Below is a YouTube of a plenary speech I gave on June 20, to the annual meeting of University Presses.
I took advantage of that moment, and spoke from my heart to address two themes that matter:
a) survival of scholarly publishing
b) survival of civilization.
I took a substantial professional risk, by speaking from the heart -- outlining, without foaming at the mouth, what my fears are regarding impending environmental collapse, to 300+ academic publishers, and exhorting them to change, to try to help.
For those of you who are attentive to the environment: to carbon chaos, to species collapse, to ocean acidification, to toxins everywhere, this is as good a summary of converging crises as I could do, in the time allotted.
For those of you who are time-challenged, I really start to get rolling at around the 2:00 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Below are some highlights from the full text of the speech, which also has the second half of the speech's Youtube embedded in it. The second half is mostly about radical change in scholarly publishing -- with open access as the necessary backbone --and is likely of interest only for those of you who care about publishing, academia, and a free culture.
By posting this diary, I'm also for the first time identifying myself quite directly -- this is me, speaking from the heart; and this is mwmwm, connecting his politics with his persona with his professional life.
I spoke from the heart to that fairly august group of publishers because of my deep, personal fear for the future that my just-minted grandson is beginning. The time for compartmentalization is over. The time for thoughtful risk, and radical change, to try to save the day -- that's now beginning. I have to step up.
Michael/mwmwm
From the 16 minute speech:
The realities I see ahead of us, in the next ten to fifteen years, militate for some radical strategic choices, in the next three years.
I believe that we must shift our business models — publicly, transparently, intentionally, thoughtfully, but radically — to a digital one, with open access as the backbone of scholarly publishing. We must do this to survive a tremendously turbulent next decade, and to ensure that our mission, and its survival, continues to be fulfilled.
...
But CO2 does something much worse. While we bicker with global-warming deniers, the ocean is getting more acidic. Excess CO2 plus ocean produces carbonic acid. Ocean acidification is a clear and present danger. A slight rise in acidity dramatically affects calcium-carbonate-based lifeforms, like most plankton, shellfish, and coral, the cornerstones of the ocean biosphere.
If humans do not drastically reduce our CO2 output in the next ten years, our rich, biodiverse ocean will become an acidic, jellyfish- and algae-filled cesspool, in our lifetimes.
If, over the next decade, humans continue doing what we have done for the last fifty years, then we will construct our own hell, and our grandchildren will curse our names.
...
Within the context of a world in crisis, we must demonstrate that we’re radically rethinking our relationship to the future. We must demonstrate that we are part of the solution, not part of the problem. We must seize initiative now, and start making changes as fast as we can.