MediaCommons

Kathleen Fitzpatrick has offered a lengthy post about MediaCommons (cross-posted also on her own blog), in which she - in collaboration with many scholars and The Institute for the Future of the Book - introduces preliminary suggestions for a model of scholarly publishing that moves beyond what for many appears to be an unsustainable and slowly declining print model. Rather than attempt to summarize, I offer the above link (which also includes a number of insightful comments) as well as if.book's post containing a round-up of initial reactions.

I suspect this is a project that must be led primarily by senior scholars (read: tenured), for no other reason than to protect the untenured from investing too heavily in something that may not be valued (enough) come time for review. Notwithstanding, there are a number of good ideas at work here - I'm excited about MediaCommons' prospects and look forward to watching the discussion unfold.