Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The PLOS Union

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

"PLOS staff are unionizing," reports this article. "How its leadership responds is a test of its vision for inclusive publishing." I suppose it's possible to support open access publishing while being opposed to unionization, as the current PLoS leadership seems to be, as reported here. But I find the two hard to separate. As Charles Whalley writes, "Arguably the true measure of inclusion is not whether an organization is willing to give a voice, but whether it is willing to give power. As a democratic complement to managerial hierarchies, trade unions are the only legally empowered mechanism for employee participation in their workplaces." More to the point, if this is the attitude of PLoS leadership, one wonders how far away we are from the organization hitting that commercial social media moment where they attempt to monetize their open content by charging fees for API access.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Nov 04, 2024 5:59 p.m.

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