[open-archaeology] AIA and open access

[Stefano Costa]

On 16th April 2012,
a Twitter conversation developed
around a letter published by the President
of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA),
Elisabeth Bartman.
The letter is (ironically) online here:
http://www.archaeology.org/1205/departments/president.html

Basically Bartman is telling that:
- AIA is against open access,
especially if that is imposed from "outside"
to the academic world,
on the grounds that
research is primarily funded by the public
- open access damages
"the traditional venues in which scientific information is presented
by offering, for no cost, something
that has considerable costs associated with producing it"

There are several issues with this statement,
that you can read and amend at http://archeo.okfnpad.org/responsetoaia
together with a call for action.

We should aim for a quick, comprehensive and well-argumented rebuttal of this
statement (3 characteristics that are at the opposite sides of reasonability, I
realise). Let's fix a deadline in one week, on 23rd April 2012.

This is an initiative by the working group on Open Data in Archaeology at the
Open Knowledge Foundation, but anyone is free to have their say and join us.

Ciao
Stefano

--
Stefano Costa

Coordinator, Working Group on Open Data in Archaeology
http://wiki.okfn.org/wg/archaeology
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org · http://opendefinition.org/