So I finally started an academic blog. Since I’ve been a permanent academic employee at Ravensbourne for around 9 months now, it seemed about time. Academia is still a very exclusive club. Research is still dominated by journals and specialist publishers which operate as gatekeepers for intellectual innovation. The exclusivity is in large part a vehicle of the huge cost of these journals and publications. Most academics buy into this, because you are what you publish, and your status is based on the quality and originality of your discoveries, as expressed through respected journals and reviewed by selected peers in the field in question. But the rest of the world has undergone a radical state of flux over the last couple of decades, where many previously elitist professional realms have been flattened by the levelling nature of the Internet and its “crowdsourcing” abilities. Journalism has been brought to its knees by blogging and bedroom websites, music and TV by piracy, and traditional retail by online vendors, particularly Amazon. Academia must follow suit. Open access journals have been growing massively over the last decade, with particular highlights such as Mendeley, and going direct is as valid for intellectual practice as it is for every other aspect of culture.