Delivering open access: from promise to practice

An anniversary issue of Ariadne commissioned articles to predict the landscape ten years ahead. This contribution concludes that Open Access is a battleground where a ragamuffin band of academics and librarians are challenging the imperial pomp of billion dollar global companies. In those terms the contest is both unequal and unwinnable, since too much inertia is built into the system. However, as the article tries to show there are powerful drivers and change agents in place - technology; the nature of research; Google; national interest - which coupled with the sheer bloody-mindedness and persistence of the proponents of open access will lead to its growth as the dominant form of scholarly discourse. Whether that scholarly discourse will still include the journal article as we know it is a much more difficult question

Exploring the Futures of Mobiles for Social Development Using Ethnographic Futures Research

As new technologies such as mobile phones impact peoples’ daily lives, interest into their potential is also growing. In this research paper we aim to identify and explore how a particular research approach, in this instance, ethnographic futures research (EFR), can be utilized for future predictions of mobiles phones in social development activities in developing countries. The paper describes the process and offers reasoning for utilizing this approach. By undertaking this research, the benefits are that academics will learn of an approach that will allow the study of and understanding social development activities achieved by novel mobile applications. For practitioners, such research offers the potential of obtaining a rich, simple and clearer understanding of mobile application development. By obtaining such an understanding, regions around the globe can be targeted and diffusion strategies leading to increasing mobile phone users will occur. By applying EFR it is concluded that there is definitely a need for a different way of thinking about how mobile phone services should be created and deployed to marginalized communities to avoid the unsustainable models used for the initial tele‐center deployments over a decade ago

Urban Indian Perspectives of Traditional Indian Medicine

American Indians (AI) represent two percent of the United States population with over five hundred and sixty federally recognized tribes. In comparison to mainstream society AI show disparate rates for a number of health conditions. While some AI use traditional forms of medicine and healing practices that encompass mind-body-spirit approaches, studies conducted on the topic of Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM) among American Indians are sparse. Considering the fact that two thirds of the entire AI population currently lives in urban areas, it is timely to learn more about how TIM is seen by them. The purpose of this study was to gain these. An Ethnographic Futures Research (EFR) study was conducted with five AI participants of the urban community in King County, Washington. Data was collected via focus group discussion involving future and present oriented times which were categorized into themes and member checked with participants. Findings were arranged in a physical-emotional-social-spiritual framework to include themes regarding perspectives about TIM, broad guiding principles, and steps. The range of perspectives in this study support previous investigations involving tribally diverse people. That participant views about TIM encompassed a multitude of facets beyond health care issues was a surprise and may allude to a relational worldview. The relational aspects that exist within many indigenous worldviews are highlighted by the importance of treating each other and the earth well is a factor in the sustenance of traditional and indigenous knowledge. The electronic version of this dissertation is available in the open-access OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/et

Exploring the Future of the Digital Divide through Ethnographic Futures Research

This study examines leaders who work for social change in an information society. Grounded in the notion that leadership and social change are necessarily future oriented, this study attempts to learn how those who lead the effort to ameliorate the digital divide in Washington State perceive the optimistic, pessimistic, and most probable futures. In this study, the digital divide is framed as a social problem that is caused, in part, by inequities in the ability to access and to use information communication technologies. Furthermore, this study is concerned that the digital divide impacts the opportunities for participation in social and economic arrangements, which may be a threat to social and economic justice. Although the scope of the digital divide is global, this study narrows its focus in three ways. First, the digital divide is explored only within the context of Washington's sociocultural system. Second, only the perspectives of those who lead efforts to bridge the digital divide were sought. Third, only perceptions and cognitions of possible future sociocultural systems were explored. The method used in this study is called Ethnographic Futures Research (EFR). EFR is a type of ethnography adapted for use in studying perceptions of a culture's future. Thirteen individuals who lead various efforts to bridge the digital divide in Washington State were interviewed using the EFR method. In each interview, three possible scenarios (optimistic, pessimistic, and most probable) of Washington State's sociocultural system set in the year 2016 were elicited. The interviewees then provided recommendations of what action is required to render the optimistic scenario more probable by the year 2016. The digital divide was discussed within the context of the future sociocultural systems described in the three scenarios and the recommendations. The findings of this study include a) multiple definitions of the digital divide; b) descriptions of the forces perceived to be driving the digital divide; and, c) suggestions for future efforts to ameliorate the digital divide. A general discovery made by this study is that significant optimism exists that Washington State will build and maintain a more just and equitable sociocultural system in the future