Could Google Monopolize Human Knowledge?
As Microsoft Backs Away From Digitizing Old Texts, Some Worry One Source Could Privatize It All
By GREGORY M. LAMB
Should a single company be left in charge of putting all of the world’s books online?
An impressive list of world-class libraries and book publishers don’t seem to mind.
In 2004, they signed on as partners with Google, the Internet search and advertising colossus based in Mountain View, Calif.
Yet some observers have strong concerns about Google Book Search and how the collected thinking of human history will be accessed in the future.
Those anxieties rose late last month when Microsoft announced that it was withdrawing from a rival book-scanning project headed by the nonprofit Internet Archive (archive.org).
About 750,000 books and 80 million journal articles scanned by Microsoft were removed from its servers, but many remain accessible elsewhere, including on servers maintained by the Internet Archive, which has about 440,000 books online.
Microsoft, which said it still intends to give publishers digital copies of their scanned books, may have made a rational business decision from its perspective.
But the sudden shift also showed how vulnerable a digitizing project is when it relies on a for-profit company, says Brewster Kahle, executive director of the Internet Archive. Nothing would stop Google from also suddenly shutting down its online book effort or limiting access to it, he says.
If money gets tight, “there’s a meeting behind closed doors, and there’s a notice put on the Web site that it’s shut down,” he says. “That’s what happens.”
Internet access to books is becoming more important, some observers say, as portable book readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle, become more common and as more people expect to find all their reading needs online.
“I wouldn’t say Google is 100 percent of the digital book world, but it’s getting near 90 percent,” says Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar at the University of Virginia, who writes a blog called “The Googlization of Everything.”
Internet Archive has funds to scan 1,000 books per day through the end of the year, Kahle says, including those at the Library of Congress. He’s exploring new partnerships that would allow the project to continue into 2009 and beyond.
8 responses so far ↓
wil // July 15, 2008 at 3:38 am
And nobody would ever tamper, hack or censor or simply ban online texts of course.
Net is useful, but I like my library.
pjwalker911 // July 15, 2008 at 3:57 am
One word. Well, two.
Hard Copy.
All hail the hard copy…the tape, the CD and the paper ballot while we’re at it.
wil // July 17, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Even Bradbury didn’t know successive printings/editors had been whittling down Fahrenheit 451. Some readers began to notice differences in text from early editions versus later ones. Not certain what year the corrected version came out.
I’m ready to go back to typewriter. I’m tired of losing material when pcs die–let alone viruses or pulse weapons and etc.
pjwalker911 // July 18, 2008 at 6:05 am
Hard copy and hard-copy methods must be maintained to maintain freedom and true knowledge. We are talking about writing on paper mainly, but I would also include mediums such as written CDs, maybe even vinyl, actual film, prints, paper ballots, etc. Letting it all slip away into the digital realm where it can all be modified to suit their tastes is the goal of the elite. Of course, they will maintain their own hard copy records and technologies for themselves while the rest of us rely only on electronic records stored on distant servers. It is a big mistake on the part of the public to just let this go toward a totally digital world.
wil // July 18, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I keep thinking of going back to longhand. Worked for all writers prior to Mark Twain and Bram Stoker and the typewriter. Neil Gaiman writes longhand and his son types it up.
US Government used to maintain 9 or so public science libraries for anyone to use. However, some environmental groups used information from these libraries for lawsuits against polluting corporations. Uh oh!!
Well guess what! The libraries were defunded and closed down–but it’s a good thing! because–the bs at the time said–nothing would be lost–because–happy drum roll–They’re Going Digital!! All would be online,reach more people etc etc.
No hard copies available for general public–just easily manipulated data online.
And news at the time reported dumpsters full of books and records behind the buildings.
But government spun it as such a good thing.
*barf*
wil // July 18, 2008 at 4:35 pm
And all those exhibitions where they have original drafts of famous writings? CD and disks great for backup, but that can’t compare to original manuscripts of Wasteland, Leaves of Grass, On the Road, and the like.
And reading Dickens horrible writing–I’m convinced his printers actually did his writing–haha.
pjwalker911 // July 18, 2008 at 7:51 pm
And it goes for all sorts of records: medical, tax, property, titles, deeds, licenses, employment etc. Imagine if all you had were digitized records and nothing on paper to back it up. It makes it so much easier for the powers that be to pull the plug on any aspect of your life and that is where it is headed with the cashless tracking chips.
wil // July 19, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Well case in point, years ago college I was at–I was graduating–but then got some huge fine from library. Some for books I’d checked out but returned, others for books I had no clue of. I went to their office–well–they were in process of changing from paperwork to computer records. Computer said I was lying like hell and owed over hundred in like 1982 value cash. However–since they were in transition-they still had paper files–which backed me up–and I got off. Would have been screwed otherwise.
Makes me cringe when I see students who have “e books” you read off some scanner. And the new thing is “clickers”–everyone answers questions with clicker from their desk–and names and scores on big screen for everyone to see. Says it’s supposed to help students with issues–but can we spell no privacy and humiliation? Have everyone watch you fuck up in real time. Plus other people say too much time spent on using new tech toys rather than learning.