What else should be Googled?
: Following Google’s wonderful announcement that it is scanning and making available to us all searchable text from thousands of books at top libraries, I wonder what else you think should be available? I’ll start the list:
: Transcripts and scripts of TV shows, movies, and radio shows — both news and entertainment.
: Periodical archives (at least in an Amazon model, which could drive sales).
: TV listings. OK, that sounds silly, but it is a chronicle of the culture.
What else?
: Just yesterday, as I walked by the New York Public Library, I saw school busses passing and the thought occurred that someday (soon), that building could be seen as either a museum or a public wi-fi hotspot instead of as a storage bin. And a few hours later, Google announced its library project.
For my money Google is the type of company I love. Not only do they do killer technology but they also do these hard and good projects. Imagine entire libraries digitized and accessible by the public irrespective of you physical location, income level, religion, education, political affiliation, ruling goverment, etc…. The dream of the library goes all the back to the ancient world and the
library at Alexandria. Now if only we could properly sort out the dicey IP issues then the world will be a much better place (please take a few days and read Lessig’s excellent Free Culture (
Amazon,
pdf version, or the awesome
audio book perfect for those with an ipod and some time to spare). This together with the
MIT OpenCourseware Intiative and all I can say is WOW. Education is going to be a radically different place in 20 years, how will Universities adapt? Certainly MIT is at the forefront and now Harvard. What next? I’d love to see a serious move towards distance learning, a serious effort to leverage these resources in third world countries.
Now put this news together with
this project plus a cheap good ebook reader and you have nirvana. If only the lawyers would lighten up and let us create the future….