Excellent comment, Tim! My experience at UT Austin has been the same -- it is quite amazing what can be accomplished my a small group of people willing to think outside of traditional/current models, be they business, administrative, or even technical infrastructure models. By refusing (or even being hesitant) to look beyond those models is simply missed opportunity. --peter keane On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 12:24:32PM -0400, Tim Spalding wrote: > 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