Dear all,
I'm still waiting for your comments concerning the "Open Access proposal" made by Springer SSBM.
Until now, I received only one comment made by Adam Grzech who finds the Springer proposal acceptable. In the same line (basically) there is a remark made by Arrigo Frisiani (IFIP trustee); see attachment.
Arrigo is sceptical about in-house solutions due to a number of reasons (which I can fully support and which don't have to be repeated here).
Moreover, he doesn't care too much about the perpetuity of any solution (since if Springer goes bankrupt then the same is very well possible for other organisations, too - including IFIP). This feeling is also fully supported by me.
Basically, Springer would request 20 percent higher bulk sale prices for the Open Access Prices but: "Nothing is for free" and, to my opinion, this increase in price is comparatively modest.
TC6 made so many harsh statment concerning the necessity of an Open Access Digital Library (in particular during the Coimbra meeting); thus we will now need an answer about whether the Springer SSBM proposal is acceptable for us or not. I should give this combined answer from TC6 to Joe Turner (chair of the publication committee) by November 24.
Best regards Otto
cc.: Arrigo Luigi Frisiani