In the February issue of Wired Magazine, J. Bradford DeLong describes the difficulty of maintaining Project Gutenberg. It's not the law or technology of open access, although shortening the term of copyright would help. Primarily it's digitization and proofreading. "Project Gutenberg...has failed to achieve any form of critical mass. It's not a high priority for governments. It hasn't attracted large donations from foundations. Since the whole point is to create a free universal online library, it won't be driven by markets. And as an open source project, the positive-feedback loops are not strong enough. The work is time-consuming and boring."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/31/2003 07:40:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
