I've been in academia & free exchange of ideas is what it's all about. The minute Charlie would publish those ideas (since they are not classified) everyone would have them any way.
Exactly! As an academic librarian I completely agree. The scientific community and scientific advancement is built on the free (ignoring things like publishing costs and journal costs and I'll avoid my open access soapbox) sharing of information so others can build on it. Charlie most certainly would have published it and then everyone would have had access to it (barring, of course, barriers like costs of subscriptions and whatnot).
At the same time, Don isn't an academic, so he doesn't really understand that the way Charlie does. He does understand, however, that there were people who didn't want that information going out (regardless of that the information was/if it was classified/etc.) and that puts him at odds with Charlie. And I think you did a lovely job of conveying that and Don's frustration with the whole situation.
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Date: 2008-08-01 01:07 pm (UTC)Exactly! As an academic librarian I completely agree. The scientific community and scientific advancement is built on the free (ignoring things like publishing costs and journal costs and I'll avoid my open access soapbox) sharing of information so others can build on it. Charlie most certainly would have published it and then everyone would have had access to it (barring, of course, barriers like costs of subscriptions and whatnot).
At the same time, Don isn't an academic, so he doesn't really understand that the way Charlie does. He does understand, however, that there were people who didn't want that information going out (regardless of that the information was/if it was classified/etc.) and that puts him at odds with Charlie. And I think you did a lovely job of conveying that and Don's frustration with the whole situation.
Wonderful fic!