Frei verfügbare wissenschaftliche Publikationen sind ein Anliegen, das die Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz seit vielen Jahren untestützt und vorantreibt. Die Idee, ein Camp für die Überarbeitung des Open-Access-Lehrbuchs für Lernen und Lehren mit Technologien, kurz L3T, zu veranstalten, wurde deshalb begeistert von der Bibliotheksleitung unterstützt. Vom 20. bis 28. August 2013 wurde das neue Lehrbuch L3T 2.0 geschrieben.

This thesis presents a detailed explanation and argumentation of why modern decentralized technologies could be utilized in order to improve scholarly communication on many fronts. The current model of scholarly communication, which is dominated by scientific journals, is analysed together with the current economic models in use. The thesis also briefly investigates peer reviews. It also endeavors to explain how scholarly goods might be perceived from an economic standpoint. Blockchain technology offers functionalities that could potentially solve many problems associated with scholarly communication through decentralization. Both permissioned and permissionless blockchains, their implementations, interesting technical/economic/governance aspects and why they are such a unique match for scholarly needs are thoroughly analyzed and explained. Finally minimal viability criteria suitable for assessment of decentralized scholarly projects are proposed. Existing decentralized applications which try to migrate scholarly communication from a current centralized system to a decentralized one are described and examined through the prism of this framework.

Mittels Publikationen werden die Ergebnisse wissenschaftlicher Tätigkeit verbreitet und der Wissenschaft zugänglich gemacht. Open Access ist der offene und für die Lesenden unentgeltliche Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Publikationen im Internet und deren möglichst schrankenlose Nachnutzbarkeit verstanden. Redaktionsschluss: 08.12.2023

This dissertation contributes to conversations regarding the impact of open user centered innovation on cultural production by focusing on the construction and production of religious products within one large-scale open user-centered technological environment, 3D virtual worlds. Particularly, this study examines how virtual world users construct (non-gaming) religious communities and practices and how the technology impacts the forms of religious expression these users create. Due to its existing religious sector and affordances for user-created content, Second Life (SL) was chosen as the context of study for this dissertation project. Building upon Von-Hippel's (2005) user-centered innovation theory, construction and production within three different user-centered religious communities in SL were explored. Using a comparative ethnographic approach over a 14-month period, involving participant observations, interviews and hyper-media techniques, the social construction of customized religious products amidst technical, social, and economic virtual/non-virtual structures were analyzed. Exploratory findings demonstrate that the democratizing of cultural innovation, that is the construction of heterogeneous cultural religious products by the everyday user, is a matter of patterned relational pathways. The greater possible patterned pathways the higher potential for democratized cultural innovation, an increasing number of users developing new ways of doing religion. The fewer patterned pathways the less the potential for democratize cultural innovation and the greater potential for reproducing within the virtual realm the same cultural frames that define the current social order in the non-virtual realm.

Collaboration is at the foundation of modern theatre practices. All of the individuals involved in a production share their contributions with their immediate colleagues for the benefit of the production. Reoccurring or very similar technical challenges often arise in productions no matter where they are produced. Sharing the creative solutions to these problems among graduate technical theatre students will benefit the theatre industry by increasing the possibility for innovation. An information-sharing infrastructure should be developed in a way that will ease the burden for the individuals who wish to share their innovations with the broader community, while including a way to receive acknowledgment for their contributions. This paper looks to the theories of Eric Von Hippel on “innovation communities” and the ideas and motivations for “free revealing”. The theories are related to the specific characteristics and needs of the community of Master of Fine Arts graduate students in theatre technology programs. Six techniques currently used for the sharing of information will be analyzed for their benefits and limitations. Topics such as open source software development, the principles of the organization Public Library of Sciences, and the practice of creating online instructional videos are all explored for successful techniques that can be applied to technical theatre innovation sharing. In addition, the protection of authorship will be discussed including: a broad history of copyright law in America, the cultural property theories of Lawrence Lessig, and the Creative Commons. I plan to compile all of the necessary information to lay the foundation for the development of a new approach to sharing information in theatre technology. Open Theatre Source will be the name for the proposed infrastructure. It will provide an online meeting place among the potential innovators in MFA programs. The infrastructure will employ new sharing techniques and will use innovative technologies to the community. The primary objective of Open Theatre Source will be to facilitate a dialogue among individuals who are studying within the many different programs. The dialogue will transcend institutional boundaries, which will benefit and improve the entire community of academic institutions. Open Theatre Source will create a valuable case study for future research in open sharing infrastructures for theatre technology. Through its successes or failures, the information gathered could then be applied to other areas of the theatre community, including the professional industry. / text

The following thesis concerns the conceptualization of openness within the open access movement. Open accesscan be understood as a phenomenon or a movement that aims at changing the current system of scholarly communication.Consequentially, the movements goals arose in relation to the escalating serials crisis in scholarly communicationand the increasing power of commercial publishers. The purpose of the thesis is to study three centralopen access declarations with the aim of uncovering the different conceptualizations of openness found withinthese texts. Leaning on the theoretical position known as actor-network theory, the declarations role within a surroundingnetwork is explored by focusing on how openness as a concept has been produced and reproduced bycentral actors. Two overarching questions frames the study: How is openness conceptualized within the declarations?And how can openness, as a concept, be understood as an effect generated by a larger network?The first part of the study focuses on the first question. In order to provide an answer I have conducted athematically structured text analysis of the declarations. The results of this part show that openness, in relation toopen access, is part of a discourse where research is considered a public good. I claim that this indicates thatopenness is related to the larger questions of information freedom and the enclosure of intellectual commons.The purpose of openness is described within the declarations as contributing to mechanisms of decentralized controlover information, which in itself generates a greater efficiency and lower costs in regards to scholarly communication.The second part of the study is concerned with the larger, overarching network and in what way the conceptualizationof openness can be seen as a network generated effect. To answer this question I deploy the theoreticaltools provided by ANT. Focus lies on how the declarations relate to each other and on how central actors havecontributed to the conceptualizations. The results show that openness and open access has shifting meanings thathave been modified in various ways. They also show that actors through a collective negotiation process defineand shape the meaning of openness by circulating ideas on electronic dissemination and distributed processes

South Africa is engaged in social redress and Education at all levels reflects this commitment. The period of transition from the apartheid policy of the National Party, (1948 – 1994), to the democratic policy of the African National Congress and its alliances, (1994 - ), continues to be in a state of flux. Education authorities struggle to maintain a balance between widening access to previously disadvantaged students whilst maintaining standards at the same time. Much of the recent debate on good teaching and learning practices suggests that teachers not only need to have a firm grasp of their discipline knowledge but that they also need to perform competently in pedagogic practice. This debate recognises sociological change in knowledge-discourses, fair and transparent assessment policy, and teacher and learner profiles, thereby creating an urgent need for a new professional identity for teachers. Efficient and effective teaching practices require school teachers to be sensitive to innovative and wide ranging culture-sensitive content as proposed by the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). This is a refined version of South Africa’s first national education policy, C2005, introduced to schools in 1998 and streamlined in 2000 by the Review Committee of C2005 to produce the RNCS. Music now fits into Arts and Culture, one of eight integrated learning areas. The Generalist-Specialist Music Educator is a new identity meant to empower classroom trainee-teachers in primary and secondary education who are new to the discipline of music. The majority of the teacher-trainees who have elected to take the Music in Education module at the University of The Witwatersrand’s School of Education are admitted under discretionary rules, and as a consequence they have little or no experience of formal music education. The Generalist-Specialist Music Educator comes from such a background and her aim would be to fast track her way towards a music orientation that would equip her to advise her own students who might want to learn music at school. Specifically, the Generalist-Specialist should enhance the open relationship between learner and teacher as well as contribute effectively to the multidisciplinary nature of today’s school curriculum.

This study examines the scholarly communication activities in two scientific fields, chemistry and economics, in a Polish context. The dissertation aims at investigating what characterises the publishing choices of researchers and what supplementary forms for the dissemination of research output are used by scholars. In addition, the paper is looking into what are the views and awareness of open access and institutional repositories within this scientific community. This thesis gives the results of semi-structured interviews and an online survey at two academic faculties at a Polish technical university. As its theoretical framework, the study uses Whitley’s theory of the intellectual and social organisation of academic fields and Latour and Woolgar’s study regarding various motivations for publishing. The study found that there are some similarities between the two investigated disciplines, especially in the context of extra-disciplinary factors that have impact on scholars’ publishing choices. The study also revealed that the general awareness of open access is rather good among the participating academics, however the number of open access publications is not very high. In addition, the findings suggest that there were some misunderstanding about the definitions and functions of institutional repositories among scholars. / Program: Masterprogram: Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, Digitala bibliotek och informationstjänster

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to present guidelines for making a digital repository. To attain this, useful factors for creating an archive were examined. Also different organisations’ strategies were analysed. The method used is evidence-based practice, including reading literature and e-mail interviews. Five people in Sweden working with digital repositories were e-mail interviewed. The theory behind the investigation is based on Sheila Corrall’s and Elizabeth Orna’s research on the creation of information strategies. Three main areas were identified: environmental issues, strategic focus and strategy formation. The literature study identified different areas that are involved in creating a digital repository. These are administrative factors, technical aspects, content, publication forms, cultural factors and marketing. In a similar way the interviews clarified why the repositories were created, such as administrative factors, technical aspects, how to publish, quality aspects, marketing, cultural factors and good advice. The literature and the interviews were compared and conclusions were made. These conclusions were used to set up guidelines for developing a digital repository. To create a strategy, the chosen organisation has to be evaluated, which was beyond the scope of this thesis. It is suggested that the thesis is suitable for a starting point, initiating work on digital repositories. / Uppsatsnivå: D

Since the beginning of the 21st century the Open Access-movement, which advocates free online distribution of scholarly information, has gained momentum. Authors can provide Open Access to their work in two main ways: by depositing a copy of their research output in an e-print archive and by publishing in Open Access journals. During the past few years, universities and other research institutions throughout the world have established institutional repositories to manage, preserve and provide access to the intellectual output of the university/research institution. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to describe the implementation of an institutional repository at the Swedish University College of Borås. The thesis also aims to describe the current situation regarding Open Access at the university college. The case study indicates that a requirement for the deposit of references into the repository is believed to have had a significant impact on the contents of the institutional repository. The full-text availability of research publications is, however, at present relatively low. The results show that there are three main barriers in the development of the institutional repository: lack of knowledge regarding Open Access and digital publishing, copyright issues and lack of time. Misconception and uncertainty regarding the guarantee of quality of the digital material are factors that most likely prevent researchers from depositing their research articles into the institutional repository. Librarians play a key role when it comes to informing about self-archiving and Open Access. Our conclusion is that to obtain more research publications in full-text, researchers need to gain more knowledge about institutional repositories and digital publishing. / Uppsatsnivå: D