“Open Access” is still something I am trying to get my head
around. John Willinsky tells us in his
energetic video that he is fighting for Open Access for all educational
content/articles/books. He tells us that
at present time it costs between $23 and $45 to download an educational article
from, I presume, the average publishing house. Amazon, perhaps? While it will cost the average citizen only 99c
to download Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga.
The difference of course is that thousands will download Justin Bieber
but only one or two academic students will download an educational publication. It's called 'Economies of Scale'.
Now a law has been passed in the American congress that
requires ‘any recipient of public funding’ who publishes an educational article
to publish for free within 12 months of origination.
That seems to me to be very fair. But what about contributors to academia who
are not publicly funded? What happens
there?
On reflection I wrote a thesis way back in 1992 which now
sits in the Leeds University Library. I
wrote it in fulfillment of my Masters.
My reward was not money in the bank, but an education (and a
qualification) which made me a more marketable and respected provider of
services to an employer.
Our University of Zimbabwe and National University of
Science and Technology is, theoretically anyway, publicly funded. Nonetheless students are not educated there
for free.
So I remain confused.
What exactly does John Willinsky mean by ‘Open Access’ and how will it
affect citizen Joe as a contributor and a receiver of educational content?
Contributions welcome!
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