As readers of this blog well know, making intellectual property freely available over the Internet is what the Global Text Project is all about. When you look at the "open" movement, it has three major aspects: First came open source, (e.g. Linux); next came open content (e.g. Wikipedia) and, finally, open access. Open access, according to Wikipedia (naturally), means "free on-line access to digital scholarly material". You may not know this, but university library subscriptions to scholarly journals can cost many thousands of dollars. Thus, like textbooks, they are not accessible to all who might benefit from having access to them, particularly students and professors in developing countries. The Wikipedia article is quite well-done if you'd like to learn more.
Now we learn that the Association of American Publishers has hired a "pit-bull" PR firm to make the case to the public that open access is bad for us. Read the entire article in the January 24, 2007 on-line edition of Nature. According to the article, the PR firm's name is Denzenhall Resources. One of its previous clients was Jeff Skilling of Enron fame. We hope for similar success with their new client.
-Don
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