WSIS Knowledge Communities: Defining Open Access

Sanjaya Mishra
430 days ago

Dear All,

We all agree that definition is important for any field to develop systematically. Notwithstanding the large number of efforts on defining Open Access (OA), we still have a variety of ways in which OA is defined. To some, it is ‘opening access’ (as in increasing access), while to others it is ‘libre access’ (free of copyright restrictions), and still others use it as ‘free access’ (without cost to the readers). There are still others who believe in low-cost access as also a variety of OA. In all these variations, digital, and access on the Web are common. The existing definitions (Budapest, Bethesda, Berlin and many others) mainly emphasize the characteristics/attributes of the publications to explain what OA is. From that perspective, if we look at a variety of OA initiatives, we can say some are OA complaint and some are not fully OA complaint. OA seems to be in a flexible continuum of ‘available online’ to ‘use of a variety of CC licences’. Some even use the term ‘public domain’ interchangeably with OA. The long list of definitions can be seen in the 2004 document of Society for Scholarly Publishing (at http://snhs-plin.barry.edu/Research/online_access_SSP_Status_Report.pdf).

According to Peter Suber, OA “is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions”. This is simple, and very useful. But in various discourses, the use of simple online availability of any materials as OA is also considered within the broader scope of OA. Does that mean we need to address this issue further to define it? I am not sure... and I want you all to think about this carefully. We may need a more inclusive definition to further the cause of OA.

Some may even go ahead and say ... What’s in a name?

Your thoughts are welcome...

Sukhdev Singh

Sukhdev Singh
430 days ago

I feel we should instead try to define OA in terms of list of requirements. For me, the core requirement is that OA Literature should be ACCESSIBLE FREE OF CHARGE to the END USER (i.e READER). I don't think the end user is bothered much about other requirements.

Muvaffak Gozaydin

Muvaffak Gozaydin
430 days ago

Dear Sirs

Although I am against in principle to OPEN ACCESS.

It can not be sustainable. But ONLINE is already at very low cost for millions I am on the side of to charge a small fee for access to good quality content.

I am thrilled with India due to its being a fanstastic model for online.

1.- Your internet access not too bad

2.- Lots of OER and local vendors available

3.- Hardware alreday dropped to $ at whole in Chine to $ 198 .for a netbook .

What you have missing. Probably policy makers.

In Turkey we have achived to be connected to 100 % of the 16.000.000 K12 students plus all schools have broad band internet.

But not enough netbooks yet. Only 1 desk top for 10 children .

On the implementation we have the teachers against us. They are afraid they will lose their jobs.

Jacky Hood

Jacky Hood
430 days ago

Muvaffak,

I am delighted that you have mentioned that completely open access is not sustainable and that very-low-price, very-high-volume is a good business model. I am concerned that author-donated materials lack the illustrations, photographs, editing, layout, and currency of materials for which the creators are compensated. Thousands of years of altruism have not solved the problems of poverty and lack of education. Bringing everyone into the economic mainstream as both producers and consumers is sustainable and treats all with respect rather than pity. The books Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad and The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves by James Tooley provide excellent roadmaps.

As one example, the books for Project Management certification range in price from US$80 to US$120 or more and sell a few thousand copies. In contrast a book for US$1 (or even 10 cents) might sell to most of the world's 16 million project managers. The creators receive far more compensation and the knowledge is much more widely distributed.

The difficulty is billing for small sums without incurring more cost than the price of the resource. Here it makes sense to turn to cell phone technology. The phone companies have figured out how to make money on transactions costing only pennies. Cell phone networks are available to more of the world than the internet. While people expect nearly everything on the Internet to be free, they are accustomed to paying for cell-phone content and usage.

Regards,
Jacky Hood
College Open Textbooks

Muvaffak Gozaydin

Muvaffak Gozaydin
430 days ago

Dear Jacky

First I heard Project Management Certification . It is wonderful.

I would like to promote it for you in Turkey.

You say 100 % same thing like me .

$ 1 a book selling 1.000.000 instead of $ 100 a book selling only 5000 Calculate the difference.

Collecting small amount of money is no problem now.

My project in the agenda is low price netbooks for 16.000.000 K12 students in Turkey.

My price is $ 6-7 per month for 36 months . 16.000.000 people will pay $ 6-7 every month .This small amount is collected by credit cards. Credits cards are all automated No cost is involved. System is there. System is so powerful now everybody buys everything by installment of 12 months without additional interest ( they say I do not believe ) So collection of $ 1 for a book is no problem.

In fact I am about to initiate to provide ONLINE English for the world First in Turkey .

Price will be $ 1 per year license . Gas companies, big supermarkets, big newspapers will distribute " passwords " free of charge to its customers who purchased $ 100 merchandise.

When they go home, they will enter into website , write their password and instantly they will access to online English class for one full year . That simple .

For commercial people that is a good social responsibility as well .

Please give me info regarding your book Project Management .

Best regards.

Sukhdev Singh

Sukhdev Singh
430 days ago

I feel, while defining Open Access, We should keep other issues like sustainability out of our focus. There are various business models for OA, but then I feel these should be discussed seperately. I have deliberately stressed on FREE FOR END USER in the requirements for Open Access (above). This does not mean that there is no cost involved. Cost of OA could be shifted to those, who are primarily responsible for funding of research (One of the many business model of OA).

Muvaffak Gozaydin

Muvaffak Gozaydin
430 days ago

Dear Singh

There is one law, nobody can reject its truthfullness.

That supply and demand .

While there is demand for education a supply will be made.

Business model for that is ONLINE

Creating online courses a perfect ones say $ 1.000.000 per course.

Since there is demand by 10.000.000 in the world for the price of $ 1 per course; it is sustainable.

Businessmen can decide the balance between supply and demand not the teachers .

Quality is just perfect. It is not an OER made by some enthusiastic people.

We have to convince the people of the world and policy makers for this business model .

Dr. Angel Magar

Dr. Angel Magar
430 days ago

As Sanjaya said there are varieties of definition of OA. And the biggest question is OA for who? Once this things are defined rest would be very easy.

And I also advocate for long term sustatinability of OA contents, and its Quality too.

Ian Thomson

Ian Thomson
429 days ago

I agree with Sukhdev Singh. When we talk about Free Education for children, we dont try to define the long tail or supply and demand. We dont talk about how to pay the teachers. It is a principal we all agree on.

All development agencies say the only way out of poverty is through education. We are simply extending the definiation of Free Education to include education materials. Open Access is about free access to educational materails.

yacintha e. desembriartista

yacintha e. desembriartista
429 days ago

If payment is applied in accessing the OA materials, and it is most likely through credit card, how about those who do not have credit card?

Jacky Hood

Jacky Hood
429 days ago

Muvaffak asked for more information about the Project Management Certification Open Textbook; this can be found at http://projectmanagementopenresources.ning.com/

Ian said that we all agree on free education for chiltdren and do not talk about supply and demand or how to pay teachers. Count me and millions others out of those who agree. Education is a service and has a cost. We cannot pretend that nature provides it. It is wrong to force teachers, administrators, and other educators to work without pay; it is wrong to coerce citizens (through threats of fines and imprisonment) to pay for education through taxes. For some families, things other than education are more urgent: food, shelter, and medical care. Parents, students, and teachers need choices. Education needs a new business model with more innovation, efficiency (such as digital resources), and more selection. Manufacturing and agriculture have become highly productive. Services including education lag behind.

Yacintha asked how people without credit cards can pay. There are many ways: through cell phone contracts, through PayPal, through local consolidators who collect cash or other payments such as crops. For the poorest of the poor, non-profit foundations will pay. Some for-profits are also willing to pay; e.g. when Ning abolished free social networks, for-profit Pearson Education stepped up to pay for Nings for educational sites. Education providers typically charge sliding scale and give away services to their poorest customers. Most schools provide scholarships to promising students.

Regards, Jacky Hood, College Open Textbooks

Anil Prasad

Anil Prasad
429 days ago

Dear all,

The state of knowledge is actually a creation of information investment being made by numerous sources, sources that are known and unknown, from times unknown. Yes, each piece of knowledge is an amazingly broad and complex collaborative production that is progressive in nature. Said that, who is fully competent to claim copyright over any piece of given knowledge? Or simply “who owns knowledge?” – the answer will definitely establish the legitimacy as well as definition of OA.

We are also required to differentiate between generating income/profit by selling locked up knowledge and earning a living by producing and distributing original/derivative works of open knowledge. Opportunity for earning a living is a matter of social justice. Therefore Open Access will be complete only when it allow adaption and open up venues for earning a living. We are only concerned that, even after paving way for one to earn a living, the knowledge should come out of that process free as it was before.

Moreover, it is the need of the hour when we consider climate change. The threats like global warming make OA a mandatory requirement for existence. We have to ensure above kind of open access to alternative environment-friendly technologies for fast adaption in all parts of the globe to save our green planet. Thoughts???

--
Warm regards

Anil

Sukhdev Singh

Sukhdev Singh
429 days ago

Open Access to me has to do more with scholarly journal articles. Researchers, funded directly or indirectly by public money, give away their research results for free to scholary journals. They do not expect direct monetary gains in return from these journals. They only expect appreciation of their works and citations to these from their peers. This is how "science" works and develops.

Educational Resources are different from scholarly journal articles, thus some comments by members over may be relevent for Open Educational Resources but may not be so relevent when it comes to "Open Access".

I do not understand why Dr Sanjaya choice to define "Open Access" in this forum. It would be just "reinventing the wheel" if we ignore the 'Open Access Overview' by Peter Suber - http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm

Sanjaya Mishra

Sanjaya Mishra
429 days ago

I do not want to re-invent the wheel. If it does look like such naive, my apologies. But I want more clarity in the context of the work we are all doing. I agree on the points that you indicate to, and sometimes in open forums the discussion tend to go out of the context, and thanks for bringing back the group to the main point of the discussion. As you can see from my initial post, I start with Peter Suber's definition, and go on to give the reasons why we need more clarity.

To be more specific, we need to consider what is Open? Gratis and libre access or just any research/ scholarly paper available on the web? Can we consider materials with copyright restrictions available for free individual use (for reading and citation) as Open Access? Does Open Access has something more than just availability (as in Budapest and Bethesda declarations)? If you charge fee (very low) for access, does it still make Open Access?

These are some of the issues that I see in many platfroms used by OA pactitioners. I strongly believe that in oder to develop this area, we need to have common understandings.

What other members of the group think?

Sukhdev Singh

Sukhdev Singh
429 days ago

Thanks Sanjaya for highlighting purpose of the discussion thread.

As I said earlier, it would be better if we think of core requirements of Open Access. The core requirement "FREE FOR END USER" needs further qualifications. Like "WHAT" is type we are looking under Open Access? Does, anything that is available free can be called Open Access Content? Whether it is FREE for ALL USERS, or just for special category of users (Members, Country Access etc).

Open Access movement started when scientists / scholars started thinking aloud (as a community) - hey, we write and peer-review papers then why should we pay to read them? So, when we talk about Open Access, we think in terms of scholarly articles (peer-reviewed) to be made FREELY ACCESSIBLE. Here "FREE" means FREE of COST (to end user) as well as FREE of RESTRICTIONS to access online.