Babel takes back seat, The Australian, January 22, 2005. The piece is signed only with an email address, matchetts@theaustralian.com.au. Excerpt: 'But just as we are determined never to appear impressed, many of us are also deeply suspicious of anything that looks like it may improve the human condition. In the 15 years or so in which the worldwide web has been the most mass of mass media, there have been all sorts of warnings that no good would come of the information explosion. Cultural theorists...use a short story written in the 1940s by Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel, to explain....While Borges was writing fiction, not prediction, he anticipated the endless content of the wired world. His library contained every book that had been written and could be written. But there were also corrupted copies of every book, making it impossible to find the facts one wanted, let alone know which book was the real thing. And this, say the e-sceptics, is where we are now. There is as near as dammit an infinity of information online but people with lifelong fascinations for anything from orchids to orthography use the web to check the weather and pay the power bill. Most of us have no idea what to look for or where, and which information to trust when we do find it....But Babel is not as black as the sceptics suggest, because there are as many maps of the library as there are people with passions for their own special interests who know how to build a website. And this makes for endless associations of ordinary folk around the world who learn from each other online. The third wave idea of social capital, that networks of like-minded people can make societies equitable and efficient, certainly applies to all the millions of people who spend their spare time running websites and discussion boards....Google is not dumping useless knowledge on to the chaotic shelves of Babel. It is helping people whose minds live in electronic communities of like-minded enthusiasts.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/22/2005 01:11:00 PM.
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.
