From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 22:08:01 -0500

Jim:  Interesting, I heard about HC just this morning while listening
to the University of Kansas's "Envisioning a World Beyond APCs/ABCs"
symposium streaming event.  HC was mentioned by Kathleen Fitzpatrick
(MLA) as an about-to-be-released platform that would help also to
support open access in the humanities.  Surprisingly quiet so far, but
probably I don't attend the right meetings to hear about such things.
Maybe someone on this list can tell us more.

BTW, re. the 2-hour streaming event -- Good format and technology.  18
invited presenters led off the 2-day symposium, each with 2 minutes of
commentary about what more we need to know or learn about open access.
Though some speakers didn't address the question that was posed, all
expressed their commitment and passion for open access in very diverse
ways.  It was one of those meetings where the talks ranged all over
the topic, with oft-repeated themes such as: Global North/South
Divide, the need to overhaul entirely the promotion/tenure/rewards
system, the need to think very differently about what scholarly
communications is, and much more.  It felt like a creative variant on
meetings such as Berlin XX, OSI, 2020 -- and we may see all the
disparate ideas crystallize into a handful of principles or outcomes.

An honorable mention to 3 presenters whom I particularly appreciated
in the moment.  Claude Guedon contributed his usual, articulate, high
level analysis, which always puts things into context for me -
provocatively at times (let the communications drive the publishing,
not the other way around).  Mary Rose Muccie (Temple University
Press), whom I'd not heard previously, gave a succinct, passionate
argument for long-form works (sometimes but not always "monographs"),
and was almost a lone voice on that topic.  John Willinsky (PK
Project) reminded folks that while being idealistic (as he is), we
shouldn't reject subscriptions or other funds, because OA and
scholarly communications needs them!  If I was slightly disappointed
in anything, it was the North/South discussion, where there was as
much heat as light and a decided absence of various people who've been
committed to resources and publishing in that very South, for some
years now -- and thus facts on the ground were thinner than they
needed to be.

Keenly looking forward to reading the outcomes from the Symposium!

Ann Okerson



On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 9:29 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:10:58 -0700
>
> Humanities Commons (https://news.hcommons.org) is an almost-started-up
> start-up with Mellon funding that promises to be a strong digital
> platform for support of humanities research and scholarly
> communication.  They are about to go live, but that URL works for now
> with some limited information.  The founding partners include the MLA,
> College Art Association, Association for Jewish Studies, and the
> Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies.  The core
> work seems to have come from the MLA with an earlier instantiation of
> MLA Commons.
>
> My sense is that we’ve all been looking for the right scale at which
> to act in these areas.  Humanities Commons offers national scale
> linked to learned societies, which themselves have proven to be good
> at giving national scale to disciplinary activities.  A high quality
> platform broadly accessible and committed to open access to the
> materials it gathers feels like something that could gain altitude
> fairly rapidly.  There’s an interesting interplay to be worked out
> between what makes sense to do at this level and what remains or
> becomes the work of the local digital repository.
>
> Anyone know more about this start-up?
>
> Jim O’Donnell
> ASU