[Air-L] Open access and academia.edu

[Robert W. Gehl]

Hi, Deborah -

It isn't certain Academia will ever turn a profit (as even much larger
social media sites may not). But for now it has attracted venture
capital, and it is very much in the game of turning user activity into
big data that someone may want to buy:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/17/academia-edu/

One thing Academia does not have to do is produce content, nor make
connections between us. We willingly do that for them. They provide a
platform, we provide the data, and they provide themselves (possibly)
with an IPO.

Regards,

Rob Gehl
---
Assistant Professor, Communication
University of Utah
www.robertwgehl.org | @robertwgehl

Watch for my book, Reverse Engineering Social Media, from Temple in 2014


On 12/09/2013 02:24 PM, Deborah Lupton wrote:
> Interesting discussion. As a keen user of Academia.edu and a less keen user
> of ResearchGate (which I find has far fewer HASS academics interacting on
> it compared to Academia), I was wondering:
>
> 1. How does Academia.edu profit from its users, as some commentators here
> are claimed?
> 2. Is Elsevier making the same demands of ResearchGate?
>
> Cheers
>
> Deborah
>
> Senior Principal Research Fellow (Professor)
> Department of Sociology and Social Policy
> University of Sydney
>
> C
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 7:07 AM, Jonathan Sterne, Dr. <
> jonathan.sterne at mcgill.ca> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/