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.
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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