On the other hand, the system of training, hiring, and promoting faculty represents another aging network. Look, not only at the tenured, but at the peripatetic generation of Ph.D's. failing to land tenure-track jobs, and you will see the current condition of our university system. In fact, without the help of the kinds of staff generally found in the electronic publishing and software development industry. It is safe to assert, too, that many will need help to conceive their pedagogical approaches in light of technologies now available. Deconstruct the networks supporting higher education in this way and we will find a vicious little circle calling out for re-engineering.
Universities pay professors' salaries and support the libraries and labs in which they work.
Universities then pay for the subscription, distribution, and eventual archiving of the journals and monographs which are, in part, the products of this labor. This is unsustainable. But it is not where the circle stops. To land tenure-track appointments, let alone tenure, young scholars need to publish books and journal articles, the more the better, but only in print. Today's young scholars, however, are mostly finding positions as adjunct faculty.