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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Knowledge sharing

In the news, Anonymous hacks US government agency website after Aaron Swartz suicide. I've been reading Memory to myth: tracing Aaron Swartz through the 21st century and Hiding your research behind a paywall is immoral.

The argument that the last article makes about science writing could also be made about religious writing as well ...

[...] If you are a scientist, your job is to bring new knowledge into the world. And if you bring new knowledge into the world, it's immoral to hide it .... The purpose of a scholarly society is to promote scholarship, which is best done by making that scholarship available. A society that cares more about preserving its own budget than about the field it supposedly supports has lost its way. Societies need to find other ways to fund their activities. And yes, I am talking to you, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (my own field's society). You cannot support the science of vertebrate palaeontology by taking science and hiding it where most people can't see it.


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