Silicon Valley. WIKILEAKS PHENOMENA. Independant Media. Alter infos news. Media and Media literacy. Media Reform. Curation. Dropping knowledge. We must Liberate Ourselves by Becoming Better Informed. Open science, Freedom of Information and the Big Journal monopoly. The conflict between tobacco behemoth Philip Morris International and the University of Stirling (and I agree with Heather Brooke that information should be free for businesses too) is the latest in a string of clashes over access to research and the Freedom of Information Act.
Professor Mike Baillie, a dendrochronologist, was ordered to hand over data to a city banker and climate crank, while UEA staff were caught out dealing rather unprofessionally with requests from conspiracy theorists. There's a clear link between these incidents and the complaints in recent days from George Monbiot and Ben Goldacre regarding the lack of open access to research papers. Monbiot suggested that academic publishers were "the most ruthless capitalists in the western world", while Goldacre highlighted recent cases of modern day "Robin Hood nerds", using their skills to 'liberate' papers for the public to read.
But could pay $32 to see the full text: The internet faces mounting attacks on freedom. By Mat Bettinson Wednesday, April 20th 2011 at 1:18AM in Share Email. How the Middle Class Got Screwed Operation Bohemian Grove 24 Hours of Reality