open access 2.0: from rhetoric to roi

UNESCO Seminar on OA, March 16, 2011Shalini Urs

Shalini R. Urs

International School of Information Management

University of Mysore

Mysore


Conflicting worlds and border disputes

• Open access to journal articles is a border dispute with profound implications

• The OA movement is the gift economy operating in market space

• The gift and market economies of knowledge are polarized, interwoven and mutually constitutive (McSherry 99)

• The rhetoric of the dispute creates and addresses moral communities and border disputes arise because the boundary between the two worlds is fuzzy and unstable (DT Covey,2010)


How to resolve the conflict • The OA is a dispute because we are deploying

the norms of one economy in another • We need Rhetoric and ROI ( Marry the two

worlds) • Let us learn from Google• Google Rhetoric – Do no evil… organizing the

world’s information… free access• Business Model ?• Wikinomics …Long Tail of small returns


Speaking from experience

• Before going to the issues of sustaining the ideological fervor through a sustainable model, let me share my experience with a OA initiative called Vidyanidhi Digital Library, that I conceptualized and executed in 2001


Perils of pioneering : Vidyanidhi Experience

• Pioneering a new space and heralding new initiatives brings with it both great opportunities and greater disadvantages.

• Believing in the mission “ Access Unlimited, Knowledge Unbounded” and that Internet is a great leveler and would herald a flat world, we began the Vidyanidhi initiative in 2000.

•


Vidyanidhi Journey• Beginning of collaborations with Prof. Ed

Fox the father of Global ETD Movement (December 1998)

• First proposal to NISSAT, DSIR, Govt. of India in early 1999 ( not successful)

• Paper and participation at the UNESCO Workshop on ETDs ( September 1999)

• Paper presentation at NISSAT Information Today and Tomorrow Conference, Hyderabad, November 1999


Vidyanidhi Journey…• NISSAT sanctioned the pilot project in

2000• Vidyanidhi which began as a pilot

project in 2000 demonstrated the feasibility of eTheses in India- with a prototype digital library

• In 2003- with support from the Ford Foundation and Microsoft, Vidyanidhi began its second phase of development


Indian Doctoral Research Indian Doctoral Research • More than 500 universities in IndiaMore than 500 universities in India• Annual Turn over (Estimates)-- 30,000 to Annual Turn over (Estimates)-- 30,000 to

35,000 theses35,000 theses• At any particular time--doctoral students – At any particular time--doctoral students –

300,000 300,000 • Cost per year –300,000 x 1,20,000 = Cost per year –300,000 x 1,20,000 =

36000 million (800 million USD)36000 million (800 million USD)

( Back of the envelope calculations) ( Back of the envelope calculations)


What happens to this?One tangible outcome of all that investments is the thesisFrozen assets--mostly unseen

There are two major challenges with this scenario

1.Poor visibility, limited access, and the attendant issues of duplication.

2.Poor quality of doctoral research


Indian Doctoral Research…• Produced electronically but erased for

ever…..why?• Lack of an appropriate mechanism• Misconceptions--digitization is equal

to a digital archive/library• A digital library is a mechanism for

creating, archiving and making it accessible via networks


Major Challenges• Who are you and why are you doing it ?• No policy framework ( national level as well as

organizational level)• Resistance from the stakeholders • Plagiarism • Copyrights issues• Infrastructural issues


Vidyanidhi: Strategies• Top down as well as bottom up • Policy Framework – through meetings,

liaison, participation• Partnering with universities and other

agencies to move towards a consortia• Education and Training• Content Building- full text and

metadata-multi-pronged approach• Resources and tools (software,

interfaces…)


Major Outcomes• Spurring the ETD movement leading to ETD initiatives

in India • Joining the international organization ( NDLTD)• An ETD repository (Vidyanidhi) currently having

1,30,000 metadata records• A full text repository with 12,000 theses• ETD policies in some universities • A national ETD policy such as the UGC regulatory

framework for theses metadata and eTheses prepared by an expert committee ( 2007)


Policy Framework (UGC)—how we got there

• Vidyanidhi organized the Round Table of Vice Chancellors of some select universities under the chairmanship of the UGC-chairman (May 14, 2004)

• Getting the endorsement from the UNESCO, Paris

• Constitution of an Expert Committee for the drafting of regulations for ETDs

• UGC (Submission of Metadata and Full-text of Doctoral Theses in Electronic Format) Regulations, 2005

• Catalyzing through other agencies--AIU, NAAC and others


A regulation recommending -A model format ( template) for Ph.D theses A National ETD-MS ( eTheses Metadata Standard)An Indian Standard Theses Numbering systemA National standard citing styleA national database of thesesAn institutional and national repository of eTheses


Vidyanidhi today • Database of Indian theses- currently

130,000 records• A digital library of 12,000 theses• Interfaces for searching the database• Facilities for submission of metadata

online• Technology platform – a hybrid • Facilities for submitting full txt of theses

on online ( DSpace@Vidyanidhi)• Theses templates and online tutorials


Searching in Kannada


Lessons learned

• We need to focus on :• Advocacy and campaign • Building the necessary frameworks and

mechanisms ( beyond simple technical infrastructures)

• Sustaining the ideological fervor • Sustainable business models


What makes the world go around ?

• There are only two things that make things happen in the world

• They are : religion and money• To take OA to the next level, we need to turn

this into a religion and also look at new economic models


Turn OA into a Religion/Ritual ?• Demands a “Collective Action Approach” • Having OA evangelists in every organization • Having one agency (library) within the

organization mandated to “do it” • Finding the champions to champion the cause• By integrating OA into our academic culture• Institutional Repository today is still a voluntary

add-on service or passion a library(Librarian) undertakes. It is not yet a part of the duties of academic libraries.


OA and Librarians

• Integration of OA into the Librarians’ Job Descriptions

• Collection and Access function of libraries to include materials created and produced internally and providing access globally

• LIS curriculum can also play a part in this (At Mysore we have introduced an elective Academic Libraries and OA


Turning it into a religion and ritual • Building institutional practices – integrating

into the accreditation and such other academic cultures.

• Accreditation agencies should have OA as one of the parameters of assessment.

• Building incentivizing mechanisms ( just as the journal publication system works) for example the increase in citations, downloads, etc. Open Access Citation Index


Just one comment on an OA from advocate blog

• “here is a collective action problem. I am untenured and I need to keep an eye on my reputation. That means that there is a handful of journals (you know which ones) that I have to aspire to publish in; if they don't sign on to open access principles, such as allowing posting of papers on websites, then I am in a bind. If most people in the profession signed on, then of course those journals would be marginalized and would be forced to change their policies. What to do? Tenured philosophers can lead the charge, publishing their best work in open access journals and pressuring the top 10 journals. So far as I can see, this isn't happening (witness the pitifully slow progress of Philosopher's Imprint)”


Religion and Culture • We need to build the whole ecosystem of OA

publishing and not just OA repository and OA journals

• Build repositories that provide as good an experience with all the features and functionalities of e-Journals.

• IRs and OA repositories are a poor second when it comes to many newer features such as related papers, number of downloads statistics, and many such attractive functionalities of the eJournals


Many different models of reaching out to author communities exist for example :•Face Book•Linked In•Twitter


Building Business Models • Google represents the ultimate in business plans.

By controlling access to information, it has made billions, which it is now investing in the control of the information itself

• Google demonstrated the possibility of transforming the intellectual riches of our libraries, into an electronic database that could be tapped by anyone anywhere at any time.

(The Library: Three Jeremiads, Robert Darnton, Dec 2010)


Revenue through ads ( IEEE example)


An Economic Model that does not hurt

• Let us meld the two economic models • Google Adsense • Long Tail of small revenues (Charge nominal

subscriptions or per page charges)• Studies have shown there are a huge number

of turn-away customers than actual customers.

• We need to look at a business model of enticing these customers


OA 2.0• Meld ideology with sustainability• Information wants to be free, but how do we

maintain it free from free fall • May be we need to find solutions in the

economics of the internet (the new information economics)

• We need to build a strong and sustainable movement through a policy framework followed by a plan of action


PNM-PPM Library 3.0 Seminar June 29,2010

Shalini Urs