A few weeks ago I was asked to join the advisory board for GetFTR https://www.getfulltextresearch.com/
I wrote up a long piece about this service when it came out, and I think I got my analysis mostly right - http://scholarly-comms-product-blog.com/2019/12/11/thoughts_on_getftr_/
I ended my post with the advice:
“I have two other recommendations for the GetFTR team. Both relate to building trust. First up, don’t list orgs as being on an advisory board, when they are not. Secondly it would be great to learn about the team behind the creation of the Service. At the moment its all very anonymous.”
Well, they have certainly done that, and now I’m on the advisory board too.
One big thing that has changed on my side since I wrote this is that now as CTO at BMJ I am much more intimately connected with efforts around both transformational agreements, and about the morass that is authentication.
I’ve been to two advisory board meetings so far, and the team is making good progress on at least three fronts that I think are really good.
They are succeeding in getting adoption beyond the founding publishers. They are evolving the service in response to the needs of the community, with new use cases having emerged after contact with reality. Thirdly they are deeply concerned about the needs of the librarian community.
I find infrastructure, and models to support infrastructure, fascinating, so I’m looking forward to helping them on their journey.
I think anything that can reduce frictions in our systems are good things to pursue.