Ozandy

What identity functionality is needed? Take a forum like OLO what sort of facilities would help make for better forums? Here are some possible rules.

Keep your identity hidden unless you want it to be revealed.
If someone asks for your identity then they must first say who they are before you will reveal who you are.
Ability to show validated "credentials" without revealing who you are.
If someone challenges your comments and opinions about a work and is not willing to reveal their identity to you then you can remove them.
You are always allowed to change what you have said or withdraw comments or remarks.
In other words you take control over what you publish and you can change your mind. (I'm not sure if the edits should still be there as in wikis or whether they should go)
You take responsibility for your articles and comments.

I am currently very privileged to be visiting South Africa where I have an honorary position at the University of Cape Town. (My position in Australia is Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney.) My role at UCT is delightfully to mentor researchers in my field (health economics) to help them to publish. They are from all over Africa. Many struggle to publish especially when English is not their first language - the language of the vast majority of academic publications. It is really hard for them to break through. It is not just a question of language but the whole culture of publishing is currently very western orientated. I don't know how many academic publishing companies there are in Ghana or Nigeria or the DRC where some of my young colleagues are from but my guess is not many. And for a international journal editor faced with an article on Australia or on Ghana, are the chances of publication equal I wonder?

Against that background the tone of the debate on this issue on OLO is rather pathetic.

Gavin Mooney