My understanding of Open Access was best described by the Budapest Open Access Initiative as quoted by Peter Suber: “An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment. . . . The new technology is the internet.” Scholars are in a unique position in which revenue loss is not an issue in open access publication and that the nature of their work is to produce public knowledge.
While reading Fitzpatrick’s ‘Working in Public’, two keywords emerged for me: Visibility and Community. Fitzpatrick makes sure to note the significant risks that come along with the visibility of making one’s work public and open access. These risks compound when the author is writing about topics such as social justice and when their identity is subject to discrimination or oppression. When speaking on public scholarship, Fitzpatrick writes “members of our chosen communities enter into our projects not just as readers but as participants, as stakeholders, and as partners.” This reminded me of last week’s reading on the Possibly Impossible Research Project. In that project, the students and teacher moved away from such traditional roles and became more like collaborators in the quest for knowledge. Working in public also involves a breakdown of these rigid roles, allowing for the scholar and the audience to create more of a community.
In ‘Hybrid Publishing’, it was interesting to learn that community is what drives Manifold’s development and flexibility. For example, certain features were a direct response to Manifold being used by communities in classroom settings.
When reading “Minimal Computing”, I thought to my own community of this class. During praxis assignment presentations, I have often heard my classmates make decisions that align with the process of minimal computing. The main constraint in these scenarios is time. My classmates (and myself) first make the decision of what is needed to complete their project. Then, we need to decide what to prioritize in order to complete the project on time.
