Otto
Given your deadline the following comments have to be taken as "first pass"!
I agree with Harry that the terms used are a little confusing; it would be better to say a "simplified digital library" or "basic digital library" rather than introduce an additional term like "electronic repository".
There is an ambiguity in that "free" could mean either "at no cost" or "with no restriction". Which of these is meant in step 1.c should be made clear (or maybe it's both)! I'm not sure that I would want to commit to either of them for the future (see below).
Similarly, there might be various interpretations of "when feasible". What makes it infeasible: lack of effort, lack of money or legal restrictions such as copyright.
I'm not sure that "source versions of IFIP publications" is necessary. If the archive is to be useful, it should be possible to retrieve the contents at some time in the future. It would be better to have everything in one format, rather than having to use one of twenty versions (well, maybe not 20 but...) of Word, WordPerfect, Wordstar ... at some time in the future. Do the conversion NOW while we still have the programs.
Equally, I'm not sure that "passwords" are the right mechanism to control access, if access is to be controlled. They can be passed around too easily and there are lots of problems with managing them. I think the statement on page should be technology neutral and we should not commit to passwords. Digital Rights Management or Content Management may come up with something or it may be better to use digital keys of some sort.
Finally, money! Most of the paper seems to assume that no-one gets charged for accessing the material in the digital library but someone has to pay, at least for the cost of running the system, even if it doesn't make any money for IFIP. ("You have to make a profit to be pious".) My view is that IFIP should look at the options and the business models for pay to view (or even pay to submit) before it commits to a long-term digital library that makes no charges. It may be that someone like Google would be prepared to operate the digital library at no cost to IFIP because it (Google) believes it could make enough money from advertising (perhaps with adverts for related conferences, books, etc). IFIP ought to explore this - and I'd be interested in Guy Leduc's views on the question of charging.
I hope this helps!
Regards
Peter
PS I also agree with Harry that "the real work lies ahead"
-----Original Message----- From: ifip-tc6-bounces@lists.RWTH-Aachen.DE [mailto:ifip-tc6-bounces@lists.RWTH-Aachen.DE] On Behalf Of Otto Spaniol Sent: 28 February 2006 10:30 To: Harry Rudin Cc: ifip Subject: Re: [ifip-tc6] IFIP Digital Library
Hello Harry,
One item should be clarified: the introductory paragraph refers to a "digital library". In paragraph 1. apparently the terminology is changed to an "electronic repository". The equivalence has to be deduced. I see no reason why the term "digital library" cannot be used throughout.
Thank you very much for your comments. My feeling is that by using the term "electronic repository" it was intended to denote a "simplified digital librar". This is expressed in page 3: "The digital library can be developed incrementally, beginning with a simple repository and later adding more capabilities".
Thus we have three things: a. Electronic archive: For the past events. And also as a backup storage in case that there would be unforeseen problems with the digital library. b. Electronic Repository: A first step towards a *real* digital library. First with limited functionality such as paper abstracts and (whenever possible) extended abstracts. c. Digital library: The final step. The intermediate step b. is intended to speed up the process since we cannot wait four more years (until 2009) which is the validity of the actual Springer contract during which a DL has to be established by Springer. In clear text: Springer could theoretically wait for that until the end of the contract period.
Best regards Otto
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