Brewster Kahle, Founder/Director, Internet Archive
Open access, the ability to see things for free, but also download and use things for new and different purposes.
How do we go about building large digital libraries?
“From shelves to servers” (Chinese digital library folks)
Boston Public Library inscription carved over door, “Free to All.”
Opportunity: universal access to all knowledge, perserved and [...]
Universal Access to Human Knowledge
Tom, March 7th 2007
Slipping into the Mainstream: Where Science Meets Policy
Donald Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief, Science
Notion that science might have some influence on policy.
Lively time for the congruence of science and policy.
Metaphor:
canal, with locks along the way.
each lock represents a barrier or hurdle.
Lock 1
scientific publication
Lock 2
interpretation by science writers
distrust among scientists and science writers
writers consider scientists unnecessarily obtuse
scientists consider writers shallow
writers are not evenly distributed or abundant
not [...]
Tom, March 7th 2007
Reaction to De Lange Conference
Martin Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution, comments on conference experience.
Tom, March 7th 2007
Libraries in the Age of Cyberinfrastructure-enhanced Knowledge Communities
Dan Adkins, Director, Office of Cyberinfrastructure, NSF
Emerging Libraries in the Content of “x” in Transition
Libraries=institutions that will step up to provide services for participatory communities in the digital age
Institutional forms:
libraries in transition
universities in transition
research/discovery in transition
learning/education in transition
Context: openess, cultures of contrbution, open participatory infrastructure, CI-enabled knowledge communities
Threads of opportunity (inflection point)
International e-science movement
Openness movement
Concepts, [...]
Tom, March 7th 2007
Scientific Discovery in the Information Age
Michael Turner, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
Exponential thinking
Four exponentials:
compute power
storage capacity
bandwidth
sensors/capture (ccd)
previously intractable problems can be solved/addressed because of the advancement of these exponentials
distributed sensors to gather data, small and large scales
GEOSS, EOS NASA 24 sattelites, generating petabytes of data
LIGO
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
big science requires big collaborations
simulations
more, faster, complex
still nowhere near a sustainable infrastructure
unexpected consequences [...]
Tom, March 7th 2007
Lessons from Amazon
Steve Kessel, Senior VP, Worldwide Digital Media, Amazon.com
Start with the customer and work backwards.
Be clear.
Focus on customer needs that don’t change (lower prices, better selection, more convenience).
Reduce friction (Amazon Shorts, 49 cents, keep a copy online for you).
Reject either/or thinking.
Maximize experimentation.
Remember that the customer isn’t at the meeting.
Tom, March 6th 2007
Public Libraries and Open Access Publishing in Biomedical Sciences
Harold Varmus
Digital age makes an optimal archive possible, universal, rapid distribution of new work. Benefits: equity, better science, reduced costs.
Obstacles: entrenched interests, cultural norms, (not technology).
Features of the optimal digital library: universal accessibility encyclopedia content, full search ability, high utility (minimize copyright restrictions), sustainability.
PubMed Central
chartered in 1999, full-text extension of PubMed. But 90% of journals [...]
Tom, March 6th 2007
Read as We May
Paul Ginsparg
Reminder of where we’ve come from and how far we’ve come.
Brief history of arXiv.org, institutionalized in 2001 within the Cornell Library. Have been disappointed with the further development since that time. Still maintains some code from early 1990’s.
Overall linear growth rate since 1991. Submissions from particular disciplines vary over time. HEP blossomed early [...]
Tom, March 6th 2007
Science Wars: The Next Generation
James Boyle
Mr. Public Domain
The wars over the setup of science, the networks of proprty rights, modes of research. Theme: technology has multiplied the available sources upon which science is based. Data has gone digital, but navigation, retrieval remain analog. How can we speed up the flow of useable information in science? Put the [...]
Tom, March 6th 2007
The Incredible Journey: Building Great Libraries for the Digital Age
Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, British Library.
7 themes for the 21st century:
Know your users and keep close to them.
Rethink the physical spaces of the library.
Integrate marketing in your organizations.
Open up your legacy print collections to digital.
Reduce legacy costs and improve productivity.
Invest more in innovation and digital.
Develop our people.
But is step-wise progress sufficient? Do we need [...]
Tom, March 6th 2007
