The exceptions are in the building of subject-specific databases for use in doing research and consolidating the results of that research. These databases range from Italian literature to the human genome, and they are characterized as having been built by and for the researchers in that field. But that too could change. Current academic electronic publishing has characteristics of the American West in the second half of the 19th Century. It is romantic, challenging and enticing to the adventurous.
Opportunities call to both the individual and the corporate entrepreneur.
There is territory to be grabbed and, with the settlement of that territory, a chance to change the balance of power. It is also much more difficult and dangerous than might be anticipated at the start. In this particular version of the West, it is easy to see who the good guys are. So much for broad generalizations. The first half of the 1990s were characterized by experimentation and co-operation.