Guest Post: David Rothman on the iPad Stimulus Plan

SEVEN: AVOIDANCE OF A VAST GOVERNMENT INFOCRACY TO IMPLEMENT THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF THE PLAN

Avoid creating a vast government infocracy to implement the technical side of the plan. On both the library and cost-justification sides, farm out much of the heavy lifting to companies like Google, Amazon and Oracle--hiring them as contractors. 

Private library companies such as the e-book-oriented OverDrive and NetLibrary and specialized software suppliers like SirsiDynix could also participate this way. But librarians, not individual companies, should control the library system. If this approach could miraculously preempt the proposed Google Books Settlement or at least help augment it, I, for one, would be thrilled.

EIGHT: MAJOR ATTENTION PAID TO PRIVACY AND OTHER CYBERSECURITY MATTERS

Respect privacy--maybe by way of an independent agency with long-term funding that would administer databases with sensitive information. Carefully overseen private companies could supply the actual storage infrastructure.

Include robust cyber-security precautions, not just for the library but also for e-commerce and protection of individual information, such as the sensitive health-related variety, to reduce the privacy threat. The recent leaking of a database with 114,000 iPad owners' email adressesses and other sensitive information is one more indication that the private sector alone can't deal with the threat. The Chinese hacks of Google and other major U.S. companies are yet another. Security breaches make this proposal more timely, not less.

For iPads or other devices to qualify for tax breaks, should Americans have to use security-certified versions? That's a tricky issue, but one worthy of discussion, although in my opinion it would be a bad idea to make government-approved machines compulsory in all situations. But if you were entrusting your bank information to technology, wouldn't you want a secure system? Granted, the government itself can be a privacy threat, but isn't this true even without the plan I'm proposing?

*     *     *

What's more, for reasons of economy and freedom of expression and further privacy protections, I  am not suggesting that the initiative replace all bookstores and paper libraries or even that Washington pay for all e-books and other content. But remember, we could start out focused on educational and training materials and free public domain books and grow gradually from there (with collection development assistance and other participation from many local, state, and academic librarians and educators, not just the Library of Congress).

Schools and libraries could still buy their own e-books and other items rather than merely point people to those in the national collection. But considering all the variations in educational spending between, say, Beverly Hills and Watts, this program could help ease the "savage inequalities" even if it it didn't include all content. 

*     *     *

TeleRead is the name I've used in the past to describe this evolving proposal and I've been refining it and beating the drums for it in various forms since 1992, having even suggested the use of iPad-style tablets in my original article in Computerworld that year. The late William F. Buckley, Jr., my political opposite, championed TeleRead in his syndicated column. Maybe the time for the TeleRead/NISP approach has finally come for the United States and many other countries. The resultant improvements in our lives could be profound. Let books and better jobs and leaner bureaucracies in the public and private sectors, especially in healthcare--not just paperwork reduction among members of the Washington elite--be "the bomb."

=====

« Previous 123 4Single Page | Next »