SIGCIS 2010 Workshop Works in Progress

Name:Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Thomas Krichel

Institutional Affiliation:University of Leicester/Long Island University, USA and Novosibirsk State University, Russia

Email Address:b.batiz-lazo@le.ac.uk

Paper Type:Work in Progress

Paper Title:Multi-sided markets and on-line distribution of working papers: A brief history of NEP, 1993-2005

Paper Abstract:Topic: More and more academic journals adopt an open-access policy, by which articles are accessible free of charge, while publication costs are recovered through author fees (see Jeon and Rochet, 2009). We study the "pre-history" of this open access policy by documenting the emergence and development of a software platform created to offer a service for speedy, on-line distribution of recent additions to the broad literatures on economics and related areas called NEP: New Economics Papers.

Argument: NEP service emerged as part of a wider project called RePEc. By 2005 RePEc was one of the two leading repositories that facilitated distribution of contributions to economics and related disciplines to the relevant scientific communities through the internet. NEP was born as free of charge alternative in the digitalisation of working paper series (collections of pre-print academic articles that became a popular response to long delays in the publication of printed peer-reviewed academic journals). As other software platforms, the construction of NEP benefited a number of user groups using the same platform. But as is the case of similar multi-sided applications within the free software movement, success was contingent to reaching critical scale in the number of users and items in the depository, sorting out issues of high fixed costs, attracting talent to develop incremental innovations and differentiation. The paper thus tells of the challenges to create a successful open source platform. These include the consequences of decisions about programming (such as the selection of readymade vs purpose specific applications, negotiating host computers, etc.). It tells how it resisted attempts to develop into an online journal as a way to attract new collections and therefore, make the platform more valuable to new and prior subscribers (that is, the emergence of network externalities). But as had been the case for other online communities as the number of subscribers, collections and editors grew coordination required evolution and adaptation of responsibilities. In order words a move from ad hoc, fortuitous collaboration to introduction of processes, procedures and formal governance (selection of content and editors, duties and responsibilities of general editor, role of editorial and technical board, etc.). Unique to this article is arguing that today’s journals have adopted an open-access policy is a direct result of the success pre-publication repositories.

Evidence: The authors who created RePEc and NEP explain the history of these resources and their continuing impact. The article will tell of the development of both technical and academic aspects of this platform. Interviews and views of others involved were also sought. Oral histories were crossed referenced with email correspondence.

Contribution: Librarians viewed digital libraries as extensions of what they had long done (Cortada, 2008:318) but the use of open source software that eventually supported an online repository of working papers plus a scalable model to segment by knowledge area and distribute new additions to interested parties resulted in something more than an evolutionary development (Dongarra et al., 2008; Varian and Schonfeld, 2003). Open source software and internet standards have been dealt at length by economist (e.g. Economides and Katsamakas, 2006) and to a lesser extent by historians (e.g. Campbell-Kelly, 2004; Russell, 2008). Except for the collection in Aspray and Ceruzzi (2008), not much has been done by business historians and historians of technology to document the development of the internet in the commercial era. This article adds to the scare literature to date on the formation of online communities from an historical perspective (Campbell-Kelly,1987; Dongarra et al., 2008; Eklund, 1994; Estrin, 2000; Kelty, 2008).

References
Aspray, W. and Ceruzzi, P. E. (2008) The Internet and American Business, Boston, MA: MIT Press.
Campbell-Kelly, M. (1987) “Data Communications at the National Physical Laboratory (1965-1975)” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 9(3): 221-247.
Cortada, J. (2008) The Digital Hand (vol. 3), Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press
Dongarra, J., Golub, G. H., Grosse, E., Moler, C., Moore, K. (2008) “Netlib and NA-Net: Building a Scientific Computing Community”, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30(2): 30-41.
Economides, N. and Katsamakas, E. (2006) “Two-Sided Competition of Proprietary vs. Open Source Technology Platforms and the Implications for the Software Industry”, Management Science 52(7): 1057-71.
Eklund, J. (1994) “The Reservisor Automated Airline Reservation System: Combining Communications and Computing” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 16(1): 62-9.
Estrin, G. (2000) “Computer Network-Based Scientific Collaboration in the Energy Research Community, 1973-1977: A Memoir” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 22(2): 42-52.
Jeon, D. S. and Rochet, J. C. (2009) “The Pricing of Academic Journals: A Two-Sided Market Perspective”, WP 09-098, Toulouse: Ecole d’économie de Toulouse.
Kelty, C. M. (2008) Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software and the Internet (Experimental Futures), Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Russell, A. L. (2008) “Dot-Org Entrepreneurship: Weaving a Web of Trust”, Enterprises et Histoire 51:44-56.
Varian, H. and Schonfeld, R. C.(2003) JSTOR: A History, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

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