Peer production and/in academia (was: Re: [ox-en] Re: [p2pf] Launch of P2P Research Group)

Hi Mathieu, Michel, Andreas, all!

Last month (36 days ago) Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
> Aside from the relationship to academia -Ryan said that
> traditional academia is quite a closed system - its true but its not
> just an elitism thing - if you are credentialed (by an institution)
> and published (in academic journals) it does indicate a level of
> commitment / rigour / going through the right hoops etc - so it is
> not obvious but hey why not try to have a rapprochement..

I agree with Mathieu here. Of course academia has the need to raise
more funds just to sustain the personnel. Of course the fight in
academia for visibility is heavy. Of course these alienated incentives
/ necessities in a exchange based environment lead to a distortion of
the very idea of academia.

But: The institutions are necessary to keep quality standards. In
completely different fields I personally see what happens to initially
good ideas if they are not guided by an institutional embedding.

I'm always trying to find out what is good and worthwhile keeping from
the current world and what needs to be overcome. I think the rigor of
institutions like universities is something which needs to be kept.
The distortions coming from alienation need to be overcome. And the
problem of expensive research machinery must be solved.

Also: What we see in peer production is very similar to the original
idea of academia: Let there be a free flow of ideas. In fact some
years ago I heard people arguing that Free Software is very much based
on the principles of academia.

Even inside academia there is a movement which tries to make academia
more like peer production. It is called OpenAccess - and frankly I'm a
bit astonished that the thread I'm responding to didn't bring it up.

So the scientists in the institutions *are* the agents for a change.
It is very similar to the success of Free Software: Those who liked
Free Software are inside of companies and continuously suggest it. And
step by step things happen.

In fact I think this is the way to go. In the case of the P2P Research
Group I think it would be worthwhile thinking of proponents of the
OpenAccess movement are included somehow (I have no idea how, though).
There was also the idea of a scientific magazine - may be this could
be combined somehow.


						Grüße

						Stefan
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