Shuttering Mana'o

[Alex Golub]

Hello all,

I'm back from two months in Papua New Guinea, and just now getting settled back in as the semester starts etc. I know there was a flurry of emails over the summer while I was away on this list which I am still trying to dredge out of my mailbox. However I wanted to drop a line with the sad news that I am shuttering the Mana'o repository.

I think it was a great idea to get the repository started, but with a heavy heart I have to admit that it was a bridge too far for me -- at this point in my career I simply do not have the time to devote to the project that it needs and deserves. Those of you have have followed the ups and downs (mostly down) of the server realize that in saying this I'm just accepting a fait d'accompli: its been down for quite a while.

That said I'm very optimistic that the niche that Mana'o was supposed to fill has already morphed into another new, more exciting niche and been filled with other, more exciting projects. The OA movement has become a mood that permeates most discussion of publishing in anthropology, and the groups of people interested in OA anthropology has grown beyond a clique to a larger group of people. Although we have had little success pushing the agenda institutionally, this has had more to do with the slow meltdown of the AAA than any failure of our part -- and our agenda is on the mind of AAA leadership. Even the AAA blog has been relatively non-suck recently, which is a welcome sign.

That said, I am not yet ready for the repository to give up the ghost. If people have any ideas about how to roll its content over into other repositories, or if someone would like to take it on, then please let me know, either in public on this list or in private. I think a rebooted version might have a place in the anthropological noosphere as its evolved over the years. And if not, perhaps it is time to let old projects, like soldiers, fade away...

let me know what you all think,

-A

Dr. Alex Golub

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

University of Hawai'i at Manoa

2424 Maile Way Saunders Hall 346

Honolulu HI 96822-2223

USA

fax: 808 956 8415

email: go...@hawaii.edu

[Luhmann]

I'd like to thank Alex for his efforts. It was certainly worth a shot!
Too bad it didn't work out.

Since we have representatives from a number of section executive
committees on this list, it might be good to talk about whether or not
running such repositories is not something the AAA sections might be
able to undertake? I agree that the AAA is sucking much less these
days when it comes to their presence on the web (the official blog and
twitter feed are both pretty decent), but it doesn't seem likely the
AAA will set up its own repository anytime soon. Short of this, might
not the sections be in a good position to lead the way?

Cheers,

Kerim