Topic 5: Open access to online materials for all – utopian dream or unstoppable force?
The emergence of the internet as one of – if not the most – important and used tools for the dissemination of information and resources has led to fervent discussion around the issue of the protection of the rights of those who create this information and/or products.
In recent years this has reached its peak in the media with the emergence of acts such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the ridiculously named Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act or PIPA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), pieces of US legislation that aim to stop the illegal spread of material such as films, music and games.
While not on the same level budget wise as internationally released and advertised products, other information is also available relatively freely on the web. This is expected to change in time though, with estimates claiming that around 90% of information will be pay-to-view within three years. Despite this, there are still some such as the @ccess Initiative who are campaigning against the disproportionately expensive fees charged by scientific journals for subscriptions despite the internet actually lowering their running costs drastically.
At first glance, the benefits of open access educational material being available for free seem manifold. It provides a multitude of resources for people to use at their own leisure and for their own research, improving the probability that advancements will be made as well as:
- Less expensive for students who would otherwise have to buy material contained in textbooks etc.
- Information can be disseminated quickly and efficiently without the need for expensive printing and shipping costs.
- The information can be accessed anywhere that has a connection to the internet.
However, while there are many advantages there are also a variety of disadvantages to offset them:
- Making everything open access may lower the quality of academic material.
- Without paying for professional translations it would be difficult to disseminate a lot of information due to it being written in English originally.
- While the ability to access information from anywhere via the web is an advantage, it does not benefit those who are unable to connect to the net.
- It may be very difficult to sustain an entirely open source network of resources indefinitely due to the lack of funding. This might affect the quality of the research.
References
http://gizmodo.com/5877000/what-is-sopa
http://libguides.umuc.edu/content.php?pid=98930&sid=742401
