Re: CORRECTION (was " An X PRIZE for next generation catalogs?")

This is strange - http://www.scaled.com/ - but it sure got people's
attention.  With attention comes resources -
http://www.virgingalactic.com/.

Both organizations offer a higher bar of engineering discipline and
entrepreneurial drive than were used to in LibraryLand, particularly
among our vendor partners.  We need that higher bar and an incentive to
reach for it.

Mark A.

-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Rochkind
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 11:01 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] CORRECTION (was "[NGC4LIB] An X PRIZE for next
generation catalogs?")

The problem isn't lack of suitable motivation, it's lack of suitable
funding to _do_ it.  I don't see how a "prize" will help.

I mean, isn't this what we're all trying to do anyway? We don't lack
motivation. We lack our institutions (or any others) funding this
development. You think a monetary prize is going to make our
institutions fund this development? I doubt it.

But this is what we're all trying to do. Evergreen, Koha, the UB XC
project, etc.  We don't need a prize, we just need resources to work on
it. Because it's also not like we all know exactly what a "NG" catalog
would look like and we just need to do it either. We know some of the
parameters, but we need to work on figuring it out.

I think you all are barking up a strange tree with this "x prize" talk.

Jonathan