The question that particularly divides critics and enthusiasts of PubMed Central is the dissemination of unreviewed research results. Find out more by reading the TAP Online Controversy . The spread of the Internet has made electronic publishing an irresistible force in field after field of intellectual endeavor. By allowing for rapid exchange of information, disseminating crucial resources cheaply, and facilitating peer review, electronic publishing naturally supports collaborative work among people who are physically separate from one another. Software itself is an example.
Open source is both a child and a parent of the Internet.
The Internet provides the means for open-source programmers to compete with proprietary software producers. The lessons of open-source software apply to other uses of electronic publishing. If a given field of study puts all or most of its work online where it is available for review, criticism, and development, that field has adopted an open-source style of work. And if this occurs in many fields simultaneously, it makes sense to think of open-source software not as a special case, but as a sign of a change in knowledge as a whole, a movement toward electronic collaboration. You don't need to cave in to source-code mysticism to note that something like this is occurring.