Today's DP - Online Publishing

I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise in my inbox. The subject line of today 'DP email edition' was "Faculty examine online publishing". I was intrigued, since I had recently been talking to Billy about this subject and was planning on commenting further on a column last week by David Kanter that called on the university to share its educational riches.

I don't usually read the articles online because I much prefer the feeling of reading the physical paper during the day. Today I will make an exception, although I did pull up the pdf version to get his nice image of the front page.

It was the sub-headline that caught my attention the most: "Harvard academic papers will be online for free; similar opt-out program unlikely at Penn"

unlikely at Penn? But, why? I was determined to find out. I read on (article here)

At Harvard, the school will publish all finished papers in a repository run by its library unless professors specifically request to opt-out by signing a waiver.

Authors are not restricted to publishing their work through the University, and faculty members can still submit their work for publication in prestigious journals.

wow, sounds like a great idea. why didn't we think of that?

The Penn Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy is scheduled to discuss the possibility of adopting a similar plan, said Faculty Senate Chairman Larry Gladney.

Thus far, professors have said they are somewhat leery about widespread online publishing.

Gladney said it is unlikely that Penn would ever mandate a specific policy because "it might be interpreted as an infringement on academic freedom to proscribe where scholars can publish."

Really? you are using the "infringement on academic freedom" argument?? Can someone please explain to me how this would infringe? Professors who don't want their papers available free to the world can opt-out. Think of the benefit a proposal like this will create by truly democratizing knowledge. I can't say that I'm surprised that this was the initial reaction by Faculty Senate leadership. This is what the UA heard last year every time we talked about ItunesU and tried to get more content available online, let alone the lack of progress and non-compliance by faculty on SCUE's proposal to put all syllabi online.

I think it is time for students to take a position on this issue. SCUE and the UA have the access and ability to seriously influence faculty and the administration on this issue. Penn should be a leader in the arena of democratizing knowledge. Remember the Penn Compact? what better way to fulfill the pledge of increasing access!

More to come from me and Billy.

~BT