B.G. Sloan wrote:
>
> Personally, I see this proposed new policy as OCLC's attempt to keep
> a lid on innovation, to prevent innovative library and non-library
> Web 2.0 developers from making creative use of library metadata.
> ...
> think OCLC feels a little threatened by what's going on in this age
> of open systems and they are scrambling to make sure they don't lose
> "control" over "their" data.
>
What appears as an "attempt to keep a lid on innovation" can only
result from the simple fact that their revenue derives from their sale
of records. OCLC's funding would have to be revised from a payment per
record use to, e.g., an annual membership fee based on, say, the size of
the library, by whatever yardstick one would measure this. Since
libraries are the owners, this issue is their's to consider, after they
agree on a new policy of innovation and openness.
B.Eversberg
Received on Wed Apr 15 2009 - 02:59:32 EDT