Who Would Have Thought That We Needed Another Listserv? - The Scholarly Kitchen

About two months ago, I published an interview with Richard Poynder in which he discussed his recent announcement that he was “signing off from reporting on open access,” because “the movement has failed and is being rebranded in order to obscure the failure.” The interview generated lots of comments, and after watching and participating in that discussion, I added an additional comment of my own, observing that I was “getting the feeling that this post has emboldened some people to speak out who might not have felt able to do so before. And this leads me to wonder: who might be interested in the creation of a forum for multi-perspective, real-time discussion of OA and related issues?”

Several people subsequently reached out to me privately, expressing interest in such a forum. After getting through the holidays and then spending a few weeks in brainstorming conversation with them, I decided to take the leap and I created a new listserv, called Open Café, dedicated to “the free, open, constructive, and civil discussion of issues related to open scholarship – including open access, open science, open data, and adjacent topics. Open Café is a place for people across the full spectrum of viewpoints and perspectives to ask questions, offer opinions, and share information in an environment of mutual respect and openmindedness.”..."