[Taxacom] FW: DEVELOPING WORLD TO RECEIVE ACCESS [etc]

[Neal Evenhuis]

At 6:41 AM +0000 11/8/06, Roderic Page wrote:
>In the same way, Open Access sounds great, I'm all
>for it, and most of the stuff I've published in the last couple of 
>years has been in Open Access journals, but as an editor of a society
>journal, it raises big issues about funding for scientific societies.

I agree exactly, Rod.

You've hit on something that has been bothering me (as the editor of 
scholarly publications at a non-profit institution) in trying to find 
a solution to the needs of scientists to have access to everything 
immediately and for free, yet keep our publications and the library 
exchanges that derive from our publications alive and well. During 
this contemplation (and sometimes resorting to Zippy the Pinhead 
cartoons for reasoning and support), I realized that the smaller and 
local societies would be the first to see a negative impact from free 
articles online and may possibly go extinct.

Many if not all of the smaller and local scientific societies rely on 
dues, of which a portion goes to the editing and production of the 
society's journal. Without that revenue, the journal not only dies, 
but the costs of running the society or keeping it alive diminish to 
the point where it will ultimately die. Without getting something for 
their dues, members will not renew their memberships, let alone want 
to actually go to a meeting. Without members, there is no society.

But maybe this is the wave of the future and we've just got to get 
used to it. No more horse-and-carriage, old man. We've got 
automobiles now. Get over it -- move on.

Perhaps free information from the web and other electronic portals is 
a portent of a new scientific societal construct. No longer do we 
need the personal camaraderie and gatherings at society meetings and 
the share of information there. We can get all the information we 
need for free online. In my view, a pity that the personal 
interaction is no longer necessary or supported (except for the 
annual meetings and congresses for which separate one-time funding is 
needed, not societal dues).

In my opinion, the internet has ultimately caused us to disassociate 
more and more from personal contact (email being a good example where 
it is much more "convenient" and "safe" to use it than going down the 
hall a few yards and actually "talking" to someone in person. We feel 
protected behind our computers rather than expose ourselves out in 
the open with someone else - yikes!). Perhaps we are all getting 
caught up in the orgasmic world of electronic satisfaction when we 
get the information we want immediately from an electronic medium -- 
and have subsequently lost our way in knowing how to work with our 
fellow humans. Maybe this last rambling is a bit Ray Bradbury-ish and 
off topic, but I feel it is all interrelated somehow...

Neal