Are Open Access and Traditional Publishers in the Same Business?
We’ve lived long enough with the proposition that OA publishers compete with traditional publishers. Perhaps they do not. Some major indicators suggest a non-competitive coexistence.
Red, Green, and Blue — The Library Classification System Parody
Full of “all kinds of odd mappings between the categories and the world they describe,” library organizational systems get a jolly send-up in this pre-Google British comedy sketch.
The Emergence of the Disposable E-Book Reader — An Inflection Point in Ambient Computing?
By offering a bare-bones Kindle at a very low price point, Amazon has created a virtually disposable e-reader that does exactly what it should, and little more. Will this little probe down-market unleash a tidal surge toward e-books?
My Utopian Vision for Communication of Scientific Methods
The publishing industry seems to be focused on improving a system that already works well, the system of topical information flows. Perhaps it should be looking at the system of method information flows.
The Library With No Books In It
A surprising collection found at the Schroedinger Archive includes a number of works of short fiction that take scholarly communications as their subject. In it, we find a tale with many surprising reversals — “The Library With No Books In It.”
The Kindle Changes Books Again — With Kindle X-Ray
“Historians may look back on September 28, 2011, as the day the book lost its bookishness.” – Nicholas Carr. When you throw in a smaller feature on the more disruptive basic Kindle — X-Ray — Carr is probably right.
London Calling — Open Access PR Wends Its Way From London Into a Major US Newspaper
Another open access plug piece, this time in the Gray Lady herself, but fed from London (yet again). Is there something more to all this?
Taxpayer OA is Already Here, In Principle — In Reports
Taxpayer access to US federally funded research results need not involve publishers giving away their product. An alternative mechanism is available, one that is already partially implemented. It is called the research report. Demands for free access to taxpayer funded […]
Have Journal Editors Become Anachronisms?
It has become fashionable to rally against the elitism of journals and their editors. An economic argument for why we still need them both.
Changes in the Kitchen — Two Established Chefs Depart, Two New Ones Join
Two chefs depart, two chefs join — all to keep the Kitchen’s dishes fresh and interesting.
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories — A Charming, Logical, and Whimsical Lesson
Ever seen your favorites stories in line-graph form?
Rallying Cries vs. Reality: Profits and Publishing Meet Academics and Idealism
The comments on a recent post revealed a litany of rhetoric that doesn’t quite match up with nuanced reality.
OA Rhetoric, Economics, and the Definition of "Research"
Rhetoric can’t hide financial realities. Is trading research for access a good use of funds?
Graphical Displays, Statistics, and Thinking Straight — "Picturing the Uncertain World"
Simplifying the complex isn’t a simple task. A new book by a practiced hand and statistician proves entertaining and enlightening.
Does Access Create New Types of Scarcity?
A compelling essay points out some interesting wrinkles to the access debate.