Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Institutions vs. networks, and OA

This week's edition of the the BBC World Service program The Forum features guests Manuel Castells, John Barrow, and Madhavi Sunder. For the OA connection, see the comments by the JISC Information Environment Team:
... It was an interesting discussion, touching on Castells’ view of the emerging network organisation and society, and Professor Barrow’s observations on scientific practice in that context. Castells sees ICT as affording advantage to organisational arrangements that are horizontal (rather than bureaucratic), featuring loosely coupled units of highly skilled professionals, using project-oriented relationships with other such units to get work done. It is a picture that many academics will find familiar of course. Professor Barrow cited arXiv as an example of researchers working in this way, contrasting it with the more traditional “institution” of accessing the literature via journals. ...