From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2015 14:40:27 -0400

Surely there is a dose of irony in Ann's "not a hero" formulation? As
though being a business innovator is not enough????  No one, of
course, should be required to explain their** jokes, so it is
understandable that our beloved moderator may choose to remain silent.

**After much teeth-grinding, I have determined that "their" as a
singular is less of a mouthful than "his or her."

Joe Esposito

On Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 1:38 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Richard Poynder <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 11:31:44 +0100
>
> Thanks for commenting Ann. Two points:
>
> First, it is possible that Tracz’s position is not quite as
> straightforward as your anecdote suggests. It’s true he sometimes
> describes himself as just "a publisher and a businessman”. At other
> times, however, he presents himself in a somewhat different light.
> Speaking to me in in 2005 he said that while it is nice to be wealthy,
> he is “perfectly happy not to have money”. What motivates him, he told
> me, is undertaking projects that are “difficult to do and
> complicated”.
>
> In 2002, in an interview with Daryl Rayner, Tracz said that he doesn't
> even know how to interpret a balance sheet. And speaking to me in the
> wake of the sale of BMC he said, “I took horrendous risks, and I was
> not at all sure that it would ever make financial sense. It was an
> ethical issue, and I was intrigued by the complexities of it.”
>
> That said, the real puzzle is why Tracz’s business concerns appear to
> be so complex, with his various ventures enveloped in a web of
> interlocked companies, many of which seem ultimately to lead to
> concerns based in places like Switzerland and Cyprus.
>
> Second, I am struck at your implication that OA advocates don’t value
> smart, strategic business innovators, or that they see a fundamental
> contradiction between open access and business motivations. Is that
> your view, or am I misunderstanding what you said?
>
> Richard
>
>
> On 25 September 2015 at 02:14, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:10:50 -0400
> >
> > Agree with Jean-Claude but for a different reason.  Early in the last
> > decade, I was part of a librarian focus group invited to London to
> > meet with Tracz to talk about about BioMed Central.  There may have
> > been 15-20 of us in the room, and a number were passionate open access
> > advocates.  When asked if he were pursuing this idea because of a
> > powerful conviction/passion for open access, Tracz said clearly that
> > he is a publisher and businessman, one who sees in open access a solid
> > business opportunity -- which would also help on the access side.
> > Many hearts fell and many spirits sagged, for indeed there had been an
> > expectation of meeting an open access "hero," but here instead was a
> > smart, strategic business innovator.
> >
> > Ann Okerson/CRL