NY Times: "Pet food stores weren't the killer app for the Web, but peer-reviewed scholarly journals might be." [Scripting News]
Dave Winer's scripting news weblog has been very intersting reading of late. The article is about the review process and how the web is speeding it up. In my opinion the more interesting part of peer-reviewed journals is their rapid movement to the web in the last decade. As a scientist I can attest to the power of peer-reviewed journals being online. It is much easier to learn about almost anything scientific now that most important journals are online. I believe it is the harbinger of what the web can do for all professional and entertainment content. Why were peer-reviewed journals first? Because in this medium, the authors have control of the content and its publishing. Most scientific publising was and is controlled by scientists and scientific societies. The middlemen (the publishers) don't control the business and therefore cannot stop the march of progress as has happened in the music industry.
On a related note, Dave also has comments on the latest actions of the entertainment industry trying to get a bill passed that would allow them to launch denial of service attacks against computers they think are distributing copyrighted material illegally. The music industry better hope this doesn't pass. What do you think a hacker who distributes music illegally is going to do to the music industry if they shut down his computer? Why retaliate in kind of course. Fortunately for all concerned, it will never pass.
1:06:09 PM 
|
