[Lingtyp] Why would SIL charge money for Ethnologue; future of Ethnologue

[Hedvig Skirgård]

Thanks Sebastian, I agree with these points. (And with Bill's points
earlier.)

Sorry to repeat myself, but: Steve Moitozo said on twitter that only 5% of
users will be affected by this pay wall. I struggle to see how they will
make enough money on us 5%, especially since we can get many of the same
functions elsewhere.

I have yet to learn why SIL International does not receive much "regular"
academic funding.

/Hedvig

*Hedvig Skirgård*
PhD Candidate
The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity

ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language

School of Culture, History and Language
College of Asia and the Pacific

Rm 4203, H.C. Coombs Building (#9)
The Australian National University

Acton ACT 2601

Australia

Ph: +61 (0)451 878 060

E: hedvig.skirgard at anu.edu.au

On 4 January 2016 at 21:03, Sebastian Nordhoff <
sebastian.nordhoff at glottotopia.de> wrote:

> regarding the discussion of the Ethnologue Paywall, a certain number of
> points:
>
> - SIL's core business is spreading the gospel
>
> - SIL appears to see a skewed relation between the costs of running
> Ethnologue and the benefit it derives from it.
>
> - SIL's will to cross-subsidize academic research is clearly limited. I
> assume that the paywall is the result of an internal decision that the
> "academic branch" should contribute to the financing of infrastructure
> which is not related to the core business.
>
> - In my view, the paywall will not net any profit for SIL. People will
> move to alternative products like Glottolog or even Wikipedia. The
> Ethnologue does not seem to have a Unique Selling Proposition anymore. The
> money which comes in via institutional transcriptions will be eaten up by
> transaction costs, bookkeeping, administration of the access rights etc.
>
> - As a result, Ethnologue will continue to run at a loss for SIL.
>
> - Eventually, SIL will have to decide for much longer they will want to
> spend money on a service/ an infrastructure which is not related to their
> core business and runs at a loss.
>
> - academia, on the other hand, will have to decide how services or
> infrastructures it needs can be provided in the future without relying on
> the benevolence of a missionary organization.
>
> Best wishes
> Sebastian
>
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