[WSIS CS-Plenary] ITID's The World Summit in Reflection

[mclauglm at po.muohio.edu]

Here's a story:

I believe that this occurred at prepcom 2 of the first phase of WSIS. 
At a Contents and Themes meeting (Rony was present, I believe), we 
were reviewing language in one version of the draft declaration. The 
majority of C&T interlocutors supported language that took 
communication to be a public good that should not be prevented from 
enhancing knowledges because of strict intellectual property laws and 
policies. Someone from the International Publishers Association 
(IPA). (I forget the person's name) was angered because he wanted to 
protect the rights of "owners" of copyrighted material. He was in the 
"creators and promoters of culture" family, which was one of several 
venues for the private sector to insert itself into CS processes. 
After the meeting, I asked him if we could talk for a bit, and he 
agreed; I pointed out that, ironically, his position that the 
creators of culture need to have their rights protected had the 
potential to undermine the very industry that he represented (full 
disclosure: he represents two of my publishers) because, if one wants 
to be specific, publishers aren't creators of culture--authors are. 
And, in most cases, authors are forced to sign contracts that gives 
away their rights to their own work because that's the only way that 
their work will ever see the light of day. My new friend from the IPA 
agreed that this was indeed an issue, but he said that, in the long 
run, the publishing industry would always win because authors don't 
have many choices but to do business with the those who demand to 
have copyright transferred to them; therefore, by taking a position 
supporting the rights of creators of culture (and who doesn't?), he 
could keep up appearances as a good citizen while not having to 
suffer any real threats from authors.

Which all leads to what I think is an important point: What Lawrence 
Lessig and Michael Gurstein are doing is sincerely admirable. But, 
respectfully, I'd suggest that publishing in Open Archive journals 
works for them because both have already achieved tenure and/or 
promotion and a status in their respective fields that expands their 
options. Michael, you are astute, and I would guess that you are 
aware that, in publishing in Open archive journals, there is less 
threat to you professionally-speaking than that which would be risked 
by junior scholars who have not yet received tenure and/or promotion. 
For the latter, the jewel in the crown is the established, 
mainstream, usually organizationally-associated journals, almost all 
of which are published  by publishers who demand that copyright be 
reassigned to them. Through mergers and acquisitions, these 
publishers are becoming an oligopoly. Open archive journals are still 
viewed with a great deal of skepticism, at least in the US, when it 
comes to having one's writing evaluated.

One reason why I mention this is that I know that not everyone on 
this list is an academic or a writer who is looking for the broadest 
audience possible and forced to conform to the notion of "legitimate" 
publishing venues. As some others have mentioned, we need to help one 
another understand things because we are a diverse lot. The other 
reason is that I believe that we should fight for the idea of 
communication as a public good in the broadest sense, and one way of 
doing so is to fight for alternative methods of publishing, such as 
Open Archive, as legitimate, regardless of the demands of the 
institutions to which we are attached and the economic needs of the 
mainstream publishing industry.

Best,

Lisa (in full disclosure: among other things, I'm editor of Feminist 
Media Studies, which is owned by one of the behemoths of for-profit 
journal publishing: Taylor and Francis Ltd; but, in my defense, I 
signed the contract before my smaller, less oligopolistic publisher 
was bought out by T&F:))



>
>
>I personally, have decided to follow Lawrence Lessig's lead and only
>publish my academic writing in Open Archive journals which make their
>materials freely available to all via the net.
>
>Mike Gurstein
>
>Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
>School of Management
>New Jersey Institute of Technology
>