The Debate Wrap Up.

Last night’s Open Access debate was fun, and I hope I acquitted myself reasonably well. The video is about 90 minutes long and can be watched here:

The tone was friendly and convivial. I didn’t get to make every point I wanted to. I had hoped to shoot some holes in the basic economic model while Eisen was there to defend it. But overall, I think that it was made pretty clear that there are lots of positives, lots of questions, and plenty of room for more debate.

Though I wonder how well any of us did at taking Dr. Isis’s fundamental point a few days ago: are any of the established faculty, especially the highly privileged, actually listening to and asking questions of people with other perspectives? Or is this yet another arena where old, rich, white men are attempting to dictate the future to everyone else?

And where do I fit in that? I am certainly incredibly privileged from a socio-economic perspective, but I am not even faculty, much less established. I have very little funding. I have no influence at journals and no record of academic excellence. What can I do, aside from participating in debates like this, to help guide this industry that I’m on the vague periphery of? Should I even try? Or is it really any of my business?

Maybe I should just walk away, and when I show up on the academic field to play, as I do from time to time, play by whatever rules the real stakeholders have decided upon.