Andrea Foster reports in the September 12 Chronicle of Higher Education that Questia is laying off workers, closing offices, and cancelling its marketing campaign. (The article is only accessible to subscribers.) Questia is a priced online digital library whose business model was to sell expensive subscriptions ($19.95 per month) to high school and college students. It's still in business but much less successful than its founder hoped. (PS: Open access provides the convenience of free online access, and we believe this is as good as it gets. But if you ever wondered whether the runner-up --for students-- was highly priced online access or free access through a school library, the Questia experience suggests the latter.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/08/2003 09:45:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
