Dear Deidre…

/ toddlynes
deardeirdrejpg

The face of an Open Internet?

Confused?

You won’t be if you have been following the latest victory in Open Access this year. This is the news that since the start of December 2015, the Sun has removed its online paywall. So now we are free to see the latest addition of Dear Deidre:
Dear Deidre – My girlfriend is a PORNSTAR and a CHEAT

What does this signal for Open Access?

This signals a reversal of claims made saying 90% of businesses content will be behind paywalls. The previous held thoughts was that this would be the future – but this shows that the business model is flawed.

The reality is – if you are made to pay, then people will just go elsewhere for online content. Consumer choice, and the best option will always prevail, we will pick the best value option. In a market Online – where anyone can upload articles, blogs and set up websites. Paywalls are always destined to fail.

steamsale

Consumer choice will always win.

So Why Make Content Freely Available?

People release content freely for several reasons:

For Status/Recognition. – The more freely available content is, the more people can recognize your work.
Philanthropy:
To make a positive impact around the world. Also applicable to Music, Videos and other Arts.
Hobby/Fun:
Some people just enjoy producing content, i.e. research, making music/videos or programs.

Are there any positives of not making content freely available?

Well, some argue that in the case of research – it reduces the quality of journals. With Gold Access articles being read less and not edited and improved. As argued by Robin Osbourne here.
You can make a similar argument to ‘The Arts’ also, saying that less people would be encouraged to create arts like videos, paintings, music if there was no financial reward.

So the freely available content best applies to research – which a lot of the time, has already been paid for by the taxpayer.

So what does the future hold?

I am not a fortune teller, but as I said earlier – I don’t think paywalls have much of a future. Websites can make enough money through advertising and selling products. Also, their hand has been forced by good quality free content.

But the Open Access movement continues and is looking strong. Some content while free to view, costs to publish I think this is the way forward for research. But in terms of ‘The Arts’ – free access will never happen because of the nature of the arts.

 

 

 

Image Source:

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Simpsons ©1999 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP.

 

4 thoughts on “Dear Deidre…”

  1. Hi Todd,

    Another interesting read thank you! After reading the for open access section, I did a bit more research into how many more people see your work that you post. In terms of Journal articles, if work is published online downloads increased by 89%! (Read more here: https://www.aje.com/en/author-resources/articles/making-the-choice-open-access-vs-traditional-journals )

    You mentioned that tax payers pay for research which is something I was unaware of. It feels unfair that we have to pay for research we may have already paid for? I did a bit more research into it and found the sad case of Aaron Swartz (Read here: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/09/michael-eisen-plos-open-access-aaron-swartz )
    He stole almost 5 million academic articles and was about to face prison time, before he committed suicide. I think it just shows you how passionate people are for Open Access to become the norm!

    Hollie

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  2. Hello Todd!
    Thank you for an interesting take on the open access debate! Whilst researching for my own post I also discovered how recent the open access debate is! I completely agree with you in that paywalls are destined to fail from the start! However, it’s interesting how online services like the Daily Telegraph online allow a certain amount of articles to be viewed but to gain access to more articles and their ‘premium’ services you have to pay. I guess in a way its survival. With more and more people reading the news off of their iPad’s and phones now paper newspapers sales have dropped and how else are companies going to make up for that loss? And I think that is an important thing to be considered and remembered that like with so much else in this life not much is free, someone always has to pay a price. This is a shame because I see the same future for paywalls as you.

    Bryony x

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