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For Open Access: “The pay-for-content model has never been successful”

Published on March 30, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, journal articles / papers, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, University / Academia

Open Access to anthropology journals? “How to find the money to publish journals if one doesn’t make readers pay?”, opponents of Open Access would ask. But as Alex Golub explains in an article in Anthropology News April: The “reader-pays” model for funding publications (f.ex. membership fees) by the American Anthropological Association has been broken for a long time. “The choice we are facing”, he writes, is not that of an unworkable ideal versus a working system. It is the choice between a future system which may work and an existing system which we know does not”:

The AAA can develop a publishing program that can run in the black, but in order to do so it must take on board the central insight of the open access movement—that journals become more affordable (and open access becomes a more realistic option) when you lower production costs.
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Advocates of open access argue that we can reduce the production costs of journals by up to two orders of magnitude by using free open source software to edit them, and using small-run printon-demand solutions. These cost savings could then be used to free journals from having to charge readers to view their content.
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In order for us to develop less costly and more open publishing, we need to question some of our assumptions about how our publishing program works and how successful it has been.
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It means moving beyond the idea that our current reader-pays model is somehow more “realistic” than open access alternatives.

Golub also criticizes the decision making process within the AAA. Although the AAA should have redesigned their website in time for the San José meetings in November 2006, nothing has happened yet:

If we can not redesign our website in a timely manner, how are we to reinvent our publishing program in a electronic age?

>> download the article (pdf, 125MB )

>> discussion on this article Savage Minds

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Open Access to anthropology journals? "How to find the money to publish journals if one doesn’t make readers pay?", opponents of Open Access would ask. But as Alex Golub explains in an article in Anthropology News April: The “reader-pays” model…

Conference Podcasting: Anthropologists thrilled to have their speeches recorded

Published on March 30, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, University / Academia

Are we on the way to “Open Access Conferences”? As already announced, several sessions at the conference of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) will be published as podcasts. Jen Cardew who has taken the initiative to this project reports that all presenters (except for one) were very happy to have their speeches to be recorded:

Presenters were; Paul Farmer, Phillipe Bourgois, Merrill Singer, Linda Whiteford, Carolyn Nordstrom, Barbara Rylko-Bauer, Didier Fassin, and Jame Quesada, all of whom were excellent speakers with excellent things to say. The room was packed and I believe there was 300+ people at any given time. These are the rockstars of anthropology. All of the presenters were thrilled to have their speeches recorded for the podcasting project and they even had me announce the project to the group. The fact that all of these presenters were excited about the opportunity to be recorded made the project worth it to me in itself. It actually was quite an honor :)
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It was very reassuring to see that the anthropologists were open to new technology, as we are not known as a “techy” or “progressive with new technology” field :)

There are also some students doing informal interviews and some minimal coverage of the conference, which will be published on the web, she writes. Their goal was to seek out how anthropologists are using technology.

Anthropologists no longer a primitive tribe?

Published on March 26, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, websites

It’s only a few weeks ago that anthropologist Michael Wesch explained in an extremly popular YouTube-video how collaborative web technologies change scholarship. Now Jen Cardew at Synthesis of Thoughts tells us that several sessions at the conference of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) are set to be recorded and published as podcasts.

A new website is set up: http://www.sfaapodcasts.net/ The first podcast will be up by April 7th.

That’s good news. Last summer, anthropologists were criticized for being the last primitive tribe on earth because they didn’t embrace the possibillities provided by the digital era. Several times, I’ve written about how difficult it is to get information about what’s going on on conferences.

It's only a few weeks ago that anthropologist Michael Wesch explained in an extremly popular YouTube-video how collaborative web technologies change scholarship. Now Jen Cardew at Synthesis of Thoughts tells us that several sessions at the conference of the Society…

Ethnographic Database Project launched

Published on March 25, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, culture traditions, websites

Laura Fortunato from the Department of Anthropology at the University College London is writing to me telling about the Ethnographic Database Project. She is currently looking for anthropologists with fieldwork experience to take part in this project:

The Ethnographic Database Project (EDP) is a web-based tool for the collection of comparative ethnographic data. The EDP allows anthropologists to enter data about their field research using a set of standard codes developed for cross-cultural application; the codes relate to a society’s organization, kinship and marriage practices, subsistence economy, and pattern of sexual division of labor. The EDP is in the form of a web-based questionnaire, which can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet.

The EDP aims to complement widely-used comparative ethnographic datasets such as the Ethnographic Atlas and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample by: (i) obtaining data directly from anthropologists who conducted field research in the societies of interest, (ii) using standard codes developed for cross-cultural application for all societies, (iii) expanding the range of societies for which coded ethnographic data are available.

Visit the EDP website where you also can view a sample version of the EDP.

The Ethnographic Database Project…

Omertaa – Open access journal for Applied Anthropology

Published on March 21, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, journal articles / papers, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, websites

(via Moving Anthropology Student Network) Another new anthropology journal and of course with open access for everybody: Omertaa, journal for Applied Anthropology. It was launched in January 2007 and is an international peer reviewed journal, associated with the organisation Expeditions, Research in Applied Anthropology.

The goals of the Omertaa journal are:

* To be a forum for anthropologists working in- and outside universities.
* To encourage a bridge between practice inside and outside the university
* To explore the use of anthropology in policy research and implementation.
* To serve as a forum for inquiry into the present state and future of anthropology in general.

As Sam Janssen explains in the introduction of the first volume: One of the main objectives of the journal is, to bring the knowledge and craftmanship of social and cultural anthropology back where it should come from: the field.

It seems to be a journal in the making. As of today, their editorial board only consists of two people. Marc Vanlangendonck is the Chied Editor.

The first volume is based on field research on Gozo, the sister island of Malta. The second volume will be about”Development work and the anthropological focus”.

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(via Moving Anthropology Student Network) Another new anthropology journal and of course with open access for everybody: Omertaa, journal for Applied Anthropology. It was launched in January 2007 and is an international peer reviewed journal, associated with the organisation…