Published on Nov 26, 2014 by PMR Followup meeting in London to OpenCon2014, on the need for different models of scholarly communication. I explore the history of 20thC academic student-based revolutions, with special relevance to young people and the scope for action today.

1. Embrace the Open Revolution
Peter Murray-Rust
OpenCon, London, 2014-11-26
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!
Wordsworth on the French Revolution

2. Young people
Jenny Molloy
Ross Mounce
Sam Moore Peter Kraker Rosie GraySophie Kay
Sophie: 3rd yr Grad students train 1st year students
PANTON ARMS
Panton Fellows

3. OpenCon2014, Washington
“The Most Important Meeting of my life” [PMR]
“Open Access” has been Openwashed Audrey
Watters
“Open Access Button is the most important OA
development in recent years” [PMR]
Open Access + Open Educational Resources + Open
Data

4. http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read
… an unprecedented public good. …
… completely free and unrestricted access to [peer-
reviewed literature] by all scientists, scholars, teachers,
students, and other curious minds. …
…Removing access barriers to this literature will
accelerate research, enrich education, share the
learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with
the rich, make this literature as useful as it can be, and
lay the foundation for uniting humanity in a common
intellectual conversation and quest for knowledge.
(Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2003)

5. [1] The Military-Industrial-Academic complex (1961)
(Dwight D Eisenhower, US President)
Publishers Academia
Glory+?
$$, MS
review
Taxpayer
Student
Researcher
$$ $$
in-kind
The Publisher-Academic complex[1]

6. Scientific and Medical publication (STM)[+]
• World Citizens pay $400,000,000,000…
• … for research in 1,500,000 articles …
• … cost $300,000 each to create …
• … $7000 each to “publish” [*]…
• … $10,000,000,000 from academic libraries …
• … to “publishers” who forbid access to 99.9% of
citizens of the world …
[+] Figures probably +- 50 %
[*] arXiV preprint server costs $7 USD per paper

7. Elsevier wants to control Open Data
[asked by Michelle Brook]

8. STM Publishers Licence
2012_03_15_Sample_Licence_Text_Data_Mining.pdf
(Summary: PMR has NO rights)
• [cannot publish to: ] “libraries, repositories, or archives”
• [cannot] “Make the results of any TDM Output available on an externally facing server or
website”
• “Subscriber shall pay a […] fee”
Heather Piwowar: “negotiating with publishers [made me physically ill]”
WE WALKED OUT
• Brit Library
• JISC
• RLUK
• OKFN
• …
• Ross Mounce
• PM-R
Licences destroy Content Mining

9. CLOSED ACCESS MEANS PEOPLE DIE
CLOSED DATA MEANS PEOPLE DIE

10. [Wikipedia:] On the steps of Sproul Hall [Student] Mario Savio gave a
famous speech
... But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean … to end up being
bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they
industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings!
... There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious
— makes you so sick at heart — that you can't take part. You can't even
passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and
upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got
to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the
people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented
from working at all. [1]
Univ California,
Berkeley 1964
The Free Speech Movement

11. 1970’s UK,
student occupations and sit-ins
University of Stirling
Used without permission but with thanks and Love
Liverpool , Warwick, Emmanuel Coll Camb., UCL, Glasgow, Middlesex, …

12. Flower Power
1967
Berkeley 2010
“Flowerpoint”

13. ["How We Stopped SOPA”:
This bill ... shut down whole websites. Essentially, it stopped Americans from
communicating entirely with certain groups....
I called all my friends, and we stayed up all night setting up a website for this new group,
Demand Progress, with an online petition opposing this noxious bill.... We [got] ... 300,000
signers.... We met with the staff of members of Congress and pleaded with them.... And then
it passed unanimously....
And then, suddenly, the process stopped. Senator Ron Wyden ... put a hold on the
bill.[48][49]
He added, "We won this fight because everyone made themselves the hero of their own
story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom.”
Robert Swartz: "Aaron was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic
principles."[116]
Aaron Swartz

14. Take the fight to publishers. Hold them accountable for the near-
criminal business models they operate on, and the stranglehold they
have had on academia for too long.
Extending this, I need your help. I want to know if we initiate a formal
investigation into the practices of publishers, in terms of the fact that
they operate within an unregulated market and enjoy enormous
profits to commit immoral acts (creating knowledge inequality). …. I
want to know what we can do, and if such an investigation is even
feasible, and whether or not we have a legal case supporting us.
Don’t sacrifice your career.. [PMR] said it best, that for any revolution
blood will be spilled. If you’re making someone angry, you’re probably
doing it right. But when you’re ‘advocating’ for open access, maintain
one simple rule: don’t be a dick…. (and lots more)
Jon Tennant 2014-11-25
http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/2014/11/25/open-access-wins-all-of-
the-arguments-all-of-the-time/

15. The Right to Read
is
The Right to Roam
The Right to Mine
Kinder Mass Trespass
used without permission but with love and thanks

16. Panton Authors and Fellows
Jenny Molloy
Ross Mounce
Sam Moore Peter Kraker Rosie GraySophie Kay
Sophie: 3rd yr Grad students train 1st year students

17. You/we can change the world
• Software
• Community
• Protocols
• Evangelism
• Materials
• TRAINING
• Build self-replicating systems
Respect and work with your juniors…

18. Liberation Software
Steve Coast developed OpenStreetMap
to challenge the monopoly of the UK Ordnance Survey

19. The Right to Read is the Right to Mine
http://contentmine.org

20. Some Children
of the Digital Enlightenment
• David Carroll & Joe McArthur: OAButton
• Rayna Stamboliyska & Pierre-Carl Langlais
• Jon Tennant
• Ross Mounce
• Jenny Molloy
• Erin McKiernan
• Jack Andraka
• Michelle Brook
• Heather Piwowar
• TheContentMine Team
• Rufus Pollock
• Jonathan Gray
• Sophie Kay*
Jean-Claude Bradley [1] a chemist
developed Open notebook science;
making the entire primary record of a
research project publicly available
online as it is recorded. (WP)
J-C promoted these ideas with
UNDERGRADUATE scientists.
[1] Unfortunately J-C died in 2014;
we held a memorial meeting in
Cambridge
Sophie
Kay*http://opensciencetraining.com/