EnigmatriX
Discoverer
SAN FRANCISCO--When it comes to digitizing books, two stories appear to be unfolding: One is about open source, and the other, Google.
Or so it seemed at a party held by the Internet Archive on Tuesday evening, when the nonprofit foundation and a parade of partners, including the Smithsonian Institution, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, rallied around a collective open-source initiative to digitize all the world's books and make them universally available.
Google was noticeably absent from the cadre of partners, considering that the search behemoth has a high-profile project of its own to scan library books and add them to its searchable index.
Some supporters of the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, took the opportunity to criticize such private ventures.
"We want to digitize all human knowledge...and we can't risk having it privatized," said Doron Weber, an executive of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has contributed more than $3 million to the Internet Archive since 2003. Citing the importance of an open library for educational purposes, he called on private companies to "rein in their impulses" while urging libraries to "embrace the future."
Still, a Google executive in attendance downplayed the perceived rivalry.
"I think (the project) is great," said Alexander Macgillivray, Google's senior product counsel, following a presentation on the book-scanning effort. "It's a shame it's being portrayed as a battle between the two projects because the efforts are complementary."
Digitizing books has become a focus in recent years as people try to make otherwise analog information available on the Internet. Academic research, music from classical to pop and video are all being digitized, and now books are in technology's path.
Read on
Or so it seemed at a party held by the Internet Archive on Tuesday evening, when the nonprofit foundation and a parade of partners, including the Smithsonian Institution, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, rallied around a collective open-source initiative to digitize all the world's books and make them universally available.
Google was noticeably absent from the cadre of partners, considering that the search behemoth has a high-profile project of its own to scan library books and add them to its searchable index.
Some supporters of the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, took the opportunity to criticize such private ventures.
"We want to digitize all human knowledge...and we can't risk having it privatized," said Doron Weber, an executive of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has contributed more than $3 million to the Internet Archive since 2003. Citing the importance of an open library for educational purposes, he called on private companies to "rein in their impulses" while urging libraries to "embrace the future."
Still, a Google executive in attendance downplayed the perceived rivalry.
"I think (the project) is great," said Alexander Macgillivray, Google's senior product counsel, following a presentation on the book-scanning effort. "It's a shame it's being portrayed as a battle between the two projects because the efforts are complementary."
Digitizing books has become a focus in recent years as people try to make otherwise analog information available on the Internet. Academic research, music from classical to pop and video are all being digitized, and now books are in technology's path.
Read on