[TYPES] Open Access petition to the ACM - please sign!

[Roberto Di Cosmo]

Hi Peter,
    thank you for signing: this kind of pressure is quite needed to move
things forward :-)

I plan to come back with a more detailed explanation of the pitfalls we
need to avoid, which indeed do not emerge necessarily clearly from Nadia
Eghbal's account: in a nutshell, when looking for long term sustainability,
we need to make sure we take into account all the labour and costs that too
often go unseen, and look for a solution that is properly architectured to
produce economies of scale, and funnel the benefits back to stakeholders,
not shareholders.

In this respect, I feel the "transformative" plan for Open Access that ACM
put forward almost the same day it signed the infamous letter, contains a
potentially good idea that needs investigation (and of course, clearer/more
transparent cost calculations :-))

--
Roberto

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Le mer. 8 janv. 2020 à 18:53, <selinger at mathstat.dal.ca> a écrit :

> Dear Roberto,
>
> thanks for this reference. I agree with your proposition that some
> work is needed to ensure that open access thrives in the long run. In
> fairness, though, I don't think the issues of open access publishing
> and open source software are quite analogous.
>
> The economic difference between open source software and proprietary
> software, and the source of the problems this article points out, is
> that people developing open source software typically volunteer their
> time, whereas people developing proprietary software are typically
> paid.
>
> In the publishing world, there is no such difference. The editors and
> referees of open access journals are unpaid; the editors and referees
> of closed access journals are also unpaid (except in some cases for a
> small pro-forma honorarium to the editor in chief). The extra revenue
> the ACM and other publishers are collecting does not go towards
> supporting the people who do most of the work of publishing. Neither
> does it typically go towards funding the underlying research.
>
> I signed the petition. Since the ACM has less than 100,000 members,
> only 1,000 signatures are required to trigger a vote.
>
> Best, -- Peter
>
> Roberto Di Cosmo wrote:
> >
> > [ The Types Forum,
> http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> >
> > Dear Joathan,
> >      thanks for sharing this: it is an important step forward to make
> our voices heard, and I've been delighted to sign it!
> >
> > We need to take quite a few steps, though, on the still long path to set
> up a sustainable infrastructure for the research publishing workflow that
> can last on the long term, and avoid the pitfalls we have often fall into
> when engaging in Open Source (see
> https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/learning/research-reports/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/
> for a "nice" museum of horrors :-))
> >
> > I'll try to share some thoughts on this in the coming days
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > --
> > Roberto
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 05, 2020 at 05:06:05PM -0500, Jonathan Aldrich wrote:
> > > [ The Types Forum,
> http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> > >
> > > All,
> > >
> > > Robert Rand, after conversations with a number of us in a Facebook
> group,
> > > has put together a petition to the ACM about open access.  It's clear
> that
> > > many people on Types are passionate about this...if you are an ACM
> member,
> > > I encourage you to join me in signing it!
> > >
> > >
> https://www.change.org/p/association-for-computing-machinery-acm-support-open-access
> > >
> > >
> > > The petition asks ACM to remove its signature from the letter that
> opposed
> > > the proposed US open access policy, and asks for a vote of the
> membership
> > > on making the ACM digital library all open access, with any fees based
> on
> > > publication cost only.   If 1% of ACM members sign, then ACM's
> constitution
> > > (article 6) says that they must put the text in italics to a vote of
> the
> > > membership.
> > >
> > > The full text of the petition is below.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Jonathan
> > >
> > >
> > > As members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) we were
> > > disappointed to see the ACM sign onto a letter opposing a US government
> > > policy to require the free distribution of all federally funded
> research.
> > > As computer scientists, we are committed to the principles of Open
> Source,
> > > which promotes universal access to software, and Open Science, in which
> > > scientific research is both transparent and publicly accessible. When
> > > research funded by public agencies is signed away to private
> organizations
> > > and embargoed by them, it makes a mockery of these principles.
> > >
> > > As such, we demand that the ACM immediately withdraw its signature
> from the
> > > letter to the US government. Moreover, we ask that the following
> proposal
> > > be put to a vote of the general ACM membership:
> > >
> > > *The Association for Computing Machinery shall release all papers in
> the
> > > ACM digital library, past and future, under fully open access terms
> within
> > > five years. Moreover, it shall ensure that any charges for publication,
> > > whether to authors, conference attendees or institutions, should be no
> more
> > > than the cost of publishing the papers themselves.*
> > >
> > > We further encourage the leadership of the ACM to take concrete steps
> > > towards Open Access immediately, in line with its stated purpose of
> > > fostering the open interchange of information.
> >
> > --
> > Roberto Di Cosmo
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Computer Science Professor
> >             (on leave at INRIA from IRIF/University Paris Diderot)
> >
> > Director
> > Software Heritage                https://www.softwareheritage.org
> > INRIA
> > Bureau C328                E-mail : roberto at dicosmo.org
> > 2, Rue Simone Iff          Web page : http://www.dicosmo.org
> > CS 42112                  Twitter : http://twitter.com/rdicosmo
> > 75589 Paris Cedex 12          Tel : +33 1 80 49 44 42
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > GPG fingerprint 2931 20CE 3A5A 5390 98EC 8BFC FCCA C3BE 39CB 12D3
>
> >
>
>