I'd like to say we should not get sidetracked by discussions of
"business models." I particularly object to the idea that LibraryThing
can't experiment in the way that OL can because we have to have a
business model.
I won't toot my own horn, but I think LibraryThing has experimented a
good deal—and we're a handful of people. We have the budget of a small
library in rural Maine. I suspect Open Library is costing about the
same.
None of this is about money. None of it. The people on this list could
revolutionize libraries on web for what Albanian-Americans spend on
tic-tacs.
As Emerson wrote "What are you waiting for? You're faster than this.
Don't think you are, know you are. Come on. Stop trying to hit me and
hit me."
Tim
On 3/14/08, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > I think there is still a lot of potential to make machine readable
> > metadata available at the same URIs that provide human readable
>
> > bibliographic descriptions...
>
> It almost seems insane not to do this since adding this tiny bit of
> highly useful functionality is trivial.
>
>
> > I think this is an area where OpenLibrary can afford to experiment a
> > bit, and break new ground--without having to worry (like you and OCLC)
> > about a business model.
>
>
> However, I think the business model aspect of any data problem is
> interesting because it has an enormous impact on what can be done at
> all, what is easy, and what is hard. Some high value data simply costs
> a lot to produce on a large scale, and there has to be a way to pay
> for it.
>
> One thing I'm particularly encouraged by are developments like the
> Google API. In a bizarre way, Google can help libraries by diverting
> business from them. For example, if a library displays TOCs using the
> API, users are more likely to be able to determine whether they need
> the book -- reducing the to request the book or obtain it through ILL.
>
> This reduces demand for library services if you're into bean counting
> metrics like number of requests. However, it also reduces costs for
> the library so resources can be diverted where they can do more good,
> helps the user get what s/he really needs, Google gets ad revenue when
> the user views the TOC at full size, and presumably, those paying for
> the advertising come out OK too. The incentive is to make everything
> easy to use, and everyone wins.
>
> kyle
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Kyle Banerjee
> Digital Services Program Manager
> Orbis Cascade Alliance
> [log in to unmask] / 541.359.9599
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
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