Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Open Access: “The American Anthropological Association reminds me of the recording industry”

Published on November 5, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, University / Academia

(via Erkan’s Field Diary) “The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is starting to remind me of the recording industry and their rearguard actions against file-sharing and online dissemination in general”, Eric Kansa from Digging Digitally comments on a recent AAA-decision against open access anthropology.

After the AnthroSource Steering Committee has issued a public statement in support of open access to research articles on the internet, the commitee has been officially disbanded by the AAA according to Alex Golub at Savage Minds.

Eric Kansa writes:

This speaks volumes about how beholden this organization is toward failing and outmoded publication business models, models that hurt AAA members, universities, libraries, students, faculty, groups with limited financial resources, and the public.

(…)

Trying to horde anthropological research seems self-defeating. It seems that anthropology should do more to attract more people to its research. FRPAA, which would require government funded archives of paper drafts accepted for publication, would be a great way for anthropology to become better known to a larger community.
(…)
By opposing FRPAA, the AAA is also working against the dissemination of vital knowledge in other disciplines that directly impact health, conservation, and economic development. That makes this whole affair sordid, ironic, and even somewhat tragic, especially for a discipline that positions itself in advocacy on behalf of marginalized peoples and communities.

Changing the AAA, he writes, is going to require some grassroots organizing. He welcomes therefore the initiative by anthropological bloggers who want to discuss ways to push forward an Open Access agenda at the AAA meeting in San Jose.

Kerim Friedman: Open Source Anthropology

The Anthropologists – Last primitive tribe on earth? (Take a look at indigineuos people’s use of online communication as a mean of resistance and raising awareness.)

(via Erkan's Field Diary) "The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is starting to remind me of the recording industry and their rearguard actions against file-sharing and online dissemination in general", Eric Kansa from Digging Digitally comments on a recent AAA-decision…

This is conference blogging!

Published on October 4, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, University / Academia

Why haven’t there been such blog posts about the recent EASA-conference (European Association of Social Anthropologists)? Anthropologist Grant McCracken has presented a paper at the EPIC-conference (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference) and written three blog posts, among others about his presentation (and the usefulness of ethnography):

In my presentation on Monday at EPIC 2006, I proposed that we might want to take advantage of the “extra data” effect. Ethnography is often most useful when we don’t know what we need to know. The method is good at casting the net wide. We ask lots of questions. Collect lots of data. Apply lots of theory and interpretation. Eventually, we begin to see what it is we need to see. At the end of this process we find ourselves in possession of a lot of data we cannot use. This “extra data” is an opportunity.

>> read his whole post

Intute Anthropology – overview over “high quality resources on the Internet”

Published on September 6, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, websites

We all know the directory SOSIG, but now it has been relaunched as Intute: Social Sciences. It combines two databases of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN): Altis and SOSIG. It is edited by the University of Manchester and the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Intute: Anthropology provides free access to high quality resources on the Internet. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based at UK universities. We aim to match resources to the anthropology curriculum and the needs of researchers. Our target audience is students, staff and researchers in higher and further education.

The overview over anthropology sites has been updated recently.

>> Intute Anthropology

>> Intute Social Science

A similar service is EVIFA – Virtual Library of Social Anthropology, edited by the University Library of the Humboldt University Berlin (both in English and German)

New blog: The Anthropologists – Last primitive tribe on earth?

Published on July 20, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology

Wow! Is this the Danish version of Savage Minds? Six anthropologists (partly students) from the Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen have started the blog “Matter Out Of Place”. Their first blog post deals with our favorite subject – Public Anthropology and the lack of sharing knowledge on the web.

Jane Mejdahl writes:

First of all anthropologists have to face the obvious and realize the potential in publishing thoughts online and sharing knowlegde. Secondly we have to overcome our fear of being trite and simplifying …

(…)

Surely some of us do our fieldwork in far away places without any access to the Internet, computers etc., let alone access to electricity, but a lot of anthropology’s tradtional fields of study are already embracing the possibillities provided by the digital era.

Take a look at indigineuos people’s use of online communication as a mean of resistance and raising awareness. And I bet that Margaret Mead’s lovesick youth in Samoa is busy creating connections and dating online as we speak. Some of us may study people from the other side of the digital divide, but that doesn’t mean that our texts, thoughts, analysis have to remain there. I know for a fact that most anthropologists know how to use a computer. We know how to study issues of social concern. Would it be to much to ask for some sort of combination of the two? Or are we forever stuck in the wilderness?

>> read the whole post

>> about their blog

Wow! Is this the Danish version of Savage Minds? Six anthropologists (partly students) from the Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen have started the blog "Matter Out Of Place". Their first blog post deals with our favorite subject - Public…

American Anthropological Association opposes Open Access to Journal Articles

Published on June 12, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Is the AAA mainly concerned for the interests of the publishers when the association now protests against open access to research articles on the internet?

That’s what is it about:

A proposed legislation would require final manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles based on federally-funded research to be made freely available on government-hosted websites six months after publication by commercial and non-profit publishers (such as the AAA).

The AAA does not like this and joined 65 other disciplinary associations and small publishers etc and protested against this legislation.

Here are their main concerns about the legislation, expressed in a letter by these associations:

1) it would undermine the value-added investments made by publishers in the peer review process;

2) it would duplicate existing mechanisms that enable the public to access scientific journals by requiring the government to establish and maintain costly digital repositories;

3) it would position the government as a competitor to independent publishers, posing a disincentive for them to sustain investment and innovation in disseminating authoritative research. The net result, opponents argue, is that the overall quality of research competitiveness would be lowered.

The AAA is mainly concerned about “the potential impact the proposed legislation may have on the AnthroSource business model and revenue generation”.

>> read the whole statement / letter on the website of the AAA

UPDATE:

Three excellent comments on this issue:

Kambiz Kamrani: The American Anthropological Association’s ignorant opposition of Open Access (Anthropology.net)

Alex Golub: The American Anthropological Association’s lobbying against open acess is so, so misguided (Savage Minds)

Bryan McKay: Will AnthroSource go open source? (Les Faits de la Fiction)

Kerim Friedman: Open Source Anthropology (Concerns over the ethical dilemmas involved in producing knowledge about the “other” have, in the past few decades, radically changed how anthropologists conduct research and write ethnographies. Unfortunately, they have not changed how we publish).

On Copyright and taboo and the future of anthropological publishing

Open Access Anthropology – Debate on Savage Mind

Shaping a culture of sustainable access to anthropological information

antropologi.info survey: Six anthropologists on Anthropology and Internet

Success in publishing defined by quality? Anthropology Matters on “The Politics of Publishing”

Open Access News

special on Open Access Anthropology (multilingual)

Is the AAA mainly concerned for the interests of the publishers when the association now protests against open access to research articles on the internet?

That's what is it about:

A proposed legislation would require final manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles based…