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DanS
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Kickball Capital of the World
Jan 1970
time: 00:22
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Whenever I start to become embarrassed by American nutjobs, I only have to think of France's nutjobs to feel better. Who else would attack such a mind-blowingly awesome idea such as the Google great online library?
One obvious thing to note is that the Google great online library will include books in French and all sorts of other European languages. Another is that the top university from a European country is participating in this project, so this isn't precisely American influence, but rather anglophone influence.
quote:
Google's library sparks French fear
Timothy Heritage in Paris
FEBRUARY 21, 2005
FRANCE'S national library has raised a "war cry" over plans by Google to put books from some of the world's great libraries on the internet.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France's national library and is a noted historian, says Google's choice of works is likely to favour Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.
He wants the European Union to balance this with its own program and its own internet search engines.
"It is not a question of despising Anglo-Saxon views ... It is just that in the simple act of making a choice, you impose a certain view of things," Mr Jeanneney said.
"I favour a multi-polar view of the world in the 21st century," he said. "I don't want the French Revolution retold just by books chosen by the United States. The picture presented may not be less good or less bad, but it will not be ours."
Mr Jeanneney says he is not anti-American, and that he wants better relations between Europe and the United States. But like French President Jacques Chirac, he says he wants a multi-polar world in which US views are not the only ones that are heard.
His views are making waves among intellectuals in France, where many people are wary of the impact of American ways and ideas on the French language and culture.
But he says he has heard nothing from politicians in Paris or Brussels, days before US President Bush visits the European Union's headquarters and NATO . "On the eve of George Bush 's arrival in Europe, the president of the National Library of France is sounding a war cry ... he is seeking a French and European crusade," Le Figaro newspaper said.
California-based Google said in December it would scan millions of books and periodicals into its popular search engine over the next few years.
Its partners in the project are Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library.
Google says the project will promote knowledge by making it more easily and more widely accessible. It aims to make money by attracting people to its web site and to its advertisements.
The impact this might have on attendance at world libraries is not yet clear. But Mr Jeanneney expressed his concerns in an article published by Le Monde newspaper late last month.
"Here we find a risk of crushing domination by America in defining the idea that future generations have of the world," he wrote, urging the EU to act fast.
He pushed his campaign forward this week by announcing the national library would make editions of 22 French periodicals and newspapers dating back to the 19th century available on the internet.
Reuters
Agence France-Presse |
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DanS
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Kickball Capital of the World
Jan 1970
time: 00:22
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Here's the editorial...
quote:
POINT DE VUE
Quand Google défie l'Europe, par Jean-Noël Jeanneney
LE MONDE | 22.01.05 | 15h49
Voici que s'affirme le risque d'une domination écrasante de l'Amérique dans la définition de l'idée que les prochaines générations se feront du monde.
Pour l'instant, la nouvelle n'a guère attiré l'attention que des bibliothécaires et des informaticiens. Et, pourtant, je gage qu'on ne va pas tarder à en mesurer la portée culturelle, donc politique : vaste.
Google est, comme on sait, le premier moteur de recherche propre à guider les internautes dans l'immensité de la Toile. L'un des premiers chronologiquement, puisqu'il remonte à 1998 (sept ans, longue durée dans ce champ). Le premier par son succès : 75 % de la recherche d'information passent aujourd'hui par son truchement. Le premier enfin par son poids capitalistique : entré à la Bourse de New York en juin 2004, il y trouve et y trouvera en abondance des ressources nouvelles.
Or voici que, le 14 décembre, cette société a annoncé à grand bruit qu'elle venait de passer accord avec cinq des bibliothèques les plus célèbres et les plus riches du monde anglo-saxon : la New York Public Library et quatre bibliothèques d'universités, Stanford, l'université du Michigan, Harvard (Etats-Unis) et Oxford (Grande-Bretagne).
Accord pour quoi faire ? Rien de moins que numériser en quelques années 15 millions d'ouvrages afin de les rendre accessibles en ligne. Librement pour tous ceux qui sont tombés dans le domaine public, en extraits alléchants pour les autres qui sont encore sous droits, en attendant que le temps passe. Stanford et l'université du Michigan mettront à disposition de Google l'intégralité de leurs collections (8 millions pour la première, 7 pour la seconde) ; New York donnera accès à des documents fragiles qui ne sont pas sous copyright ; Oxford à une sélection du XIXe siècle ; Harvard se bornant à un test de 40 000 documents choisis parmi ses 15 millions de livres.
Il s'agira au total, chiffre vertigineux, de 4,5 milliards de pages. La première réaction, devant cette perspective gigantesque, pourrait être de pure et simple jubilation. Voici que prendrait forme, à court terme, le rêve messianique qui a été défini à la fin du siècle dernier : tous les savoirs du monde accessibles gratuitement sur la planète entière. Donc une égalité des chances enfin rétablie, grâce à la science, au profit des pays pauvres et des populations défavorisées.
Il faut pourtant y regarder de plus près. Et naissent aussitôt de lourdes préoccupations. Laissons de côté la sourde inquiétude de certains bibliothécaires préoccupés, sans trop oser le dire, à l'idée de voir se vider leurs salles de lecture ; certes, leur métier évoluera peu à peu pour servir la documentation des citoyens et pour éclairer leurs choix de multiples manières, mais l'objet-livre a trop d'avantages pratiques par rapport à l'écran pour ne pas subsister très longtemps. Toute l'expérience de l'Histoire montre que dans le passé aucun des nouveaux modes de communication ne s'est substitué aux précédents - les complétant seulement et souvent les valorisant.
Le vrai défi est ailleurs, et il est immense. Voici que s'affirme le risque d'une domination écrasante de l'Amérique dans la définition de l'idée que les prochaines générations se feront du monde. Quelle que soit en effet la largeur du spectre annoncé par Google, l'exhaustivité est hors d'atteinte, à vue humaine. Toute entreprise de ce genre implique donc des choix drastiques, parmi l'immensité du possible. Les bibliothèques qui vont se lancer dans cette entreprise sont certes généreusement ouvertes à la civilisation et aux œuvres des autres pays. Il n'empêche : les critères du choix seront puissamment marqués (même si nous contribuons nous-mêmes, naturellement sans bouder, à ces richesses) par le regard qui est celui des Anglo-Saxons, avec ses couleurs spécifiques par rapport à la diversité des civilisations.
Je garde en mémoire l'expérience du Bicentenaire de la Révolution, en 1989, quand j'en dirigeais les manifestations. Il eût été délétère et détestable pour l'équilibre de la nation, pour l'image et la connaissance qu'elle avait d'elle-même, de son passé, des événements, lumineux ou sombres, qu'il nous revenait de commémorer, d'aller chercher dans les seules bases de données anglaises ou américaines un récit et une interprétation qui y étaient biaisés de multiples façons : Le Mouron rouge écrasant Quatre-vingt-treize, les vaillants aristocrates britanniques triomphant des jacobins sanguinaires, la guillotine occultant les droits de l'homme et les intuitions fulgurantes de la Convention. Cet exemple est instructif, et il nous met en garde.
N'oublions pas, d'autre part, un autre aspect de la question, qui concerne le travail en marche : dans l'océan d'Internet, où tout circule, dans l'ordre du vrai comme du faux, les processus de validation des produits de la recherche par les autorités scientifiques et par les revues prennent désormais une importance essentielle. La production scientifique anglo-saxonne, déjà dominante dans une quantité de domaines, s'en trouvera forcément survalorisée, avec un avantage écrasant à l'anglais par rapport aux autres langues de culture, notamment européennes.
On dira qu'il ne s'agit pas en l'occurrence d'écrits complets, puisqu'ils ne sont pas, par définition, tombés dans le domaine public, seulement d'extraits protégeant auteurs et éditeurs. Mais justement : cette publicité sera forcément discriminante. Ajoutons que, sous l'apparence de la gratuité, l'internaute rétribuera en fait Google, en tant que consommateur, puisque l'entreprise vit à 99 % de publicité et que la démarche qu'elle annonce ne vise qu'à obtenir un retour sur investissement grâce à celle-ci. Les publicités en marge des pages et les liens privilégiés guideront vers des achats qui accentueront le déséquilibre.
Lorsque s'est posée, depuis la seconde guerre mondiale, du côté du cinéma puis de l'audiovisuel, la question de la riposte française à la domination américaine, vouée, si l'on n'avait pas réagi, à opprimer chez nous toute production originale, une première réaction a été de protectionnisme, selon un système de quotas, dans les salles puis à la télévision. Cela n'était pas illégitime et a été partiellement efficace. Mais, dans le cas qui nous occupe, cette stratégie se révèle, compte tenu de la nature de la Toile, impossible. Reste donc la seconde, qui a fait ses preuves sur nos divers écrans : celle de la contre-attaque, avec un soutien positif à la différence.
Dans cette affaire, la France et sa Bibliothèque nationale ont une responsabilité particulière envers le monde francophone. Mais aucune nation européenne n'est, on le sait, assez forte pour pouvoir assurer seule le sursaut nécessaire. Je serai, bien sûr, le dernier à négliger les efforts accomplis : la bibliothèque virtuelle développée par la Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) sous le nom de Gallica - qui propose déjà 80 000 ouvrages en ligne et 70 000 images, et qui va offrir bientôt la reproduction de grands journaux français depuis le XIXe siècle - est installée avec la gratitude de nombreux chercheurs et citoyens, et elle sert notre influence autour du monde ; mais elle ne vit que de subventions de l'Etat, forcément limitées, et de nos ressources propres, difficilement et vaillamment mobilisées. Notre dépense annuelle ne s'élève qu'à un millième de celle annoncée par Google. Le combat est par trop inégal.
Une autre politique s'impose. Et elle ne peut se déployer qu'à l'échelle de l'Europe. Une Europe décidée à n'être pas seulement un marché, mais un centre de culture rayonnante et d'influence politique sans pareille autour de la planète.
L'heure est donc à un appel solennel. Il revient aux responsables de l'Union, dans ses trois instances majeures, de réagir sans délai - car, très vite, la place étant prise, les habitudes installées, il sera trop tard pour bouger.
Un plan pluriannuel pourrait être défini et adopté dès cette année à Bruxelles. Un budget généreux devrait être assuré. C'est en avançant sur fonds publics que l'on garantira aux citoyens et aux chercheurs - pourvoyant aux dépenses nécessaires comme contribuables et non comme consommateurs - une protection contre les effets pervers d'une recherche de profit dissimulée derrière l'apparence d'un désintéressement.
C'est en rassemblant des initiatives d'Etat qu'on évitera que tous nos fonds d'archives photographiques soient rachetés par des entreprises américaines (Corbis, filiale de Microsoft, a déjà beaucoup avancé dans ce domaine). C'est en mobilisant les laboratoires spécialisés que l'on assurera le développement d'un moteur de recherche ainsi que d'outils logiciels qui soient les nôtres.
Partout on évoque, ces temps-ci, l'urgence d'une politique de recherche et d'une politique industrielle de long terme qui assurent, face aux diverses concurrences planétaires dont le dynamisme s'affirme si fort, un avenir à l'originalité de l'Europe : eh bien ! c'est exactement de cela qu'il s'agit, c'est ce défi qu'il nous revient d'affronter. Nous le pouvons, donc nous le devons.
Jean-Noël Jeanneney, ancien secrétaired'Etat à la communication, est président de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de l'association Europartenaires. |
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DanS
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Kickball Capital of the World
Jan 1970
time: 00:22
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Here's the Google translation... 
They really need to work on their translation tools.
quote:
POINT OF VIEW
When Google defies Europe, by Jean-Christmas Jeanneney
THE WORLD|22.01.05| 15h49
Here that the risk of a crushing domination of America in the definition of the idea continues that the next generations will be made world.
For the moment, the news hardly drew the attention but librarians and data processing specialists. And, however, I guarantee that one will not be long in measuring the cultural significance of it, therefore political: vast.
Google is, as one knows, the first search engine suitable to guide the Net surfers in the vastness of the Fabric. One of the first chronologically, since it goes back to 1998 (seven years, long duration in this field). The first by its success: 75 % of the search for information pass today by its intermediary. The first finally by its capital intensive weight: entered with New York Stock Exchange in June 2004, it finds there and y will find in abundance of the new resources.
However here that, December 14, this company announced with great noise that it had just made agreement with five of the most famous libraries and richest of the Anglo-Saxon world: the Public New York Library and four libraries of universities, Stanford, the university of Michigan, Harvard (the United States) and Oxford (Great Britain).
Agreement for what to make? Nothing less than to digitize in a few years 15 million works in order to make them available on line. Freely for all those which fell into the public domain, in extracts enticing for the others which are still under rights, while waiting for that time passes. Stanford and the university of Michigan will place at the disposal of Google the integrality of their collections (8 million for the first, 7 for the second); New York will give access to fragile documents which are not under copyright; Oxford with a selection of the XIX E century; Harvard being limited to a test of 40 000 documents chosen among its 15 million books.
It will act on the whole, quantifies vertiginous, of 4,5 billion pages. The initial reaction, in front of this gigantic prospect, could be of pure and simple jubilation. Here what would take form, in the short run, the Messianic dream which was defined at the end of last century: all accessible savoirs of the world free on whole planet. Thus an equal opportunity finally restored, thanks to science, to the profit of the poor countries and the underprivileged populations.
It is however necessary to look at there more closely. And are born at once from heavy concerns. Let us leave to side the deaf person concern of certain worried librarians, without daring the statement too much, with the idea to see emptying their rooms of reading; admittedly, their trade will evolve/move little by little to serve documentation of the citizens and to clarify their choices in multiple manners, but object-delivers it has too many practical advantages compared to the screen not to remain very a long time. All the experiment of the History shows that in the past none new fashions of communication replaced the precedents - supplementing only and often developing them.
The true challenge is elsewhere, and it is immense. Here that the risk of a crushing domination of America in the definition of the idea continues that the next generations will be made world. Whatever the indeed width of the spectrum announced by Google, exhaustiveness is out of attack, at human sight. Very undertaken of this kind thus imply drastic choices, among the vastness of the possible one. The libraries which will launch out in this company are certainly liberally opened with the age and works of the other countries. It does not prevent: the criteria of the choice will be strongly marked (even if we contribute ourselves, naturally without being sulky, with these richnesses) by the glance which is that of the Anglo-Saxons, with its specific colors compared to the diversity of civilizations.
I keep in memory the experiment of the Bicentenary of the Revolution, in 1989, when I directed the demonstrations from there. It had been noxious and hateful for the balance of the nation, the image and the knowledge which it had of itself, of its past, of the events, luminous or dark, that it returned to us to commemorate, to go to seek in the only English or American data bases an account and an interpretation which were skewed there in multiple ways: The Scarlet pimpernel crushing Quatre-vingt-treize , valiant British aristocrats triumphing over the sanguinary Jacobins, the guillotine occulting the humans right and the fulgurating intuitions of Convention. This example is instructive, and it warns to us.
Let us not forget, in addition, another aspect of the question, which relates to work moving: in the ocean of Internet, where all circulates, in the order of truth like forgery, the processes of validation of the products of research by the scientific authorities and the reviews take from now on an essential importance. The Anglo-Saxon scientific production, already dominant in a quantity of fields, will be some inevitably survalorized, with an advantage crushing with English compared to the other languages of culture, in particular European.
It will be said that it is not a question in fact of complete writings, since they are not, per definition, fallen in the public domain, only of extracts protecting authors and editors. But precisely: this publicity will be inevitably discriminating. Let us add that, under the appearance of the exemption from payment, the Net surfer will remunerate in fact Google, as a consumer, since the company saw to 99 % of publicity and that the step which it announces only aims at obtaining a return on investment thanks to this one. Publicities in margin of the pages and the bonds privileged will guide towards purchases which will accentuate imbalance.
When was posed, since the second world war, on the side of the cinema then of audio-visual, the question of the French response to the American domination, dedicated, if one had not reacted, to oppress on our premises any original production, an initial reaction was of protectionism, according to a system of quotas, in the rooms then with television. That was not illegitimate and was partially effective. But, in the case which occupies us, this strategy appears, taking into account the nature of the Fabric, impossible. Thus remain the second, which proved reliable on our various screens: that of the counter-attack, with a positive support for the difference.
In this business, France and its national Library have a particular responsibility towards the French-speaking world. But no European nation is, one it can, enough strong to be able to ensure only the start necessary. I will be, of course, the last to neglect the accomplished efforts: the virtual library developed by the national Library of France (BNF) under the name of Gallica - which proposes already 80 000 works on line and 70 000 images, and which will offer soon the reproduction of large French newspapers since the XIX E century - is installed with the gratitude of many researchers and citizens, and it serves our influence around the world; but it saw only State grants, inevitably limited, and our own resources, with difficulty and valiantly mobilized. Our annual expenditure amounts only to one thousandths of that announced by Google. The combat is far too unequal.
Another policy is essential. And it can be spread only on the scale of Europe. Europe decided not to be not only one market, but a center of radiant culture and political influence without similar around planet.
The hour is thus with a solemn call. It is allocated to the persons in charge for the Union, in its three major authorities, to react without delay - because, very quickly, the place being taken, the practices installed, it will be too late to move.
A multiannual plan could be defined and adopted as of this year in Brussels. A generous budget should be assured. It is while advancing on public funds that one will guarantee to the citizens and to the researchers - providing for the expenditure necessary like taxpayers and not as consumers - a protection against the perverse effects of a search for profit dissimulated behind the appearance of a satisfying.
It is by gathering initiatives of State which one will avoid that all our funds of photographic archives are repurchased by American companies (Corbis, subsidiary of Microsoft, has already much advanced in this field). It is by mobilizing the specialized laboratories that one will ensure the development of a search engine as of software tools which are ours.
Everywhere one evokes, these times, the urgency of a policy of research and an industrial policy of long term which ensure, vis-a-vis various planetary competition whose dynamism continues so extremely, a future with the originality of Europe: eh well! they is exactly of that that it acts, it is this challenge which it returns to us to face. We can it, therefore let us owe we it.
Jean-Christmas Jeanneney , old secrétaired' State with the communication, is a president of the national Library of France and Europartenaires association. |
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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:22
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Actually, I would say Jeanneney would have a strong point if Google would only take material that is validated by aforementioned universities (because a foreign institution, no matter how open to the world, can not have the same understanding as a national one, and thus the national one's contribution is worth it).
Or if Google's libary search engine would discriminate through ads.
But it's a very big if. An "if" that isn't happening.
From my own experience with Google, it is possible to select the language in which you want to do your research (for my uni paper, this has been a very useful tool for the three languages I use). This function is one click away in every non-Anglophone version of Google (the one you're automaticallw redirected to, when your OS/browser is not anglophone)
Secondly, government-sponsored links score high on the search engine anyway. If the French National Library became a validation organism for Google, its favorite books would be on top of the research where they are relevant.
Kuci:
I know it's our fault that our culture is currently on the losing side. There is a synergy (between institutions, companies, artists...) from the Anglo world that promotes its culture however. But this synergy is something every culturally active country would have, and the blame must be laid on those who don't fight back. I'm all for fighting back. But see my response to...
...Oncle Boris:
We must fight back, that's for certain. But we must also fight back in an intelligent and efficient way. Today, Google is pretty much a monopoly in the search engine market. If they do a good library engine, they'll become monopolous there as well. I mean, if I can have plenty of satisfying literature from the google engine, why would I bother looking for more literature in marginal, and probably subpar search engines?
To promote our culture and our language efficiently, and to reduce the weight of the English language on our own nationals, we have to provide content, and we have to make it available. Google is the best way to make it available, and they would certainly be delighted at having our data. If they aren't, then Jeanneney is right. If they are, however, then Jeanneney is a typical "cultural crusader" whose paranoia makes a disservice to his cause (which I wholeheartedlw support)
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23-02-2005 00:24
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