 Lessig (@lessig)1/26/13 8:31 AM The political consequences of academic paywalls aje.me/YcKgeC via@AJEnglish |
Academic paywalls are often presented as a moral or financial issue. How can one justify profiting off unpaid labour while denying the public access to research frequently funded through taxpayer dollars? But paywalls also have broader political consequences. Whether or not an article is accessible affects more than just the author or reader. It affects anyone who could potentially benefit from scholarly insight, information or expertise – that is, everyone.
Academics love to complain about superficial reporting or uninformed policy, but their own system denies professionals the opportunity to add depth to their work. With database subscription fees running tens of thousands of dollars, even prestigious organizations cannot afford to penetrate the paywall.
I regularly receive requests for my academic articles, and I always comply – as do most of the academics I know. Contrary to popular perception, most scholars want their work to be read. But for every researcher plaintively tweeting that they need a paywalled PDF, there are many for whom tracking down barricaded knowledge seems too much trouble. Instead, they rely on what resources are available. This means that a lot of academic research, some of which could have profound political implications, is ignored.
My friend knew she had to do what was right. As a scholar of an authoritarian regime, she understands that one of the greatest weapons of dictatorships is their ability to control information. She has witnessed firsthand the importance of accurate statistics, of open sources, of censored stories told. She knows what happens when those resources are denied.
Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach)1/26/13 8:35 AM
Just learned a new term: "brogrammers" refers to the "dude" world of programming #educon
 Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)1/26/13 8:36 AM I can't tweet from the design session,b/c they are making us work.#EduCon #edchat |
love
JackieGerstein Ed.D. (@jackiegerstein)1/26/13 8:36 AM
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, condemns British education system guardian.co.uk/technology/201… discussed by@garystager #educon25
Ira Socol (@irasocol)1/26/13 8:36 AM
"Design Thinking" begins with 35 minutes of lecture :0 #educon#educon25
Jerrid Kruse (@jerridkruse)1/26/13 8:39 AM
@irasocol same thing as last year, right? It's amazing how rampant "do as I say, not as I do" is in this profession.
 Chad Sansing (@chadsansing)1/26/13 8:43 AM #educon #hackjam "10 minutes until we shift:" "but we could do this all day!" also : "the lion _is_ the tollbooth!" if you re not following Chad at educon... he's balancing the tweets out.. now.. some are still tweeting.. same song.. second verse.. 35 min lectures.. when will we do what we say. and some.. sorry I can't tweet now.. they re making me do stuff... around a come-alive candyland board game |
loving it Chad...
eyes on idec, aug 2013
Chad Sansing (@chadsansing)1/26/13 8:39 AM
overheard at #educon #hackjam: "if you land on the popsicle, you go into the icy grip of high-stakes testing" come to room 308 & save them!
Michael Walker (@micwalker)1/26/13 8:37 AM
"The ISTE NETS make students slaves to the interface." @garystager On why programming should be taught in schools. #educon
 Will Richardson (@willrich45)1/25/13 5:19 PM We don't support or nurture risk taking by students in school. We have a well worn path to "success"; don't tolerate much deviation. #educon |
not only.. don't tolerate.. we make it criminal
Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann)1/25/13 4:43 PM
@baldy7 sometimes it helps to not understand how crazy the thing you are doing actually is. #educon
Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu)1/26/13 8:39 AM
Why teach kids to Tweet abt topics they don't care abt for non-existant audiences targeting people they'll never meet?@garystager #educon
or blog or whatever