As I was driving the road, I listened with intent a news article on the BBC World Service about Google looking to archive “millions of books” in a massive project to digitise and archive content for the internet.
My first reaction was WOW! This is fantastic. We can now access the classics, the obscure, the out of print and the rare through a search engine that has democratised availability of information for the masses. I mean this is a goldmine. What more can one ask for?
Then I hear there is this massive lawsuit or objections by the US Department of Justice citing a monopolistic venture being not in the interest of the people. Then on top of that a number of libraries joined forces with Amazon, Yahoo and Microsoft to contest this venture by Google.
I suppose from that point of view one can see the logic. But at the same time this gargantuan project to digitise the world’s books has its merits. Being able to access content from the written word from all ages, being able to access stories, words and poetry from very rare and profound pieces would be a fantastic – especially for lovers and students of the written word.
This is the power of technology. However, company profit considerations, business success and myopia and ultimately self serving interests seems to de-rail this ambitious and ultimately generous undertaking. I include Google in that mix. Why can’t a consortium of possibly competing and “hate their guts” organisations come together to contribute to the world’s knowledge and democratise literature? Why should money, monopoly and politics stand in the way I cannot comprehend.