[Web4lib] More on the Open Content Alliance

[Sebastian Hammer]

At 11:49 AM 10/27/2005, Leslie Johnston wrote:

>Tuesday there was a workshop for many of the participants in the 
>Open Content Alliance, followed by a presentation by Brewster Kahle 
>at a reception.

I was fortunate enough to be invited along for both parts of the 
tuesday event, and I'll say it was an amazing experience. At the 
workshops, we had executives and experts from RLG, OCLC, Yahoo!, 
Microsoft, Adobe, HP, the Smithsonian, and many others, and the sense 
of energy and gumption that this project generates is really 
impressive. Someone at the presentations described the OCA as a 'big 
tent' project, and I think that captures it well. Read on.

>What you're seeing on the web site that Roy linked to 
><http://www.openlibrary.org/details/openlibrary> is Brewster's 
>presentation describing the OCA, not the actual service itself.  The 
>service has not yet launched and is not populated.  Some content 
>that will be part of the OCA is already coming in to the Internet 
>Archive and available at 
><http://www.archive.org/details/texts>.  More information on the OCA 
>is available at <http://www.opencontentalliance.org/>

I agree. In some ways, a better view of one of the main books on the 
openlibrary.org page might be found at 
http://www.archive.org/details/intlepisode00jamearch. The graphical 
book-viewer shown on the openlibrary.org page is but one example (and 
I admit that even as an XML hacker with a strange fascination for 
MARC codes, I find the quaint book metaphor mysteriously 
comforting...  I think there's a psychological effect at play here 
that has yet to be explored).

Speaking as a geek, one of the numerous things that separates this 
from the *current* Google effort is the architectural openness. Yes, 
the full-text of the book can be read in multiple formats, like 
book-reader systems, (searchable) PDF, etc.. a volunteer-based 
organization is offering audiobook versions, companies are offering 
on-demand printing. But the raw OCR output is also available for 
anyone who'd like to play with it, data-mine it, etc.. the same goes 
for the digital images of the books, which can be downloaded and 
subjected to different OCR processes if you wish. In addition, for 
folks who don't like the interface or want to do metasearching, 
expect to see access via Z39.50, SRW/U, OAI-PMH, and even MARC 
downloads so you can add the metadata about the open library to your 
own catalog.

Openness is so often used as an empty buzzword these days. So far, I 
see the OCA doing all the right things. If you don't like the 
interface, you can roll your own.

Finally a disclaimer. My company does some work for the Internet 
Archive (and so I feel particularly confident that the metadata 
standards that library people know and love will be done right!), so 
I am not unbiased. Yet, I very emphatically don't represent them. But 
I'd urge anyone who has concerns about the venture, or who has an 
interest in it, to get in touch with them. I think you'll find them 
open in more than one respect, even if they probably are rather busy 
at the phones this week.

--Sebastian

>Leslie
>
>At 04:21 AM 10/27/2005, J.P.Knight wrote:
>>On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Roy Tennant wrote:
>>><http://www.openlibrary.org/details/openlibrary>
>>
>>Awww, what a horrible website.  I know its trying to look like a 
>>book, but this is the web!  I was sitting there clicking on the 
>>"Open Library" image with no luck thinking it was a splash 
>>screen.  The navigation stuff on the right hand side was a bit 
>>screwed up with the size of my web browser so I didn't spot it at 
>>first and even when I did, I assumed that the arrows applied to the 
>>"listen" button next to them (which I didn't bother with as I don't 
>>have speakers on my workstation).  When I did happen to click on 
>>the right hand "page" to flip it over, the left hand edge of the 
>>new left hand page was cut off until I resized my browser window.
>>
>>Whatever happened to good old fashioned straight HTML, eh?
>>
>>Jim'll
>>_______________________________________________
>>Web4lib mailing list
>>Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
>------------
>Leslie Johnston
>Head, Digital Access Services
>University of Virginia Library
>http://lib.virginia.edu/digital/
>http://lib.virginia.edu/digital/das/
>johnston at virginia.edu
>
>_______________________________________________
>Web4lib mailing list
>Web4lib at webjunction.org
>http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/

--
Sebastian Hammer, Index Data, www.indexdata.com
Direct phone: (603) 209-6853 Fax: (603) 357-1813