Digital Library

Digital revolution has transformed many fields. Publishing, TV, even finance all experienced the power and benefits of widespread and deep integration of digital technology. However, there is a area most suitable for digitization and yet successfully resisted it for decades. That's our library.

Many technologies tried to transform libraries. The web was designed to freely exchange knowledge, and web sites like arXiv successfully delivered, for papers. But, the main form of preservation of our knowledge is still books. For a number of reasons, the web only succeeded in mass selling print books. The claim made by Turing Award winner Tim Berners-Lee that the web succeeds as a public library remains void. Tablets made another step forward regarding the ergonomics of reading, and yet print still lives very well.

A useful example is the presentation of technical documents. Knuth was appalled that distributors sold The Art of Computer Programming in ePub with poor typesetting. The solution was PDF, but since most publishers offer ePub books by default, digitization is of much inferior quality than print. Compare print and Kindle edition of The Quantum Theory of Fields by Steven Weinberg, and you know what I'm talking about. Somehow, backward technology stayed dominant. A revolution was killed.

The issue is more complicated with social-economic factors. Lack of public investment and regulation allowed Amazon to deny library purchase of digital books in favor of private market. Neoliberalism's roots run deep and work against public digital libraries.

A well-designed digital library benefits all, but society faces technological and ideological battles before a revolution can happen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Limitations of Knowledge Engines

Wolfram|Alpha was advertised as a revolutionary knowledge engine designed to eclipse Google. The result is quite mixed. While the power of symbolic computation certainly helped people solve mathematical problems, Wolfram|Alpha still provides highly eccentric answers to queries like iOS. Instead of giving a description of Apple's flagship OS, the query results in a obscure Greek island. The knowledge engine even ignores case sensitivity. The far-from-satisfactory performance begs lots of questions. First is about knowledge model. Wolfram|Alpha works as a interpreter between human queries and knowledge databases. Given the sheer volume of human knowledge, it's natural that pure knowledge databases omit huge areas of public knowledge, and Wolfram|Alpha can only cover a very restricted domain. Compared with search engine's wide indexing of web pages, which of course contains falsehoods, Wolfram|Alpha is cleaner, but also very much less encyclopediac. How about depth? The trag
Read more

數位革命：行動裝置與雲端

Steve Jobs 為 iPhone 問世所下的註腳是一場使用者介面革命。懷疑者認為使用者介面沒什麼了不起，從而低估了 iPhone 為世界帶來的重大變革。時任微軟總裁的 Steve Ballmer 就認為手機就該有硬體鍵盤，iPhone 虛擬鍵盤多此一舉。從微軟在智慧型手機市場大敗不難看出，懷疑者的論點不堪一擊。但 iPhone 的成功，遠較使用者介面深遠，甚至連蘋果也沒有預料到，iPhone 掀起了行動裝置與雲端的浪潮，接連推出的 iPad, Apple Watch, iCloud, Apple One，與 iPhone 重新定義了人類與電腦。 要闡述行動裝置與雲端造成的影響，只需看地圖這個應用程式。過去使用紙本地圖，礙於版面，道路、店家無法詳盡，更新更是困難。Google 將地圖雲端化，從此資訊得以整合，但以電腦瀏覽，不易攜帶。舊型手機無觸控，無法自在瀏覽地圖。蘋果 iPhone 一舉兩得，解決了電腦與舊型手機的限制，從此隨時隨地查詢雲端地圖詳盡資訊。這不單是使用者介面進步，更大大促進資訊普及化。 蘋果當初沒預料到的是：各類行動裝置與雲端一體，結合起來遠較個別智慧型手機強大。以寫日記為例，過去雲端不成熟、iPad 還未問世時，很少人使用智慧型手機寫日記，多半在紙本或電腦完成。今日在雲端同步下，隨時隨地有想法、事件皆可立即記錄，不論是手機照片、平板上閱讀的文章、電腦上的創作，皆可透過蘋果 Pages 與 iCloud 即刻登載於日記裡，更有為懶惰者發明的日記應用程式，僅記錄照片與標題，日記從此成為二十四小時日常。市場也有所反應，針對個別平台開發的日記應用程式逐漸被雲端整合取代。 App Store 的發展，更確立了 iPhone 不僅是使用者介面突破。過去少有人在舊型手機上編修照片上傳社群網路，因為使用困難。於電腦上操作，則需較高技術門檻，且軟體不易取得。今日於 App Store 有無數照片編修應用程式，使用 iPhone 立即拍照編修，與好友在社群網路上分享已是家常便飯。事實上，iPhone 也逐漸取代了過去電腦提供的部分功能，例如隨時隨地看影片。 美國有許多激進份子，以壟斷之名，揚言分割蘋果。美其名為提升市場競爭，實則不見行動裝置與雲端整合之威力。試想，若蘋果無法在行動裝置上藉雲端提供整合服務，還有多少市場前景。難怪激進份子的意見為微軟採納，目的只是為了
Read more

Maps and Yellow Pages

Modern maps apps have extended functionalities far beyond traditional paper maps. Traditional paper maps serve few purposes beyond road navigation. Modern maps apps have multiple levels of zoom, detailed location labeling, and additional useful information like customer reviews. It's natural to integrate modern maps apps with yellow pages, that maps also serve as business contacts. The next phase of maps innovation might involve business presence. The difference between business presence and business contacts is illustrated by Google My Business. Google My Business not only allows companies to post contact information on maps, but also facilitates interactions like reviews and responses, urgent announcements, and usage statistics. Business presence is a huge win for Google Maps. However, it's also logical to regard Google My Business as merely a crude form of business presence. There is no room for marketing campaigns, detailed profiles, and QA. At present, these features belo
Read more