
Ask HN: Could Bill Gates afford to buy Elsevier and open all journals? - evolve2k
Bill &amp; Melinda Gates have a stated personal mission of improving the field of education. If they had the desire could the Gates&#x27; hypothetically afford to buy the likes of Elsvier and release all its journals as open access? What would it take for an initiative like this to succeed?
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CyberFonic
Personally I think the idea has merit. But I also see several issues:

* Open access favours individuals, companies and universities who currently can't afford the high subscription fees. The well off universities wield consider power and would resist such attempts. You have to remember Bill Gates does support Harvard.

* Elsvier is just one of several academic publishers, Springer also comes to mind. And the numerous professional associations also profit from big subscription fees, e.g. IEEE

* To the non-academic, most papers are impenetrable. Thus on a general education level, they might not be of much value.

* Although people from industry often decry the difficulty in accessing academic papers, those who do have access, e.g. through university research collaboration, find that they are often of limited value.

Caveat: my views are based on experiences in engineering field, specifically
in the areas of electronics, computer, communications and software.

