Michael Schiltz, Frederik Truyen and Hans Coppens

i. Introduction: theoretical perspective

ii. From the printing press to the digital ageii. From the printing press to the digital age

iii. The cry for Open Access

iv. From social software to social knowledge

v. Downladable beliefs

vi. It is a knowledge economy

vii. Cutting the trees of knowledge

viii. The future of classification

Niklas Luhmann

•Social Systems Theory

Friedrich Kittler

•Media Materialism Theory

“society and information are deeply influenced by

technology”(Schiltz, Truyen, & Coppen, 2007, p. 95)

World as being configured by

ourselves

Decisions are based on observations that are

complexly influenced by our actual technological

environment.

“a feudal knowledge exchange system run by the few for the few, supported ideologically by the church of rigor, financed by university factories of

“Information flow and the number of channels available have steadily grown as ideologically by the church of rigor,

financed by university factories of knowledge, whose goal is to dominate and defend the purity of specialized

intellectual fiefdoms.”

(Whitworth & Friedman, 2009)

channels available have steadily grown as digitalization and cheaper content

production have made more data publicly available”

(Verhulst, 2002, p. 434)

Scholarly Communication crisis

Complex scene between commercial publishers and needs of academic

world

• Rise of journal prices

• Publisher consolidation

• Copyright law

• Licensing contracts

Open Access Movement

“it is the free online availability of the research results that scholars give away themselves (peer-

reviewed journals articles and conferences papers, mostly), provided by authors upon acceptance for publication and made permanently available without restrictions on use” without restrictions on use”

(Alan Swan cited in Pappalardo, 2008, p. 3)

Traditional model of academic publishing

Traditional model of academic publishing

Use of social software

Use of social software

http://andrew.treloar.net/research/theses/phd/thesis-1.gif http://www.topnews.in/files/Social-networks302.jpg

“Social software leads to another kind of knowledge, and possibly to a vastly superior one” (Schiltz, Truyen, & Coppen, 2007, p. 99)

EscepticismEscepticism

Quality of scientific

publications “Rejection is the rule in scholarly publication, not the exception”

(Moxley, 1992, p. 141)

Copyright concerns

Detractors of Open access

Traditional model of publishingTraditional model of publishing

Electronic publishingElectronic publishing

Traditional systems of classification => Organization of knowledgeTraditional systems of classification => Organization of knowledge

Tagging practices / FolksonomiesTagging practices / Folksonomies

“the act of tagging information with the purpose of further

retrieval”

Folksonomies

“

“retrieval” (Vander Wal, 2007)

Folksonomies help expand our understanding by

showing the overlap between many related concepts and how they merge into the wealth of social practices that give them meaning.”

(Schiltz, Truyen, & Coppen, 2007, p. 107)

What is your position regarding Open Access

How the social web affects (for better or worst) academic publishing?

?

Are the new scholar works less respectable because of the publishing model

Under this new model, where is the truth Is still in the peer-revision?

?

?

1. Berners-Lee, T. (1999, July 23). Glossary. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from Weaving the web: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Weaving/glossary.html

2. Gane, N. (2005). Radical Post-humanism: Friedrich Kittler and the Primacy of Technology. Theory, Culture & Society , 22 (3), 25-41.

3. Moxley, J. (1992). How to attack manuscripts like an editor or reviewer. In Publish, don’t perish: the scholar’s guide to academic writing & publishing (pp. 141-168). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

4. Pappalardo, K. (2008). Understanding open access in the academic environment: a guide for authors. Brisbane, Qld.: OAK Law Project, QUT.

5. Rosenzweig, M. (n.d.). Scholars Under Siege: Changing Our Scholarly Publishing Culture. Retrieved September 06, 2009, from www.lib.utk.edu/colldev/ScholarsUnderSiege.pdf

6. Schiltz, M., Truyen, F., & Coppen, H. (2007). Cutting the trees of knowledge: social software, information architecture and their epistemic consequences. Thesis Eleven (89), 94-114.

7. Suber, P. (2004, July 14). Guide to the Open Access Movement. Retrieved September 5, 2009, from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/guide.htm

8. Vander Wal, T. (2007, February 2). Folksonomy Coinage and Definition. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from vanderwal.net: http://vanderwal.net/folksonomy.html

9. Verhulst, S. (2002). About scarcities and intermediaries: the regulatory paradigm shift of digital content reviewed. In L. Lievrouw, & S. Livingstone (Eds.), Handbook of new media (pp. 432-447). London: Thousand Oaks.

10.Whitworth, B., & Friedman, R. (2009, August 3). Reinventing academic publishing online. Part I: Rigor, relevance and practice. Retrieved September 16, 2009, from First Monday: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2609/2248