Parallel universes: open access and open source

Parallel universes: open access and open source

[QUOTE]However, I should sadly point out one major, factual and measurable differrence: while the free software/open source movements catch fire like hay and disseminate very easily the open access movement experiences great difficulty to gather steam. Actually, this opens up a very interesting and intriguing question: why is that?[/QUOTE]

Open Source costs the producer of free software time, in return for which he gets additional free software. Also software is frequently bought by the individual and thus the cost savings can be significant.

Open Access costs the producer time and the organization 1000$ per page, in return for which he might get published. The journal articles are all purchased by the University making them 'free to him' meaning an Open Access Journal has only idealogical value but limited practical economic benefit to the producer.

Thus poor college students can trade time for software they need, but would get little or no benefit from Open Access. For Open Access those who benefit most from consuming Open Access journals are not the same as those who benefit producing the content.

Corporations benefit directly from supporting open source software they use, but thre is no benefit for them in supporting Open Access.

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