100th post retrospective
According to my Wordpress dashboard, this will be the 100th post here at PA. I’m fairly pleased with the response that the blog has gotten so far, and I feel like my decision to keep the focus tightly on Open Access was a good one.
I have to admit feeling a bit like I’m both preaching to the choir and shouting into the wind at the same time. Most of the comments come either from a dedicated core (awesome) or others in the OA movement who I presume are getting pings from Google hits (also great). At some point though, I’d like to start hooking into that next layer; people who might be interested in doing more things with OA but don’t know how or are unfamiliar with all of the great options. We can sit here all day and pat one another on the back for a point well made, but it’s the public-facing products and discussions that will really make a difference. By this I mean the things that you’re already familiar with; sites like OpenWetWare, journals like PLoS, public talks by proponents of OA, etc.
You might say I’m interested in expanding PA’s deliverables.
At the moment I’m sort of investigating some of the projects that are already out there. To be honest, I do feel like the OA movement is in some ways disjointed, in that there are many projects which are being maintained by small groups and have relatively narrow impact. This isn’t necessarily bad - this is the sort of “grass roots” community-based enthusiasm that many causes would love to have. I’m more interested, however, in applying whatever minimal force I can bring to bear in a way that has more widespread effects. I’m not sure what this is yet, but I’m thinking hard about it.
Once again, thanks for reading. It still amazes me that one person pecking away at a laptop keyboard can engage in these discussions in a (hopefully) productive way. I look forward to continuing the conversation with all of you.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I look forward to more of your thoughts on “deliverables”. Though I never tire of cheering from the sidelines, I too would like to do more. My current plan is to claw my way up the foodchain to a PI position at any school or institution that will have me on my own (Open) terms, since I think what “the movement” needs most is exemplars (in the “typical specimen” sense). Also, well, research = more addictive than crack, and I’m a junkie. But I have to be realistic about my chances, so I’m always looking for other ways to contribute.
BTW, have you had a look around FriendFeed? Start with the Life Scientists room, the conversation there is really excellent. (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/the-life-scientists)