07-17-2006, 06:52 PM | #1 |
Recovering Gadget Addict
Posts: 5,381
Karma: 676161
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Device: iPad
|
MediaCommons wants to move academia away from paper
Contrary to popular belief of freshmen everywhere, university professors are generally not there because they are great teachers. The top universities encourage good teaching, but they are focused on getting great reserachers. In the past, that was probably more in order to advance learning, but now it's also important in order to be able to fetch the revenues available as research grants.
So how does the work of a professor get judged? One significant way is to look at the research that's been published in academic journals. Especially the ones with the best reputations, who only publish the best work. They judge submissions by a "peer review" process where experts in the field look at the submission and determine whether it is worthy, or maybe provide input to the author necessary to bring it up to the publishers standards. There are a lot of electronic versions of academic journals already, and libraries often find that the electronic versions are more used than the print versions because of the search capabilities. But we don't see large scale leaps into electronic publishing only. Now MediaCommons is making an effort to go that extra step to the electronic publishing world by bringing the whole peer review process along for the ride, hoping that the electronic journal will gain the same respect in the academic community as paper journals. Personally, I think it will take better reader systems and permanently accessible formats to encourage the industry to completely let go of paper content. But eventually it will not be a technology issue. It's really a content issue. We just don't see it yet. From arstechnica.com. |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
How do you move around with your kobo | Vardd | Kobo Reader | 17 | 07-14-2010 12:02 AM |
Quantum Paper claims to revolutionize electronic display/paper industry | Alexander Turcic | News | 12 | 04-09-2008 11:20 PM |
Paper Four: Digital paper that talks to you | Alexander Turcic | News | 10 | 06-09-2007 10:28 AM |
PVI delays flexible e-paper to end-2007 / color e-paper in 2009 | Alexander Turcic | News | 1 | 06-08-2007 03:52 AM |