[Air-L] open scholarship, proprietary videoconferencing (was: non-Zoom platforms....again)

[Alexandre Hocquet]

Dear AoIRers,

Three months ago, I inquired on this list about the taking over of 
proprietary videoconferencing software in academic environment and 
promised a follow up . I want to thank everyone that answered my 
queries, on and off list, especially regarding the situation in various 
national or university environments.

I have now published a piece in French [in the The Conversation 
outlet](https://theconversation.com/debat-peut-on-faire-de-la-science-ouverte-sur-zoom-146491). 
For those of you who do not read French, I have put [a makeshift 
translation on my personal 
website](http://alexandrehocquet.perso.univ-lorraine.fr/zoom.html).

Although the examples provided are from the French context, the recent 
events regarding [Zoom attitude towards what has been described as 
censorship of an academic 
conference](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/zoom-deleted-events-censorship) 
shed light on what my main claim is :

Scholars once designed email and mailing lists for their communication 
needs as open protocols. They are now surrendering their 
computer-mediated communication tools to proprietary platforms 40 years 
later. This "absurdist" situation according to one of the academics 
involved in the Zoom censorship turmoil is a direct consequence of this 
giving away.

If anyone on the list is aware of an anglophone media outlet that would 
be interested in an English version of that piece, I would be happy to 
submit it to them, especially in the light of these recent events.


-- 
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Alexandre Hocquet
Archives Henri Poincaré & Science History Institute
Alexandre.Hocquet at univ-lorraine.fr
https://www.sciencehistory.org/profile/alexandre-hocquet
https://poincare.univ-lorraine.fr/fr/membre-titulaire/alexandre-hocquet
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