Sign-ups to FediScience.org, the Mastodon server for publishing scientists, have exploded today. We probably had more sign-ups today than in 2022 before.

Like with email you have to pick a server to sign-up and then you can talk to (almost) everyone. Here is a list of options for people interested in science, academia, GLAM, etc. https://fediscience.org/server-list.html

Translated versions available in Spanish, French, Magyar, Portuguese and Chinese.

Lofi published this on Reddit asking:

I came across this paper - https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202255841 (through r/Open_Access_tracking)

It made me think: Most of the discourse I know about research materials and open science is centered around the idea of public access.

But maybe public access is not vital? What do you think about providing controlled, on-demand access? I mean, public access is preferable, but in practice, public access deters some scientists (due to various reasons, not necessarily IP as the paper assumes), and so we are ending with no access at all. Perhaps providing some access is better than nothing.

What do you think - would society benefit from such on-demand access or should we insist on public access only?