I'm very sympathetic to funding issues for academic Internet endeavors.
Some 14 years ago (of course ancient in Internet time) I started
http://rfe.org . After some years I found a sponsor, the American Economic
Association, and one requirement I had was that it be open to all. I'm
also involved in http://repec.org , which is entirely based on volunteer
efforts and all its content is freely available. It is very widely used in
my discipline; in a typical month there are 2,500,000 abstract views. One
of its servers, http://nep.repec.org/ , is hosted on my campus and I help
administer it. I've even written on this issue in “The Future Information
Infrastructure in Economics,” (with Robert P. Parks) The Journal of
Economic Perspectives; vol. 11, no. 3, 1997, pp. 75-94 (it is a well-known
journal in my discipline with an impact factor of 3.5).
Ruth said:
> I would like to echo what Michael has said. I appreciate that it can
> be frustrating when you come to a website and you run into a "$60
> paywall". But please trust us that we in the TBLC are not trying to
> enrich ourselves, we are only trying to survive as an organization.
Understood, but keep in mind that many of use don't have a mechanism to
charge something like this to our department -- we'd be paying out of our
own pocket. Such a payment is 100% foreign to my discipline. At the recent
"AEA Conference on Teaching Economics and Research in Economic Education"
I and three other economists (Molly Espy, Paul Hettler, and Jennifer
Imazeki) did a two hour workshop on TBL. Many would have been startled to
hear of a $60 charge for materials. For someone looking at adopting TBL
outside professional schools this could be a significant negative factor.
Also, perhaps http://www.teambasedlearning.org/benefits might echo these
points? To my ear, as-is, this page very much has the ring of a commercial
venture. Why not explicitly say here what my money is going for?
> The $60 dues help pay not only for administrative support, they also
> provide support of our annual meeting, business expenses such as mail
> and fedexing of supplies, a presence at conferences such as the AAMC and
> IAMSE, brochures and A-E cards for workshop leaders, teleconference
> support for our many committee meetings, and a variety of other uses.
Two thoughts here:
- Maybe have the medical and or professional material behind a paywall
and other material not? As someone not used to paying for such, and
likely having it come out of my own pocket, I'm not sure about
subsidizing a presence at AAMC or IAMSE (I had to Google what they
were) when they're used to paying for such materials.
- Perhaps have the annual meeting subsidize the website and other
expenses and not the other way around? Just about everyone is used to
paying for conferences. In the conferences I've been associated with
(I'm the Secretary-Treasurer of http://comp-econ.org ) we've found
that if we have more participants than we budgeted for, we do well
financially.
> We do not get support from any university or other organization for the
> TBLC. Like Michael said, many of us have spent a considerable amount of
> our own time and money contributing to the organization. We are not
> trying to make a profit. We are anxious for the organization to be
> valuable to its members, and are working hard so that it may be that
> way. We debate every decision regarding what to keep inside and outside
> the "paywall," so we are sensitive to your feedback. I hope you can
> appreciate our perspective as well.
I do understand and as above I've indeed been in the very same boat.
Again, at least might http://www.teambasedlearning.org/benefits say this?
The only time I've seen "Premium Membership" is at commercial sites, not
academic ones (I'm fine with that at commercial sites). Second, as above,
perhaps the annual conference might help fund the website and other
expenses and not vice-versa.
Thanks for your time,
Bill
--
Bill Goffe
Department of Economics
SUNY Oswego, 416 Mahar Hall
Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-3444(v), 315-312-5444(f)
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http://cook.rfe.org
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