I may not be a social pioneer, but I am reflecting on my blog which is openly accessible to the world.
Thoughts on the Topic
After being aware of Open Access, it’s the first time I’ve actually delved into the nitty-gritty details of it. I think it’s one of those topics that – if it affected more people directly there would be outrage. But as it’s kept behind closed doors, ironically a bit like some academic journals – people don’t know too much about it.
What has changed?
Firstly – I’ve become an Open Access advocate! Sadly, like most others, as an undergraduate who isn’t actually publishing himself, I don’t have much of a voice in the debate. Although – I don’t think this is a valid excuse, as if we all had this attitude, there would be no change in the world and liberalism wouldn’t exist.
What can we do?
https://www.openaccessbutton.org/ Is an organization which is campaigning for open access, with a button plug you can get, which let’s you apply for access to a paper. Where if you can’t access it, you can publicize the fact.
Whereas this won’t be helpful for myself as I use the University of Southampton network to access literature, promoting it will help others who need it. Also – people can support the organization with sponsorship which can help fund other peoples work.
Final thoughts on mankind
I think that together for the good of humanity, we should collaborate research and make it as available as possible. There are problems like Climate Change and increasing populations which are putting mankind in danger. So we must make progress. This will only work with Open Access to build on other peoples work.
My Comments:
https://tomburrellblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/open-source-what-is-it-and-why-use-it/#comments
https://bryonykeen.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/the-open-access-movement/#comments
Image used from: https://www.openaccessbutton.org
A Bright New start 