[27849] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: digital tortoise or digital hare?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Feb 15 20:17:21 2011
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Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:59:39 -0800
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FYI France: digital tortoise or digital hare?
Regarding the "orphans" -- the legally and financially=20
dispossessed, of the 20th c. and future digital worlds -- the=20
books / texts no one claims, or their cousins no one wants=20
either, hidden in the vast library treasuries now being digitized=20
by so many...
The French today, le 10 February 2011, announced their approach=20
to these problems, see below -- it is a brave declaration, well=20
worth reading, as much for its "vive la diff=E9rence" aspects as=20
for what it both says and does not say.
Some comment:
* Approaches: "top=3D>down" very much versus "bottom=3D>up"
The above fairly characterizes a fundamental difference in=20
approach, between the US and the Rest of the World Including=20
France, in these and many other matters. And it is a difference=20
best remembered on both sides, although often glossed-over,=20
forgotten, or even never-known.
The French here are looking to their highest levels -- their=20
august national library, their publishers' association, their=20
national and supra-national governments -- for leadership, in=20
digitization. This is regulation-before-invention,=20
rationality-before-impulse -- "all is forbidden which is not=20
permitted", perhaps, as the oldest saying about all this goes...
The US approach could not be more different: "over here",=20
instead, two young Stanford graduate students, gangs of=20
free-wheeling "venture capitalists" operating far outside the=20
bounds of State-regulated "banking" -- a virtual and real and=20
very expensive maelstrom of inventive activity, conducted by a=20
horde of mere kids (think of young Hewlett & Packard, Jobs &=20
Wozniack, Brin & Page, Doerr fresh from college, Gates before=20
he'd even finished, Zuckerburg ditto) all of them far too young=20
at the time to have come up against any real "State regulation",=20
yet, more serious than a pot bust or a parking ticket, anyway,=20
then many hectic deadlines and midnight sessions and much "labor=20
rights" insecurity, "only the paranoid survive", and tremendous=20
excitement... There is no "business as usual", in US hitech=20
innovation: little of the "regulation" or "rationality" which the=20
French so value, and absolutely _no_ "m=E9tro, boulot, dodo".
China is different in all this, from the US, Japan is different,=20
India is different although more like the US than some of the=20
others are, perhaps. So thinking of France, a nation so like the=20
US and yet so different, may help us to appreciate how _un_-like=20
the US all the others really are, too -- may enable us to take=20
such differences less for-granted than we often do, in the hitech=20
marvels currently pouring forth from the US and out upon the rest=20
of the world, now.
* Marketing
If there is one characteristic of the US approach really not=20
understood or even permitted, in most "foreign" places, it is "le=20
marketing". In US usage, the term describing and encouraging the=20
private "corporations", such as Google and Apple, which lead in=20
these digitization efforts, is "marketing-led": in a US firm, per=20
the US "business" schools, marketing must be everything -- if you=20
can't "sell" it you shouldn't "do" it -- it's a way of=20
characterizing the customer's input, or the manipulation of same,=20
in design and operations and all aspects of the firm, an=20
outgrowth of the "customer is king" mantra of the older Horatio=20
Alger commercial generation in the US.
But nothing could be more "foreign" to the French approach, here=20
or generally. Digitization of their precious texts is motivated=20
not by "marketing" but by various forms of altruism -- history,=20
philosophy, notions of the value of "reading" and the necessity=20
of "education" -- mention "marketing" and the folks in France=20
involved in these matters literally will not know what you mean,=20
as to them that is merely an instrumental, operational idea, more=20
like "typing", or "filing", the idea that "marketing" could be=20
central or a motivation or an end-in-itself, to the French is=20
very foreign and the very strangest...
* Money
Unless it's "monetize"... The French are no strangers to either=20
term -- Paris houses one of Europe's best and biggest=20
international business schools. But in France, as in most non-US=20
places, it's not "marketing" or "money" which drive book=20
digitization efforts, for example, but "patrimoine culturel".
Whereas in the US, "it's the money"... The younger Venture=20
Capitalist Generation's mantra, this time, chanted repeatedly=20
into the ear of the even-younger Graduate Student Corporate=20
Founder, "Monetize! Monetize! Monetize!"...
To foreigners this preoccupation is a mystery, while in the US it=20
is the essence: "The business of America is business", as one US=20
national president put it succinctly.
* Floods and Famines
Now then comes the problem, though: there must, it seems, be room=20
for more than one approach.
Because things have Globalized, now: like it or not, for both us=20
and the French, and the other Europeans, and the folks in India,=20
and the teenager in Urumchi in China, doing research for her term=20
paper & texting her friends & shopping at Victoria's Secret, all=20
via her cellphone...
Also because there is a new flood of all this on its way, now...
The "information overload", predicted from the "computers" of the=20
1980s and 1990s, was just "Flood 1.0" -- an initial inundation,=20
one coped-with, moderately well, by then-new tools such as=20
"personal computers", and by hypertext and information search &=20
retrieval and The WorldWideWeb, and by Jerry's List, then Yahoo,=20
Google's infamous algorithm, and decades of hitech development.
Now, though, from outside of the "computer" world and to a great=20
extent unanticipated by it -- "from Left Field", to use the US=20
baseball-analogy -- comes the newly-Globally-omnipresent "mobile"=20
telephony, and its possibilities for communicating via Internet.=20
The "power of many" just got graphic demonstration in the images=20
from Cairo, repeating Teheran, and the Obama and Dean campaigns,=20
and Manila's "People Power", and so many other recent instances.
The use of "mobiles", in finding and retrieving and using and=20
creating raw "data" -- and then, hopefully, useful "information"=20
too -- is the information overload "Flood 2.0" just-now breaking.
However many "computer" users there are now or ever will be,=20
Globally, there are far more "mobile" users now -- and the two=20
digital worlds, "computer" and "mobile", now are merging, into=20
user networks capable of producing virtual firestorms of data,=20
and many unpredictable consequences.
As all of us who followed Cairo events on Twitter et al. over=20
the last few weeks can attest...
Typical GoogleSearch retrievals of i.e. "3,439,000 results" are=20
about to jump a thousand-fold, then -- already we don't really=20
understand at all why "#1" floated to the top, of our particular=20
retrievals-heap -- Google says their algorithm knows, but that=20
she's just not telling -- imminently, though, soon retrieving 1=20
out of "3,439,000,000+" instead, we'll _never_ be able to find or=20
evaluate or use anything, if we don't start thinking outside of=20
our old "computer"-era boxes pretty soon.
* Of Tortoises and Hares
Which brings us back to the French, here, and to their=20
"different" approach -- one which, I am suggesting, stands for=20
similarly-"different" approaches to be found elsewhere, all over=20
the newly-Globalizing world in fact...
Plenty of sterile debate takes place, in hitech, about who was=20
"first" and who is "fastest": sterile because most of it is=20
circular -- where knowledge is additive, identifying origins is=20
an arbitrary matter of deciding where to draw the line -- whether=20
at a certain coffee shop in Silicon Valley, or at John von=20
Neumann or Lady Lovelace, or at the invention of the "zero".
But the French have held their own, in this history: for instance=20
their Minitel offered "online graphics", and "commercial=20
applications", and "general public access", all long before the=20
US Internet did -- back when all these activities still were=20
illegal on the Internet, in fact. Early French contributions did=20
not end, or even begin, at Descartes...
And one of the first among non-anglophone nations to try at least=20
to adopt the early and still-anglophone ASCII-only Internet was=20
France: this despite the many battles -- over "accents aig=FCs" and=20
"OSI protocol wars" and "droit de copie" and the fascinating=20
"droit moral", through which M. Victor Hugo still "owns" a slice=20
of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to the eternal mystification of=20
Americans, and now over "Google the phenomenon" -- the battles=20
have been part of the process, educational for all sides.
So now, increasingly, comes governance: _who_ will "call the=20
shots" and _how_, as the digital scales up to Globalized=20
applications -- to a Globe where governance generally is done=20
mostly in a very non-US way, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan=20
and Egypt as we recently have discovered, and really everywhere=20
else, in places far more "different" from the US than France and=20
the French ever have been?
The French have been "first", in this, in many senses, and they=20
very often have been very "fast" -- they have been "en avance" of=20
the US even in some hitech arenas, for example, in spite of there=20
having been a "retard fran=E7ais" in others -- always, however,=20
they have offered usually-friendly although not-always-noticed=20
clues, to us their US friends.
So in this "governance" instance, perhaps the French can help=20
again. Their "top=3D>down" approach, and other aspects of the way=20
they intend to do their book digitization -- for "orphans" and=20
"out-of-print" and other things -- may be very different, from=20
the way these ideas are thought of in Mountain View, or=20
Manhattan, or Washington DC.
But they are more representative of the rest of the non-US world=20
-- and that is where the US wants to sell its own products and=20
services, now, in a Globalized economy -- marketing's Golden=20
Rule, "know thy customer..."
Worth-a-journey, then -- the French, on caring for digitization's=20
"orphans", below -- definitely worth-a-study, at least.
--oOo--
[Original version in English -- translation _not_ by JK -- see=20
also the original version in French, below]
Paris, 1 February 2011 -
"Signature of the framework agreement for the digitization and=20
online exploitation of out of print French books of the 20th=20
century"
Fr=E9d=E9ric Mitterrand, Ministry for Culture and Communication, Ren=E9=20
Ricol, Commissioner-General of investment attached to the Prime=20
Minister, Bruno Racine, President of the National Library of=20
France, Antoine Gallimard, President of the French Publishers=20
Association (Syndicat national de l'Edition, SNE) Jean-Claude=20
Bologne, President of the French Society of Literary Authors=20
(Soci=E9t=E9 des Gens de Lettres, SGDL) have signed a framework=20
agreement reflecting the will to give new life, through=20
digitization, to copyrighted out of print books of the 20th=20
century. The aim is to digitize and make available for sale=20
online, a corpus of 500 000 books within five years.
This agreement, fruit of the past year's reflection and=20
cooperation, enables the project to be taken one step further=20
with the launching of a detailed feasibility study within the=20
coming months. It stresses in particular the fact that digitized=20
books through =AB Investments for the future =BB will be exploited by=20
means of a common management guaranteeing publishers and authors,=20
equally, a fair remuneration in line with intellectual property=20
rights. As a result, copyrights law will be modified.
Digitization will rely on the legal deposit collections stored at=20
the National Library of France. The latter will be entitled to=20
possess a digital copy for its own use. The website Gallica=20
(http://gallica.bnf.fr/) will display the complete enriched=20
bibliographical records, provide a possibility to access excerpts=20
and redirect users towards online retailers in order to buy a=20
digital copy.
The state financial support will be provided within the framework=20
of the program =AB Development of the digital economy =BB. This euros=20
4.5bn scheme is one of the main components of the euros 35bn=20
mobilized by the government for the =AB Investments for the future =BB.
This includes euros 750m earmarked for the development of new=20
ways of promoting and digitizing cultural, educational or=20
scientific content.
[And the following is the original version in French -- with a=20
few ISO 8859-1 character set symbols added-in here, only, by JK.]
* Paris, le 1er f=E9vrier 2011
"Signature de l'accord cadre relatif =E0 la num=E9risation et=20
l'exploitation des livres indisponibles du XX=E8me si=E8cle"
Fr=E9d=E9ric Mitterrand, ministre de la Culture et de la=20
Communication, Ren=E9 Ricol, commissaire g=E9n=E9ral =E0=20
l'investissement, Bruno Racine, pr=E9sident de la biblioth=E8que=20
nationale de France, Antoine Gallimard, pr=E9sident du Syndicat=20
national de l'Edition et Jean-Claude Bologne, pr=E9sident de la=20
Soci=E9t=E9 des gens de lettres, ont sign=E9 un accord-cadre traduisant=20
la volont=E9 de redonner une nouvelle vie, sous forme num=E9rique,=20
aux livres sous droits du XX=E8me si=E8cle n'=E9tant actuellement plus=20
commercialis=E9s en librairie. Un corpus de 500 000 livres pourra=20
ainsi =EAtre num=E9ris=E9 et propos=E9 =E0 la vente =E0 l'horizon de 5 ans.
Fruit d'une ann=E9e de r=E9flexions et de concertations, cet=20
accord-cadre permet d'aborder une nouvelle phase dans la mise en=20
oeuvre de ce projet avec la r=E9alisation d'une =E9tude de=20
faisabilit=E9 d=E9taill=E9e dans les prochains mois. Il rappelle=20
notamment que les livres num=E9ris=E9s au moyen des Investissements=20
d'avenir seront exploit=E9s dans le cadre d'une gestion collective=20
assurant aux =E9diteurs et aux auteurs, repr=E9sent=E9s =E0 parit=E9, une=
=20
r=E9mun=E9ration =E9quitable dans le strict respect des droits moraux=20
et patrimoniaux. Le code de la propri=E9t=E9 intellectuelle sera=20
modifi=E9 en cons=E9quence.
La num=E9risation des livres sera effectu=E9e =E0 partir des=20
collections du d=E9p=F4t l=E9gal conserv=E9es =E0 la Biblioth=E8que nationa=
le=20
de France. Celle-ci pourra conserver une copie num=E9rique pour son=20
usage propre. Le site Gallica (http://gallica.bnf.fr/) pr=E9sentera=20
l'int=E9gralit=E9 des r=E9f=E9rences bibliographiques enrichies, avec une=
=20
possibilit=E9 de feuilletage, et renverra =E0 des sites marchands=20
pour l'acquisition des livres num=E9riques.
Le soutien financier de l'Etat s'inscrira dans le cadre du=20
programme =AB d=E9veloppement de l'=E9conomie num=E9rique =BB.
Ce programme dot=E9 de 4,5 milliards d'euros est l'une des=20
principales composantes des 35 milliards d'euros que le=20
gouvernement mobilise pour les =AB investissements d'avenir =BB. Il=20
inclut un volet de 750 millions d'euros visant =E0 d=E9velopper de=20
nouvelles formes de valorisation et de num=E9risations des contenus=20
culturels, scientifiques et =E9ducatifs.
[* Both versions are from the "Press Release" distributed via=20
email on February 10, 2011, by the BnF.]
--oOo--
Tortoises are said to have better track records than hares,=20
long-term -- and, besides, it is not always entirely clear who is=20
the "hare" and who the "tortoise", until the end of the race.
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.com
=09=09=09--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071-5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
// \\ isn't going to make them money: if it is going
=09=09 to make them money, they must get my permission
in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me. Use
of material written by others requires their permission. FYI France
archives are online at http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/pacs-l.html
(PACS-L archive) or http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/FYIFrance/
or http://www.fyifrance.com -- also now at http://www.facebook.com
("Jack Kessler" My Notes) and at http://fyifrance.blogspot.com/.
Suggestions, reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison-pen letters all=20
gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.ca.us .
=09Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
=09all rights reserved except as indicated above.
=09=09=09--hjlm--
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