Brewster Kahle: A digital library, free to the world

[sucklingfatty]

democracy

[crudhousefull]

2 million of those 100 dollar laptops sold to date. It's alright, but depressing cause the aim was to get it to about 100 million by now I think.

[infinitehumanstupid]

Good idea... no more torrenting =D

[ThermalHD]

I want it free on the internet, paperback takes too much space, us modern kids dont like that.

[AndreLeCoz]

wait, what about porn?

[surfdudezuri]

children... >_> fuck children!

[bunnyfan1234]

the silent pig remains silent so long as it has food in its stomach

[paraquesoban]

I am a scholar from Colombia who speaks several languages. The biggest obstacle in my studies is obtaining out-of-print books in different languages, so your project is a dream come true for me. I'm wary however that practices which permeate the distribution of other kinds of media (such as regional coding for DVDs) will rear their ugly head here. PLEASE do not restrict access to books by region! Let EVERYTHING be available to ANYONE around the world. Do not subject us to a cultural apartheid.

[eejot14]

interesting.. great idea

[altosax1st]

Sounds like an interesting idea. Books should be digitalized for easier access, but the written book should not be phased out. The most realistic of the ideas presented are the book mobiles

[djxxlaker]

you rock.!!! free for the poeple...

[biggerflexible]

No more secrets.

[irelandauctionhouse]

a lot of copyrights to obtain, internet access that would be needed, there is already wikipedia, pirate bay to download 20,000 books.

[dowling1981]

irelandauctionhouse - Cad e mar ata tu. Perhaps you should read the novels of Edgar Thelapain, they hold great portentions therein. Where do you see them to fall?

[enterfailedment]

Duuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbb­b

[mopsius]

Okay, here;s a little topic for you geekheads:

Contrast the German and Italian approaches to books, printing, and librairies.

Technogeek can't even grasp the question, let alone answer it.

[TroyWorks]

Interesting stats:

China 1 Million books scanned

India 300K books scanned

Egypt 30K books scanned

[klkbk]

This sounds like a great idea in theory, but in reality it is a way to replace hard copy books with a "computer book". Once this system is in place, and hard copy books are at a minimum, sensorship and control of knowlege will ensue along with a history of the books a person reads!

[mopsius]

Yes, that is a problem too. Traditional books disappear and digital ones are revised periodically.

In fact the old Soviets had a pastepot squad that continuously revised the Soviet Encyclopedia.

How much easier with digital.

[marsCubed]

"In fact the old Soviets had a pastepot squad that continuously revised the Soviet Encyclopedia" All Encyclopaedias are continuously revised. it is called keeping them up to date. Or is the use of a "pastepot" the problem here? Digitizing books makes them accessible to more people. This is a good thing. Also digitized books means that they can be read by a computer making them accessible to even more people. Then of course there is the possibility of using meta data.

[mopsius]

And? What has that got to do with this idiot's program?

Nothing. In fact his proposal will make "books" and "knowledge" less accessible digitally.

The fuckhead does not even know what "books" are, nor libraries.

[FIGHTFANNERD3]

shut up

[mopsius]

You are an ignoramus, as this fool.

Save us, O Zeus, from the half-educated technocrats.

[mopsius]

Okay, here's a little topic for you geekheads:

Contrast the German and Italian approaches to books, printing, and librairies.

Technogeek can't even grasp the question, let alone answer it.

[McArrowni]

I think this is a good idea.

Some books might have historic value that will not be understood until later. It's going to be a small cost on the long run to do this anyways.

Though of course for non-historian, I'm betting web-based encyclopedias similar to wikipedia will be more practical.

[Valetudo21]

A lot of books are trash, I am not sure if I support every book being scanned since it is most likely tax payer money doing this.

[Valetudo21]

I do not understand why you think this guy is an idiot?

[mopsius]

Read my comments carefully, and think.

I am not against digitizing libraries.

That is not the point.

[Tonaho]

I'm pretty sure he means all COLLECTED knowledge.

[mopsius]

Listen carefully to what he actually says.

In fact, he doesn't know enough to know what he means.

He should not be in charge of this project.

He will make a God-awful mess.

[marsCubed]

mopsius He invented Wide Area Information Servers amongst other things, and came up with the free archive of which he is the Director. Your comment is not sensible.

[mopsius]

And he knows shit about libraries.

He's a technogeek pushing technological solutions for problems he invents.

[angeleyes0thebad]

in the beginning of the video he said that he is a librarian.

[jezobeljones]

and you are a stupid troll. go away.

[MellumFellum]

Mopsius, you are an ignorant child. Decrying the entire Internet Archive project just because the guy made a random joke about the ancient Greeks is about as petty and puerile as they come. Grow up, and pay some attention to the actual content next time.

[mopsius]

You are the ignorant child.

[edmyap]

With every worthwhile endeavour comes a multitude of objections and roadblocks. I hope he'll overcome everyone of them.

[TheWiseCommenter]

boston public library is fucking awesome.

[dmlled]

amazing. great work for humanity!

[mopsius]

I am not against the project--just the claims he is making, and also his naivetie. Going about it with these presumptions will be a disater.

But it would take a long essay to detail why.

Google wants to know, get in touch with me.

[Axiom09]

This is a fantastic project.

mopsius - you sound like a tool.

[mopsius]

This motherfucking dumbass does not even know what a "book" was among the Greeks.

And it was not the same thing as a "book" among the Christians or Chinese or moderns.

[kalinhammer]

and so..?

[mopsius]

The Egyptians had nothing to do with the library of Alexandria.

How about Pergamum.

And "all the word's books" were not there, not even all the "books" of the Greeks.

Fucking imbecile.

[mopsius]

Guess this moron could not even collect the right information about Alexandria, either from books and libraries or from the internet.

And you could get copies of works from Alexandria.

What a fucking moron.

[maidenindigo]

Um...the Library of Alexandria was *in* Alexandria, Egypt.

[kalinhammer]

Who the fuck are you arguing? nobody cares of what you think stupid havent you seen your comments have been bad rated??

[mopsius]

Ooo-bad-rated.

That's a compliment with people like you around.

[laxhockfiendmb]

Free everything. When all essentials and entertainment become virtually free, population is not booming out of control, and those who are alive are intelligent enough to sort through all this information logically, then we will truly have the time to focus on making our planet a replica of our best imaginations. A heaven on earth.

Get ready for this change and work on it now!

[Paulginz]

Have you ever heard of the internet?

There's a whole lot of useless junk there... In fact, I would say that you can find pretty muc anything on the internet. But it turns out to be perfectly useable.

If you want something specific you can usually find it (google ftw) and you also have plenty of ways of seperating the cream from the turds. For example bookmarking sites like digg or google's link=vote pagerank system.

Preserving all work in a DIGITAL fashion would work perfectly.

[satinhooks]

it's just an example. it doens't even mater about the greeks... who cares about the greeks, anyway? oh, yeah... you.

[mopsius]

This mick seems to, otherwise why would he mention them.

The ignoramus just doesn't know what he is up against.

I like the Librarian in the Music Man better.

Mega biblion, mega kakon, little fella--you aren't successful.

[Sir9real]

The best idea to hit the planet since Alexander did it. Big time Kudos Brewster!!! I hope it happens. I'll be checking this out further.

[beebst]

i dont know if i completely get the idea. how would i as a consumer access it? nonetheless i love the basics of what i understood

[Paulginz]

As a consumer you can access it by going to his organisation's website at the adress "archive(dot)org"

[c15688]

I agree with this guy, sometimes people do not go to the books because it is not free, or because it is not in hand. This is great.

[DHtoSchu]

I love how this idea is the opposite of the futuristic predictions of Fareinheit 351.. in this case the government wants us to have all of the books, rather than none of them

[mgriff1066]

all of this is good, but we must remove the outside influence first

[pokarok]

this idea is awesome

[snakecharmer133]

This is madness...

[pokarok]

THIS IS GENIUS

[snakecharmer133]

it's a monopolisation of knowledge, monopolies are bad for basically everything! What would make knowledge so different from food, power, water or any other commodity?

[pokarok]

it makes knowledge more accessible to people who want the knowledge they seek

[snakecharmer133]

what makes you think the knowledge will be there?

[pokarok]

lol sorry i dont get the question. but i guess i like discussing ideas and stuff so can u rephrase the question? anyway i guess it will make knowledge more open to poverty stricken people who seek knowledge. books costs alot of money

[Igziabeherljbp]

16:45. YES John Stewart.

[Shezmu]

Um, what's the difference between this and just making cheaper pcs and using torrents and direct downloads?

[skipgoat]

where is the shame in learning from what is around us...books...bookish wisdom is important but so is experience...there is no knowledge more whole than experiential knowledge -understanding and acting according to ones own context is absolutely vital.

but of course life is about balance. some people should be reading more, some less...

[ukent07]

I'm confused...... Most of these new books were typed up on computers. Why don't they just get the master files from the publishing companies??? :s Its like typing a letter, printing it, and scanning it again when all along you could just read the thing on computer. Maybe I've missed the point

[esaman]

you definitely did. it takes many decades for copyright to expire..

[ukent07]

So if they're making agreements with the authors/publishers to actually scan them in the first place, how comes this copyright issue is a problem? Surely they're in breach of the copyright law by just scanning and storing. He did mention scanning new books right? :s

[disposablebook2]

Bravo!

[sorealitty]

great respect for this man and his ideas.

more of this TED :)

[petfoodonly]

1) Having your laptop out really doesn't feel like work. I think I use this laptop 90%+ for fun and 10% for work. He's just old. $100 laptop is a good idea!

2) Books? Who the hell wants books? Paper is old school.

[kingmelod]

TED did it again... thanks

[tatedominguez]

Awesome!

[zassounotsukushi]

14:19

"If you put up a video of your garage band you can loose your guitars or your house"

What?

[alanbrit]

He's talking about webspace.

Webspace = Cost Money

If you put up your garage band online, and it gets popular (..Heavy Internet Traffic) You need more bandwidth, more space = which costs money. He's just saying if you need money, you'll have to sell your instruments (ie: loose your guitars or house).

[BoozyBeggar]

That's what I call freedom of information.

[translationwiz]

Well said.

[sustaincain]

watch?v=eo4whY1t5HY

Brewster's warning about google becoming a monopoly information source.

[sy1234]

Only 50k software titles? Ignoring all freeware, shareware and garbageware I suppose..

I also think this will be a truly wonderful way to centralize materials for history revision and propaganda. Who controls this? How do we trust them?

[sugarpuddin88]

Here is what you have given your children:

The USA has pledged & plundered 96 trillion from SS & Medicare trusts - that equates to one million dollars from every adult in America

The USA gov has robbed 53 trillion from other trusts

The USA owes 9 trillion interest to a bunch of private bankers it allows to print its money out of thin air

The USA tax payer just spent 12 trillion to bail out Wall Street Bankers for Freddie Mac

You have left a bankrupt nation to your children - And no freedom

[jimbob6986]

I have to say, I was sceptical when I started this video but I'm definitely sold now.

Many Thanks.

[ReluctantRedneck]

Great stuff. Thanks.

[JohnDeBunkTest]

I would like to see more university lectures available.

Think of what it would be like to have Einstein teach you relativity, or Newton teach you about Gravity ... that is no longer possible but the future discoveries are possible to have taught by the greatest minds in the world.

[MariborchanX]

Do you know of "The Teaching Company" courses?

[homerthompsonman]

I can't even copy a part of this video without risking a copyright infringement.

So good luck with that...

And there is always more new crap coming at us than there is in all of project Guggenheim. People like new shit. But there is more old stuff than anyone could ever get through.

This is another vacuous talk...I'm getting close to unsubscribing...

[MariborchanX]

Let's say I'm interested in new books concerning postmodern philosophy in France. I live in a small country that has a population of less than 2 million. Most of the books aren't translated into my language. If I want to get them, I have to order them online, wait for them, and greatly overpay them.

So in what way is it bad that projects like Google Books, the gutenberg project, etc. exist? The only thing I want now is a way to print these cheaply, reading them on a screen is not comfortable.

[homerthompsonman]

I get it. And everything to do what you want to do is here. Project Gutenberg exists. And you can buy a printer. Done.

The real problems are the issues of ownership of newer material. And no tech talk is going to get around that.

And given that people already pirate everything, this talk is doubly worthless. Stop listening to hand wavers and make use of the tech that's here.

And my original post was a critique of TED's choice of video.

[ratholin]

right there are already tons and tons of books on the web free for all though the ones still under copywrite may require some piracy. I do kind of like the print on demand idea though except it seems it would lead to the death of the small bookstore. I'm picturing this just ending up being another section of walmart.

[homerthompsonman]

Oh yikes, nothing is more frightening than Walmart getting involved...

[MariborchanX]

Printing a book on a inkjet printer is still more expensive than buying it because the ink is too expensive, it's also less practical, uncomfortable.. And one still needs a computer and a printer to get it, so it's not for the lower class.

[dreamdimensions]

good cause Brewster, good luck :)

[notarecordplayer]

this is probly how societies like our disapear. no more books, no more anything physical. put everything on digital memory on machines that only we know how to use so that if it all crashes we loose all information and noone knows anything about it :) nice

[ThatLovelyEnglishBob]

You reckon it'll really be backed up on only one computer and all physical data will be removed?

[notarecordplayer]

possibly. but i think it could be many things. like a world wide natural disaster that wipes us all out and since we no longer have physical books or anything all our data is gone too. i mean we dont even make stone buildings with enscriptions anymore. maybe thats why we think atlantis didnt exist. because it was so advanced it was wiped out without a trace and only things that were left were old pyramids and whatnot.

[Lihinel]

Well, how about: Nuclear Waste + Plastic

(Oh wait, let me guess, they only used biodegradebal materials and Solar Energy at Atlantis, right?)

[Just kidding, I know(/hope) you didnt mean what you wrote there]

On a sidenote, forget those cute NDs, one nearby sun goes nova and there wont be anyone left to see the lack of artifacts.

We realy need to get one of these databases into intergalactic space.

Just to make sure. ^^

[notarecordplayer]

i tend to think all that sort of stuff would be washed into the deepest part of the oceans. sedement would cover the buildings and whatnot. but i think atlantis was a very different society than ours if it existed.

[ThatLovelyEnglishBob]

Stone buildings do have the odd inscription, but what I really should be getting at is, despite all how everything will be revolutionised, I doubt book evidence will be destroyed. Hope you're not serious with Atlantis.

[notarecordplayer]

whats wrong with being serious about atlantis? noone knows if they existed or not. people just think they know, even if it is based on evidence. it makes no difference if they did or didnt. most people arent able to realize they have duality in them, they usually choose one side or the other. i agree it might not have existed at all but im just as agreeable that it might have. my point wasnt if they did or didnt, it was what we leave for history that can easily be destroyed and wiped away.

[timg455]

And I could be writing this message to you from the moon.

[notarecordplayer]

its true. i could never know could i. unless i was standing next to you as you typed it then i have to assume you are wherever the internet is available. and maybe its available from the moon.

[awerner2007]

ya since after we copy the books WE BURN THEM!!!!!!!!!

[srudlak]

no more books to burn? :(

[semiliteratedgod]

what's wrong with this guy? everything is available

[semiliteratedgod]

and we need sum trees too ya know...

[georgemargaris]

my thought also, whats going to happen to the trees if we all can print books very cheaply? and we should also stop using toilet paper, and use digital one:-)

[semiliteratedgod]

"and we should also stop using toilet paper, and use digital one:-)"

lol! for me that would be the tougher decision to make (unlike buying an ebook-reader)... but I heard that they make toilet paper from recycled paper, not totally sure tho

[georgemargaris]

yes, but with the recycled, hard toiletpaper you get the real "pain in the ass", if you catch my drift.

But there are special WC Showers, so you clean with water, which is a good think, but extremely expensive WCs.

[georgemargaris]

like this:

/watch?v=CqGSje8dd-c&feature=r­elated

[semiliteratedgod]

yeah, I was right:)

/watch?v=n_KoEeC_br0

[ble86n]

All the worlds knowledge availiable to the all the world!Awesome.

[IAteYourTV]

communist!!!

[dollaresque]

Nice vision should it succeed. Copy right and financial issues are the main ones to sort out, in my opinion. Technology is and will be there, and so will the demand.

[Lihinel]

Right, the thing is:

Using the old Copyight System with our current technology is like using the rules made to regulate Carriage traffic and aply them to modern Road transport.

Does Not Compute

[Justen]

lol so true ♥

[SlowCountry]

Excellent speech, but I dislike the idea of actually printing the book off. It'd be better to save resources and just keep it all digital.

[intelligentfalling]

if its all digital there isn't any concrete reference so everything can be discreetly altered.

[SlowCountry]

I was thinking that wouldn't be an issue, as they're already copying from the original reference. Also, if the digital library, so to speak, was set up correctly, changes wouldn't be plausible.

Printing is certainly acceptable, but I think doing it on such a mass scale would become too costly and wasteful.

[georgemargaris]

yes, but i believe, if we get to a point where Harddisks get even cheaper, one day you are able to have 100 billion books in pdf on one single harddisk... so maybe we people can be the keepers of the data storage... everyone of us has a copy... but then again: we will have to recieve updates of new data... so there will still be a possibility of corruption... I honestly dont know if there is a way to stop corruption of data. Even if all data is on paper.

[awerner2007]

you missed the point

[swyft187]

Last I heard, we still haven't figured out a perpetual motion machine... Even as digital, you still need power.

Nevertheless, I still agree with you that printing is a waste and it should remain digital.

[MariborchanX]

but you need something to read in digital and that means electronics.. and are you really going to read a 2000 page book on your computer screen?

these on demand book printing cars are a very good idea.. you don't print more than people want, so it's less wasteful than the system we have now..

[sy1234]

"and are you really going to read a 2000 page book on your computer screen?"

Yes. New screen technologies are out and as soon as they're cheaper they'll obsolete LCD. They're daylight readable and absolutely stunning because they're not backlit pixel-based, they're more or less pigment-based.

But I agree that the print-on-demand book idea is AMAZING. I'd pay $3-4 per book for just what I want. No more books laying around from overprinting.

[MariborchanX]

Those new technologies are still too expensive for the big majority of the world to use.. Sorry, but I'm not going to pay 400$ for Kindle.. it can't even read normal PDF files.. The technology is not yet widely available and cheap enough..

[theinterviewer]

yay first comment!

[greycloud24]

i would suscribe to a large electronic library that charged a monthly fee for access to it. this would be pretty nice (especially if they offered audio files).