Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Welcome to the 21st Century – or: Social sciences software licence madness

Published on May 24, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, gift economy gift giving, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, University / Academia

(via anthronaut) Cyberanthropologist Alexander Knorr has written a brilliant comment on “social sciences software licence madness”. Provoked by an entry at ethno::log about a text analysis software for social scientists with an extremly restrictive licence, he wrote among others:

The minimum fee for using the software for academical purposes amounts to 192,- Euros. plonk* Usage duration is limited to a maximum of one year. :o Do I get this right?(…) The copyright holders of GABEK® aim at a certain academical group as potential customers. As GABEK® is to be used for “a thesis (e.g. master thesis etc)”, and the project has to be “no larger in scope than a dissertation”.

Well, till some years ago I was within that group, too, and I wrote a doctoral thesis. Interested in the results? Well, go and buy the book, 395 pages of glossy paper, containing a juicy story of anthropology, sex, drugs, magick, and rock’n’roll. For 19,- Euros, 13,- Euros if you are a student. If you have bought the book, it’s your property, you can do with it whatever you want to. You can read it until you die, you can put it below your table-leg if that one happens to be exactly 2,1 cm too short, or you can make a bonfire of it. As you wish, it’s your property then. No interest in spending nineteen Euros? Then, the fuck, download the whole piece of shit. The exact .pdf-file from which the printer made the book is online for free, CC-licenced. Welcome to the 21st century.

(…)

Information wants to be free, especially information and knowledge generated within academia. And academical knowledge that I am generating — if I ever really will, that is—for sure doesn’t want to be the property of the maker of the tools I used to generate it. Adobe never asked me to send them one of my books for free, just because I used software they created to make a .pdf of my text.

Slap a CC-licence onto your product and write some sane terms of use for academics and I may, I may, have a look into the usability of your software for the noble discipline of sociocultural anthropology. Welcome to the Internet, to the blogosphere, and again to the 21st century.

>> read the whole post at Xirdalium

Tearing down those knowledge walls. Knowledge cannot be curtailed and has to be freely available

Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit: Invitation to a software fantasy

On Copyright and taboo and the future of anthropological publishing

Open Access Anthropology – Debate on Savage Minds

Special on Open Access Anthropology

(via anthronaut) Cyberanthropologist Alexander Knorr has written a brilliant comment on "social sciences software licence madness". Provoked by an entry at ethno::log about a text analysis software for social scientists with an extremly restrictive licence, he wrote among others:

The…

The Secret Society of Anthropologists

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

In the book Engaging Anthropology, Thomas Hylland Eriksen writes:

In spite of its considerable growth, anthropology still cultivates its self-identity as a counter-culture, its members belonging to a kind of secret society whose initiates possess exclusive keys for understanding, indispensable for making sense of the world, but alas, largely inaccessible for outsiders. (…)Anthropologists simply did not want their subject to become too popular.

Recently, I had to think of this quote several times. As noted, I’ve registered for the conference Cosmopolitanism and Anthropology. As the conference fee is cheaper for members of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, I thought: Why not have a look at the organisation.

On the homepage section Membership, the first thing you read is this here:

Not a member? Why not lend your support to the discipline? If you would like to join, and fulfil the requirements below, use the NEW online form to apply.

Requirements?? Read on:

The ASA offers membership to persons of academic standing who, by virtue of their training, posts held and published works can be recognised as professional social anthropologists. Nominations and applications are considered once a year, at the Annual Business Meeting of the Association. These must be submitted by December 31st in the academic year in which they are to be considered.

But that’s not enough. You can’t just apply by yourself:

Applications may be made by nomination through a member of the Association or by a person applying in their own right. In the case of the latter the names of two members of the Association should be provided to whom the committee may refer if necessary.

You should also take a look at the detailed membership application form

In contrast, there are no such “requirements” when applying for membership in the American Anthropological Association (AAA) or in the Norwegian Anthropological Association.

By the way, some days ago, the first conference papers were published on the website. Try to download them and see what happens when you (try to) open them…

In the book Engaging Anthropology, Thomas Hylland Eriksen writes:

In spite of its considerable growth, anthropology still cultivates its self-identity as a counter-culture, its members belonging to a kind of secret society whose initiates possess exclusive keys for understanding, indispensable for…

Blogger won University Prize for Excellence in Research Dissemination!

Published on March 6, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

I’ve blogged about this in my Norwegian blog already, but this might be interesting for you out there as well. It seems that blogging has become mainstram in academica. Jill Walker, one of the first academic bloggers in Norway has won the Meltzer Foundation’s prize for excellence in research dissemination – because of her blogging! >> read Jill Walkers blog post

I've blogged about this in my Norwegian blog already, but this might be interesting for you out there as well. It seems that blogging has become mainstram in academica. Jill Walker, one of the first academic bloggers in Norway has…

The Anthropology of Biopolitics and the Laboratory for the Anthropology of the Contemporary

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, journal articles / papers, Northern America, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Judd Antin at TechnoTaste recently informed us about two new anthropology centers. One of them Laboratory for the Anthropology of the Contemporary seems to take knowledge sharing more seriously than other research centers. You can click on and read every article on their list over publications.

The introductory paper Steps toward an anthropological laboratory by Paul Rabinow starts promising:

The challenge is to invent new forms of inquiry, writing, and ethics for an anthropology of the contemporary. The problem is: how to rethink and remake the conditions of contemporary knowledge production,
dissemination, and critique, in the interpretive sciences?

They continue explaining the background for their research methods at the new center, dedicated to the invention of new modes of collaborative work among and between social and natural scientists:

Given that the social sciences and humanities disciplines in the U.S. university system are essentially those of the nineteenth century, and there is little motivation from within the disciplines to abolish themselves, we are not optimistic that new work can be exclusively based in the university. The university (or restricted parts of it) remains a source of employment, of resources such as libraries, and of pedagogy. In that light, we imagine new hybrid organizations, adjacent to and in many parasitic on, the university.

(…)

It is quite remarkable that the contemporary self-understanding of anthropology includes few examples of collective work. (…) New forms of collaboration and coordination among and between anthropologists (and other knowledge workers) is unquestionably going to be required to adequately address the scope, complexity, and temporality of contemporary objects and problems.

>> read the whole text by Paul Rabinow (pdf, 19pages)

>> overview over all publications (much on biosecurity)

New Open Access Journal: After Culture – Emergent Anthropologies

Published on January 29, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, journal articles / papers, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

On the website of the American Anthropological Association, medical anthropologist Matthew Wolf-Meyer announces a new anthropology journal called After Culture: Emergent Anthropologies:

The first issue is planned for release in September 2006, and thereafter will be published semiannually (in March and September) and made available free through the internet (URL forthcoming).

This is good news for all of us who promote open access to scientific knowledge!

There will be no paper version of the journal “as this steeply raises costs”, he explains on his own homepage.

It doensn’t seem to be that much expensive to run a online journal. The total cost of one year’s worth of publications (2 issues, 200 pages), he writes, is approximately $3200 (based on University of California Press figures and including the costs of formatting, online storage and publicity).

Currently, they are seeking article manuscripts which focus on the interactions between nature, culture and society, or are in the general thematic areas of science and technology studies or critical studies of medical knowledge and practice.

Given AAA approval, the journal will be published by the University of California Press and made available through AnthroSource, he adds.

>> continue reading on Matthew Wolf-Meyer’s homepage

>> Call for Papers

On the website of the American Anthropological Association, medical anthropologist Matthew Wolf-Meyer announces a new anthropology journal called After Culture: Emergent Anthropologies:

The first issue is planned for release in September 2006, and thereafter will be published semiannually (in March and…