As a longtime dues-paying member of the Authors Guild, I'm party to a lawsuit against Google over its new book-search service called Google Print. As an author of two books, though, I'm not sure I want to be suing Google. Every writer wants his or her work to be read. But to be read, a work needs to be found. Digital search is fast becoming the de facto way to be found. The problem is that finding something digitally too easily equates to possessing it....One thing the controversy has highlighted is the publishing industry's desperate need to climb aboard the 21st century.
"Web users are way out in front of the business model," said Chuck Richard, an analyst at Outsell, which tracks information markets. Readers are migrating to digital in droves, but revenue is mired on the print side, Richard said.
It may be that the only thing worse than Google Print would be no Google Print.
Without some digital equivalent to the concept of a library, a lot of great writing could be lost to the ages. And no one — readers, authors, publishers, Google and its competitors — would benefit from that.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/14/2005 09:03:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
