10 Sep
2020
10 Sep
'20
10:35 p.m.
Clem Cole writes:
One of the things I am most proud of as a Board Member and USENIX President
was going free access during my time. It was bold and scary, but the right
thing to do. Too bad, IEEE and ACM don't have the same values. A
paywall is an invisible revenue stream and makes it easy for them to
'provide value,' *but they do it one other people's work*. Back when
publishing was a more expensive thing for them to do, it made *some*
sense. But it should have been a zero-sum/at-cost game. When it became
the primary revenue stream for those organizations, is when they fell from
grace.
I completely agree; I asked both ACM and IEEE if I could at least have access
to their libraries for stuff that I had already paid for and had on paper but
they said no so I dropped my memberships.
Along those lines and in the archeology department, I have boxes of ACM and
IEEE pubs from the maybe 1982-2010 timeframe that are about to get recycled
so if anybody wants 'em, let me know.
Jon