[Air-L] Open access and academia.edu

[Jonathan Sterne, Dr.]

Hi Matthieu,

I get the digest, so the subject is always already changed.  Sorry to inconvenience you with my replies.

Everyone else:

Deborah's point about academia.edu's business model, is completely fair. Except I think we've seen enough commercial social media ventures at the point that the burden of proof is on them regarding the selling of users' data. So the idea that "anyone can sign up" is only valid if you think the TOS are okay.  Most of my friends seem to.  I don't.  Social media companies are profit making ventures, and like the big commercial presses, I see no reason to assume their motivations are mine (as a scholar). 

I would be thrilled to be proven wrong and will immediately retract the mean things I said about academia.edu if they have another business model that doesn't involve selling users' data (or knowledge generated from it) or intend to become a nonprofit like Wikipedia.  In fact, I would praise them.  In the meantime, just remember that ventures like academia.edu are expensive to run.  At least the media scholars among us should be asking who is paying and what they are hoping for in return.

I'm about to disappear for a bit, so my apologies in advance for fanning flames and then ducking out.  But my points are serious.

--
http://sterneworks.org
(apologies for iPad typos.
> On Dec 9, 2013, at 15:46, "Mathieu ONeil" <mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au> wrote:
> 
> Hi Jonathan
> 
> You probably should stop changing the title of the messages: breaks the thread :-)
> The garden wall does not seem unscaleable, anyone can create an account on academia...
> 
> cheers
> Mathieu
> 
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Jonathan Sterne, Dr. [jonathan.sterne at mcgill.ca]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 7:07
> To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Subject: [Air-L] Open access and academia.edu
> 
> Just to be clear for Matthieu, my point wasn't about services  and whether people like academia.edu or not.  Many of my colleagues love it.  My concern is profit models and ethical and social obligations, especially differences between theirs and mine.  The walled garden is reason enough for me not to opt in.  I have managed to continue discovering good new work without it.
> 
> On the services front, just a big +1 to the points from Daren and Rex.
> 
> Also: if you want open access journals to have higher impact factors, don't just submit to them, read the and cite them.
> 
> And one more thing: those of us who write tenure reviews also need to take time in our letters to argue for the significance of new publishing models when junior scholars take advantage of them.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> PS -- Still, I also believe there is a place for university and independent presses: they do a lot of useful work for authors and for readers.  Even the most committed digital humanists are still writing books, as are many social scientists who want to reach wider audiences.  And funding for good open access journals remains an issue.
> --
> http://sterneworks.org
> (apologies for iPad typos.)
> 
>> On Dec 9, 2013, at 9:38, Matthieu "air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
>> 
>> iefly: not sure about comparing the enormous fees charged by Elsevier etc to a free service like Academia. Now, granted that Academia.edu may be profiting off users, but - apart from its social networking functions - it does provide services since it tells you (amongst other things) (1) when people search for your work, what search terms they use, where they come from; (2) how many times subscribers have downloaded specific items; (3) when people upload content that you are interested in. If it did not do those things people would not use it
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