What one has to do with the other is that the entire system is broken, here's my explanation for why the system is fundamentally messed up, and my explanation for how it should be. Simply trying to change refeering by itself is treating the symptom, not the disease.

> Unless you're proposing to eliminate the concept of publishing research at all...

I think putting my research on my website would be just as good as publishing it in a conference proceeding. I'm not against sharing research and having it be public, but I think conference proceeidngs and journals in CS are of very little value. If people want my research, they can find it on my website. And I think this generalizes... if I want your research, I can (presumably) find it on your website.

Ultimately, it may be useful to have some kind of aggregation of what research is coming out in various subfields. Internet fora and the like would serve the purpose fine. But sure, having a group of referees and some way to screen research and highlight what is good could certainly be useful. All that stuff should develop organically as it is needed, though.

The model we have now, with peer review, journals made out of dead trees, etc. is a hold-over from a pre-Internet time when a few people in every sphere of life controlled the information that was disseminated, because it wasn't possible for things to be open, since we lacked the technology. That is no longer an issue. Of course, academics will hold onto their little racket as long as they can (probably indefinitely).