Topic 5: Reflection

Upon reading up a few of my classmates work, Pearlyn's post caught my attention, she mentioned that some online materials might not be freely accessible due to its high quality work. I used to have about 10,000 subscribers on YouTube before I revealed what software I was using and how I created my videos. After that incident, I thought that sharing is not always caring because people do not remember to give credits. However, I now feel that it is alright to share my knowledge to others as I do not think I would make those videos for life... But if any content producer feel that they do not want to allow free access to their materials, I feel that they could at least charge minimal amount or provide more detailed abstracts so that students or people with lower income can afford and would not purchase irrelevant articles online. 

cr: Lifehack Quotes

In my previous post, I focused on how open access materials would benefit the researchers and nation as scientific discoveries would be developed faster when ideas are exchanged. On the other hand, Jun Ning wrote on the benefits for the beginner publishers. With open access, beginners can publish their works online without any complications. The open access journals, such as, blogger, and YouTube, can help create awareness. Reputation is built as time goes by and more people share and like their work. Meejmuse is a YouTuber who vlogs on cosmetic reviews and make-up tutorials. She started out by recording her vlogs with her phone back then. Now, she has more than 200 thousand subscribers on YouTube and is even a TV reporter for ArirangTV.

Screenshot of Meejmuse's YouTube Channel

YouTube is free and accessible to most countries. But are those professional YouTubers really sharing knowledge for free? Play the video below by Shameless Maya to know how a YouTuber actually earns:

Likewise, since YouTubers can earn through posting on open access journals, I believe scientists and researchers also earns enough from the government and tax-payers. So why are the prices of online materials increasing? 

Overall, I still strongly believe in open access as I cannot live without them myself. Sharing knowledge is good but because of lack of quality control, we must be careful of which resources to trust as some information might not be correct. Always remember to reference a few sources before coming up with a conclusion!

Blogs I commented on:

Pearlyn 

Jun Ning

Referencing

Shameless Maya (2015) How YouTubers Make MONEY$?! [Online]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftspl_75nos