[JoPP-Public] Future of Journal of Peer Production (JoPP): the end of the line?

[Andrew Murphie]

Hi Mathieu,

We're facing the same kinds of questions at the Fibreculture Journal. We're
keeping on keeping on the for moment but we'll see what happens next year.
A while back we were almost thinking of an issue on this very issue ..
current state of OA publishing, why it's become difficult, the life cycle
of journals that are fully OA etc etc .. why the potential has not yet
actualised in anything like the way it could ...

Something on the future of Scholarly Comms (a term that perhaps becomes
redundant when I think about it ... )

Watched Paywall last night. All through my partner and I were talking about
something that seemed not to quite come up .. which is the question of
labour .... "the modes of peer production" I guess. Although I think JoPP
has dealt with this some in #10. I know this has been a huge issue at FCJ.
We've all burned out at some stage with the work (and complete lack of
credit even in university workloads .. universities love journals but seem
to think journal issues just pop out of the ground by themselves like
mushrooms).

It's also, I have to say, been quite hard to FCJ to make a transition into
doing things differently, more in tune with what we see as contemporary
events, largely because forces keep pulling us back to traditional forms of
credit etc when it comes to the form and process of the work.

I know other journals and so forth have faced similar issues.

Among these and other questions (very prevalent throughout Paywall, and
certainly in my mind as editor of FCJ since at least 2008 ... the first ERA
ranking exercise ...and now with UNSW where I work's own "journal rankings"
exercise) ... is the whole politics of infrastructure—reactionary we well
know—that has developed around publishing now ... at exactly the same time
that OA and much more beyond this in terms of "scholarly comms" has
thrived, in what I'm calling a "third media revolution" (most of publishing
has become even more stubbornly "second media revolution" that is, the
reproduction and distribution of representations, e.g. the printing press
but also the like of social media) ...

So one idea (and I hesitate as I'm beyond time poor) might be a cross many
OA venture (as in venture communism) celebration, exploration into the
beyond, and also critical evaluation of the contemporary state of
whatever-it-is-that-scholarly-comms-is-becoming. This could also be seen as
an activist intervention into the state of things, e.g. the politics of
scholarly infrastructure, but also, rankings and research organisations
especially (think of e.g. Plan S here, although I've recently heard that
the "fix is in" on this .. at least in the UK, with Elsevier no less part
of the discussions now being undertaken) ... Interventions of commercial
consultants, etc. Our entire university is now run via "rankings" etc. Tied
of course to the future of the university or
whatever-it-it-universities-are-(un)becoming .. then there would be
questions about forms of comms and scholarly comms and processes through
this; data, media and comms and (to my mind) the almost total lack of
understanding of any of these except in the most outmoded and frankly
limited way on the part of research organisation and infrastructure high
and low , etc etc.

None of this means that JoPP should continue, if it has served its purpose.
Probably just thinking on my feet. And it could go on without it (which
sensibly would leave those who have made JoPP work so well with some time
of their hands to do other things. As someone who has spent far too much
time on an OA journal, to the detriment of my other work, I can say it is
sometimes a good idea to let things go).

andrew

On Sun, 4 Nov 2018 at 19:59, Mathieu O'Neil <mathieu.oneil at anu.edu.au>
wrote:

> Hi all
>
>
> Steve and I have been working on JoPP #13 OPEN to be released in the first
> half of 2019. After that, it's anybody's guess.
>
>
> JoPP#14 should come out in the first half of 2020 but for that to happen
> someone(s) has to come up with a concept - and CFP!  Maurizio proposed
> something around the commons/STS a while back but this has not translated
> into concrete action (yet).
>
>
> If no-one is willing / able to continue the JoPP journey it may be time to
> plan for officially entering hiatus mode after JoPP #13.
>
>
> Perhaps the Journal has served its purpose - raised awareness and
> knowledge of peer production, linked with makers/activists, fostered a
> community - and something else needs to take its place?
>
>
> Or, someone(s) want(s) to keep the project moving forward. If that is the
> case, please say so. CFP for JoPP #14 should go out soon.
>
>
> Personally I've co-edited two of the last four issues (#10 and upcoming
> #13) and have a lot on my plate in the coming year. I might have issues to
> explore in JoPP in the future, but not now.
>
>
> cheers,
>
> Mathieu
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>


-- 
***

"A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, Where am I? What he
really wants to know is, Where are the other places" - Alfred North
Whitehead

"The greatest effort is not concerned with results" - Atīśa (982-1054;
Vajrayana Buddhism, Bengal)

Andrew Murphie - Associate Professor
School of the Arts and Media,
University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia, 2052

Editor - The Fibreculture Journal http://fibreculturejournal.org/>
web: http://www.andrewmurphie.org/ <http://dynamicmedianetwork.org/>

tlf:612 93855548 fax:612 93856812
room 311H, Robert Webster Building
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