OA and P2P: The Similarities and Dissimilarities

From: Stevan Harnad <amsciforum_at_GMAIL.COM>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:53:31 -0400

Here is the Quicktime Movie of:
      "On the affinities and disaffinities among free software,
      peer-to-peer access, and open access to peer-reviewed
      research."

a talk to be given by Stevan Harnad on March 26 at:
      Free Software and Beyond: The World of Peer Production

the 4th�Oekonux�and�P2P Foundation�Conference. Manchester, UK, 27-29
March 2009.

SUMMARY:�Free/Open Software (notably the first Free Software for
creating OAI-compliant Open Access Institutional Repositories,
EPrints, created in 2000, distributed under the GNU license, and now
used worldwide) has been central to the growth of the Open Access
Movement.�
����However, there are also crucial distinctions that need to be made
and understood, among the movements for (1) Free/Open source
software, (2) Open Access (to peer-reviewed research), (3) P2P
file-sharing, (4) Open Data, (5) Creative Commons licensing, and (5)
Wikipedia-style collective writing. Open Access (OA) is focussed
primarily on refereed research articles.�
����The crucial distinctions revolve mostly around (a) the
fundamental difference between author�giveaway vs. non-giveaway�work
and (b) the functional differences between
the�re-use/re-mix/re-publication needs�for peer-reviewed research
article texts on the one hand, and data, software and other kinds of
digital content on the other.�
Received on Fri Mar 27 2009 - 03:54:43 GMT