Comments on: Google Scan Plan http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/google-scan-plan/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:33:39 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: What’s a Kindle? « Closed Stacks http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/google-scan-plan/#comment-31 What’s a Kindle? « Closed Stacks Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:34:41 +0000 http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/google-scan-plan/#comment-31 [...] man has longed to digitize everything he can get his hands on, and usually I’m in favor of it.  I should like this one ever better than the Sony one because their advertising doesn’t [...] [...] man has longed to digitize everything he can get his hands on, and usually I’m in favor of it.  I should like this one ever better than the Sony one because their advertising doesn’t [...]

]]> By: nederlandsk http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/google-scan-plan/#comment-20 nederlandsk Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:43:28 +0000 http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/google-scan-plan/#comment-20 I think the way this post is right above the one about the I-hate-computers guy is a great example of how people everywhere hate change and are stupid. The librarians I know (a subset admittedly limited to the two of you) will defend to the death the decision to put in DVDs, movies, and poor people front and center in the library because they are making information more succesful. And yet (here I am shifting from the subset of librarians I know to librarians I have heard about) they will criticize someone else using technology to make information more accessible. It's absurd. Google's corporate model is Do No Evil, and for the most part they do okay at it. They are threatening in many ways, and they appear on course to amassing more direct power than has the United States government, and that does concern me immensely. At the same time, though, projects like this one are among Google's best -- they are taking something and making it more, better, faster. It makes sense to think twice about both changes and to spend some time gaming out the possible consequences -- namely, that both could kill books as a medium. Even faced with that worst case scenario, though, I have to say: so? I think the way this post is right above the one about the I-hate-computers guy is a great example of how people everywhere hate change and are stupid.

The librarians I know (a subset admittedly limited to the two of you) will defend to the death the decision to put in DVDs, movies, and poor people front and center in the library because they are making information more succesful. And yet (here I am shifting from the subset of librarians I know to librarians I have heard about) they will criticize someone else using technology to make information more accessible. It’s absurd.

Google’s corporate model is Do No Evil, and for the most part they do okay at it. They are threatening in many ways, and they appear on course to amassing more direct power than has the United States government, and that does concern me immensely. At the same time, though, projects like this one are among Google’s best — they are taking something and making it more, better, faster.

It makes sense to think twice about both changes and to spend some time gaming out the possible consequences — namely, that both could kill books as a medium.

Even faced with that worst case scenario, though, I have to say: so?

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