The 1994 "Subversive Proposal" at 15: A Response
Amsciforum 2013-03-10
Summary:
Inchoate it was, in 1994, though the practical means to do it overnight
(fingers) were already available in 1994. Since then, the OAI protocol
and the IR software have made it a lot simpler and easier. But the
keystrokes remain to be done. Thirty eight prima facie worries have kept
fingers in a state of Zeno's Paralysis, despite all being answered,
fully, many, many times over.
http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/12094/
Now it is time to mandate the keystrokes. That too could be done
overnight, by the stroke of a Department Head's, DVC's or VC's pen, as
Wendy Hall (Southampton), Tom Cochrane (QUT), and Bernard Rentier
(Liege) have since shown.
http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/136-guid.html
Will it be another 15 years before the remaining 10,000 universities and
research institutions (or at least the top 1000) wield the mighty pen to
unleash the even mightier keystrokes (as 68 Institutions and
Departments, and 42 Funders have already done)? Or will we keep
dithering about Gold OA, publishing reform, peer review reform, re-use
rights, author addenda, preservation and the other 38 factors causing
Zeno's Paralysis) for another decade and a half?