently gives government documents more protections than 19th century texts is just one of the puzzles in their usage guidelines.
New Chef: Welcome Alix Vance to the Scholarly Kitchen
We welcome Alix Vance, SSP Board Member and president of Paratext, as the newest chef in the Scholarly Kitchen.