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Author: Alyssa

On “An Environmentalism for Information,” by James Boyle

On “An Environmentalism for Information,” by James Boyle

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In “An Environmentalism for Information,” a chapter in The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (2008), James Boyle suggests that the intellectual property and OA movement needs to follow the lead of the environmentalism movement. Indeed, this may appear to be a tenuous or questionable analogy at first glance. Boyle is well aware of the skepticism that could be leveraged at such a claim, however, and he goes on to argue his position convincingly. Environmentalism, Boyle explains, was…

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On “Peer Production and Sharing,” by Yochai Benkler

On “Peer Production and Sharing,” by Yochai Benkler

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In this chapter from The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom (2006), Yochai Benkler defines “peer production” as a term, and provides ample examples of peer production in networked, computational systems. For Benkler, peer production “characterizes a subset of commons-based production practices,” which are “self-selected and decentralized, rather than hierarchically assigned” (62). He also elaborates that there are four types of commons: 1) commons that are open to anyone; 2) commons that are only open to a…

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Zotero

Zotero

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FYI, my public Zotero account is here. I’ll be adding items as I progress through my research, and each post here will have corresponding bibliographic info for the specific artifact in consideration in my Zotero library.  

On The Access Principle, by John Willinsky

On The Access Principle, by John Willinsky

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In The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (2006), Dr. John Willinsky lays out an expansive argument for open access to scholarly research, based on a steadfast belief, articulated from the outset, that open access has the potential to change the public presence of science and scholarship, and increase the circulation of these particular forms of knowledge (xi). Willinsky concludes that knowledge is, inherently, a public good (like lighthouses [9]), and as such the public should…

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Hello World!

Hello World!

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I am beginning an interdisciplinary PhD at the University of Victoria in September 2016, somewhere between the fields of digital humanities, publishing, and library and information science, with a focus on open social scholarship. Within this context, I’ll be studying the interrelated areas of open access, education policy, digital publishing, social knowledge creation, and scholarly communication. So what are these Little Reviews, hmm? Basically, I’m going to use this space to air my thoughts on the relevant material I come…

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