It’s exciting to see the topic generate such interest and activity — especially since that’s one of the premises on which the Disseminary is based.
One of the topics involves the question of what the various conversants mean by “open,” which I’d summarize with the following list of opennesses:
- “open source” (Stephen Carlson’s emphasis): primary texts freely available online.
- “open access”: Scholarship should be available to the reading public apart from the impedimenta of high prices and libraries or bookstores in remote locations.
- “open entry” (Paul‘s emphasis): Scholarship should take place on the basis of interest and capacity, without according privileged standing to those with Ph.D.s in specialized fields, or academic appointments. Anyone may join in.
- “open data” Scholarship should be archived in open, easily-indexable data formats.
- “open discourse”: Scholarship should conduct its business in public, where interested parties (who aren’t necessarily aiming to participate) can watch. learn, and pose interesting “outsider” challenges.
—Openness, Publication and Scholarship (Akma’s Random Thoughts)
Via KairosNews.