Also when you write something as a work in progress, one uses Research Gate. I have a few hundred items there and so far in three years have has close to 25,000 downloads. I have put drafts of books, and expect that that is as far as I will go, for some have already had thousands of downloads. Since I do not seek academic awards, only seek to put my ideas into the cauldron of thinkers, this is all that is needed. Google does not do that.
So with Open Source publishing, for that segment that Google had provided an essential asset a decade ago, it not only has been superseded but has been dis-intermediated. Thus in this small corner of Googledom, we see cracks appearing.
Along comes a study on creating these Open Source venues in an MIT affiliated report.
The number of OS online publishing platforms has proliferated in the last decade, but the report finds that they are often too small, too siloed, and too niche to have much impact beyond their host organization or institution. This leaves them vulnerable to shifts in organizational priorities and external funding sources that prioritize new projects over the maintenance and improvement of existing projects. This fractured ecosystem is difficult to navigate and the report concludes that if open publishing is to become a durable alternative to complex and costly proprietary services, it must grapple with the dual challenges of siloed development and organization of the community-owned ecosystem itself.
Open Source, OS, is a movement wherein documents are provided without paywalls. Journal publishers may bemoan this. There is the issue of peer review and exclusive highly credentialed journals such as Nature which present the best of the best, but OS system allow and support works in progress. It stimulates early works and allows for more immediacy but without the constraints of peer review. Now if one is seeking to gain the credentials in Academia then peer reviewed publications are sine qua non. If however one is beyond that stage then OS platforms allow for a ready outlet. If readers think what you say is useless they can let you know in many ways. First they can tell you and second you can see your site gets no attention.
Now this report that the MIT group refers to states:
Our findings include the following, each of which is elaborated upon in the report:
We need a standardized taxonomy for the various functions performed by SCRs. It is currently difficult to differentiate between the broad range of functions offered by SCRs. It is also challenging to understand which steps are common in scholarly communications and publishing workflows, and what SCR choices might work for each of these steps.
SCRs operating within nonprofit and hosted environments report ongoing challenges in raising and sustaining appropriate levels of funding to enable them to build and maintain services over time. These SCRs need additional support if they are to be viable options for institutional use.
Connected to the above, sunsetting in our scholarly communication technical environment is often considered a sign of failure. Instead, we need to welcome it as a sign of a healthy overall environment. We also need to further explore the value of mergers, migrations, and other mechanisms that may provide the necessary administrative, fiscal, and social infrastructure to help support the technical development and maintenance SCRs require. Scaled, leveraged efficiencies (e.g., multiple programs hosted by a single entity with shared leadership and staffing) may help to bring needed expertise while also maintaining a lower overhead.
SCRs need guidance, mentorship, training, and opportunities to refine their visions, technical platforms and design, financial and HR models, community engagement and outreach practices, and governance frameworks, as well as the decision-making processes that undergird each of these elements.
It is not at all clear what these mean. I have read them a few times and perhaps I am too far from the Academy.
Bot Semantic Scholar and Research Gate seem to do quite well. In fact in just the two years or so of using them I find them indispensable. From one I can get what I need and from the other I can see if what I have produced has any interest.
Some of the principals behind this effort have noted:
While the primary focus of our research, and of this report, is software and software development—functionality, code, developers, partners, and funders—the themes we have kept in mind throughout have to do with sustainability, scale, collaboration, and ecosystem integration. Through all of our research, and our investigations of dozens of projects, the question in the back of our minds is always who will care about these projects? Their project leads and PIs of course care, but beyond the inner circle of active agency... who else will care enough to fund, contribute, promote, use, and ultimately further the useful life of these projects? What are the values and mechanisms that cause people—especially external stakeholders—to care enough about these projects to keep them alive, and even thriving, going forward?
I gather the issue is platforms for OS publishing. If OS is developed on OS software, say like the Internet was, with the equivalent of an IETF, does this enable a similar open network of OS facilitators? If that is so, then does this platform then create a true disintermediation to say a Google. Namely information without advertising? Without tracking? Without intrusion? Without profiling?
This may not be the case since Google does facilitate a great number of transaction related efforts. I suspect Google will be around much longer, but perhaps this effort, as confusing as it may be to me, may not be to Google.
But one last thought. As long as Microsoft monopolizes the OS market and continues to deliver what in my opinion based upon my experience is a defective product, the world will need Google to find out how to fix it.
But one last thought. As long as Microsoft monopolizes the OS market and continues to deliver what in my opinion based upon my experience is a defective product, the world will need Google to find out how to fix it.
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