Books are still largely inaccessible in the south – whether on account of high cost, unsuitability of language and format, or, even more simply, plain unavailability. The open access textbook, on the other hand, costs as much as it does to print and can be available wherever necessary. Even a visible scarcity of knowledge goods in the main languages spoken in southern Africa could be alleviated by the permission-free translation choices presented by open access, since access to cultural goods in turn produces producers of cultural goods. The point to bear in mind is that access as a strategy is not predicated on the assumption that students of the south are ‘consumers’ (and that professors of the north are ‘producers’), but rather, that a complex, interdependent relationship exists between consumption and production – and furthermore, that access to cultural goods is a necessary and significant factor to stimulate production....
[T]he challenge is not insurmountable. In this case, the current needs and potential benefits of expanding access, combined, present a credible case for serious and urgent intervention....
Our scan of the learning environment in southern Africa suggests a serious problem in respect of access to knowledge goods. While there are several factors complicit in producing this access gap, several of the identified problems (excessive pricing, unavailability and unsuitability of material, and government/ institutional resource constraints) can be traced, in significant part, to intellectual property law....Ironically, it is precisely in this disabling legal environment that the SACU [Southern African Customs Union] countries are being asked – by domestic and international publishing industry lobbies – to strengthen the enforcement of criminal sanctions for certain copyright violations, even as they constitute an access mechanism in a context that offers few alternatives.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/31/2006 04:59:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
