Sharing Knowledge: Scientific Communication - SSOAR

Reflections on the Value Chain of Scientific Information 183
hers and libraries and other facilitators are institutional stakeholders. An important
engine for structural change in the value chain is the drive for empowerment
of the generic stakeholders in relation to the institutional stakeholders. In particular
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is an important engine
for change as it holds the promise of further empowerment of the generic stakeholders,
and in particular of the author as the most intensive user of the system.
ICT empowers the author to increase the visibility of his/her work and it helps
the reader in digital searching of the information base. But, ICT is foremost a
powerful engine for change in the value chain because it allows the transition
from a low volume/high margin business, as is the current mode in the industry
of research information, to a high volume/low margin business 3 . This strategic
development drives the academic institution to introduce ICT-supported education
and research widely. For the academic institution this development towards
widely applying ICT in education is considered an autonomous development 4 .
This desire to empowerment of the generic stakeholders articulates the need for
a new value chain in scientific communication.
Other engines for change that are relevant today are the transition of the European
universities to the Bachelor-Master system and the general developments
in research and education. Main developments in research are the increasing
emphasis on strategic research 5 and the role of intellectual property. In education
the promises of distance and lifelong learning in connection with ICT play an
important role. The developments in the value chain will be discussed in detail
in chapter 3, after a brief discussion of the main functions in scientific communication
in the next chapter. Strategic issues resulting from the developments in
the value chain are discussed in chapter 4.
2 Functions in scientific communication
In this paper we limit ourselves to a brief discussion of the main functions of
scientific communication and refer the reader to previous publications for a full
discussion.
3 See e.g.: Nicholas Negroponte, “Being Digital”, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1995
4 See e.g.: John Seeley Brown and Paul Duguid, “Universities in the Digital Age”, Heldref
Publications, Washington, 1996
5 M. Gibbons, „The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in
contemporary societies“, Sage Publications (1994).