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The Internet Archive and Open Library:Close, but not quite free
Michael Strickland
April 28, 2010
Founding of Internet Archive
• 1996 -- now• Brewster Kahle
o computer scientisto digital librarian
• "Universal access to all human knowledge in the world"
The Wayback Machine
• Saves copy of publicly available webpages every 2-6 months
• Uses in research about internet• Changed the way think about original digital content• Opened to public in 2001
Wayback Machine and copyright
• The Archive plays it safe• Removal policy similar to YouTube's, but not easy to
appeal removal• 2002 Scientology scandal• Avoided successful litigation against the Archive
Other Internet Archive projects
• More archival of primary source documents - text, audio, video
• Ourmedia: encouraging reuse
Million Books ProjectsOpen Content Alliance
• 2002: 100,000 scanned books for the Million Books Project
• 2005: launched Open Content Alliance with Yahoo• Microsoft, others donate equipment
Business models
• OCA public domain only at the moment• Potential for revenue from copyrighted works (or Google
wouldn't bother)• Expensive but one-time and necessary process
Open Content Alliance / Google Books
• Google Books starts scanning in 2004• Similar to OCA, but scanning copyrighted works, different
endgame• OCA moves slowly legally, but Google got sued
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, Kahle v. Gonzalez
Open Content Alliance / Google Books (cont.)
• Lawsuit settlement could lead to privatization of knowledge
• Chilling effects -> Monopoly over orphan works• Kahle: "The history of digital materials in companies'
hands is one of … loss"• Only non-profits can be trusted long-term
The Open Library
• "One webpage for every book ever published"• Wiki for book data• Next-generation, open catalogue system
Technical overview
• Contributions made without claim to copyright• Software running site is open source• Built for varying levels of participation and contribution
Participating on the wiki
• Wiki calls for more focused details than Wikipedia• Facts: book dimensions, tables of contents, etc.• Very low participation• Raymond: An empty bazaar == a cathedral• Majority of contributions by bots
Working with the API
• Creating a widget for adding data while on third party sites
• API, like rest of site, incomplete
Creativity through freedom
• Media-based sites like Ourmedia encourages creativity through mashups
• Open Library wiki doesn't allow for this• Participating at deeper levels = different kind of creativity
www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001222.html
Generative versus tethered
• Google books : tetheredInternet Archive : generativeOpen Library : both
• Only works for non-profits
Looking forward
• Open Library will be having a larger launch in the coming months
• Will thrive regardless of commercial alternatives (Google Books)
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