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

[Converted from multipart/alternative]

[1 text/plain]
I have been lurking onthis list for a long time as it was indeed
tangentially related to my own main interests. These happen to be Open
Access (I am an academic) and Free Software (I saw the French
organization AFUL come to light and was on its board twice).

I am not sure how all these movements can converge, but I am interested
in thinking about it.

I will be on the road with limited Internet connection for the next ten
days. But I will read any reaction to this with great interest when I
return.

Jean-Claude Guédon

Le dimanche 24 mai 2009 à 21:05 +0200, Stefan Merten a écrit :

> 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
> _________________________________
> Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
> Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
> Contact: [email protected]

Jean-Claude Guédon
Université de Montréal


[2 text/html]
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: [email protected]