The database of all knowledge.

[megalomania]

In the not too distant future inexpensive high megapixel digital cameras will be as ubiquitous as film cameras are today. These cameras will wirelessly transmit images of books to high capacity inexpensive laptops and software will process the text with 100% accuracy. The laptops will connect via wireless nodes to databases that will store the worlds books. Librarians will cross reference the books in the database with their collections and pull unscanned titles from the shelves. They will spend their idle time between patrons casually turning the pages and clicking the camera.

The technology will mature within 10 years to allow all of the worlds books to be scanned in this manner. I can not imagine a faster process of scanning books than using a camera, nor is there a more ubiquitous or easier to use technology, or a technology as inexpensive. It will be a simple matter of spending the time necessary to scan the several hundred million book titles available all over the world. Given that millions of people will be involved all over the world, it will not take that long to do. In fact, it has already started with the million book project that includes the Making of America Website.

My question is will anybody actually be able to access this knowledge? Sure we have the technology, and the means, but can man set aside their petty greed and territorial copyright disputes long enough to allow the average person to access such a database? Will such databases be the sole domain of powerful corporations, government agencies, and select universities? I would hope that any person in any country of the world will someday be able to go to a nearby library, if not their own PC, and access all the published material from antiquity to date. That is supposed to be the promise of the Internet is it not? The net is great as a communications tool, and a commercial medium, but it is lousy at delivering real knowledge.

With the exception of the espace patent database, the MOA website, and chemfinder, there is little in the way of centralized searchable knowledge. I say knowledge, which is different from information. All knowledge is information, but little information is knowledge. I think we need to break the stranglehold of copyright. 75+ years is a ridiculously long period for protecting books, and all because of some stupid Mickey Mouse cartoon! I say 20 years is plenty of time for a book to lapse into public domain. In 20 years the sum of all human knowledge will quadruple. There are very few science books, or literature, that are still topical from 1984.

Why can’t we have more MOA’s and fewer blog sites? Why can’t we have more online textbooks, and fewer online catalogs? Why not more scientific databases and fewer auction websites? Knowledge, not information, is power, but will that power be available to all or none?

[thrall]

There will be a cetralized Database of course, or may be there already is. The information technology might change the publishinig of a book to releasing of a URL. But KNOWLEDGE will(or is!) always be divided in two parts. Harmful and harmless. Of course there is nothing like harmful or harmless knowledge but knowledge will be divided on that criteria always(or if THIS world goes on like this).
The Centralized FREE Harmless knowledge will always be in public domain and probably increase. But that includes only History(the official version and official interpritation of archeological findindings),Philosophy(again the official version) and a lot of information witch might or might not be cosidered as knowledge.(like all the novels, guinese book of world(weird) records and other things).
Far as net is conserned, the censorship has already begun. Power will always be available but to selected FEW.

[darkdontay]

Their all ready are many centerlized Databases in the world. NSA,CIA and others. Look at Echelon. here is a interesting link http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004May/gee20040512025108.htm The FBI Just got a $600 million dollar computer upgrade. Also look into groups like Google and such. Standford university.
Those are all massively huge computer databases, compliling information from all over everywhere. Shit man Billboards[the signs] are allready collecting information and storing it in databases, what are the listing? The what you are listening to on your radio. I need to find you a couple links it was in the paper months ago.

The thing that drives me nuts is thier are only going to be a couple people ever looking at this information. I would love for their to be a WORLD Library. With digital copies of every book out their. I mean down to home submissions by the lay public. I would spend all night and day, just reading.... about everything.

One thing[many really] stoping this. Money. Who stands to profit from free knowledge? Places like the Gutenberg Project would be wholed heartedly behind a complete world/earth library, so many people would love to volunter. With in a couple of years as Mega said it would not take that much. This would ensure that all works are preserved for all times. And I mean everything. From Hitlers My Struggle to Dick and Jane books.

Anyways I belive that Networks such as RISSNET which is allready in place and growing larger everyday and going to spring up like wildfire, though no centralized knowledge database for the lay citezen will ever make it to light. But hay their is allways a chance.

---
sorry it is 1:18am and I'm tired and I still have yet to get my intro Theisis page done....

[nbk2000]

Copyright is the authors life PLUS 75 years. If he writes a book when he's 30, lives to be 70, then the book isn't out of copyright till 115 years after it was written! :eek:

(And, yes, it's all because of the bitches at disney [ran by a JEW!] wanting to milk mickey mouse as long as possible. And dont' be surprised if they get it extended yet again...:mad: )

Better than 99.9% of novels would be impossible to read because there'd be no understanding of the social situation it took place (in its time), and anything technically related would be obsolescent and only of historical interest.

All computer technology books are obso within 5 years, most within the year they were written, so copyright doesn't do anyone anygood after that time, because who'd want to buy a book about how to use Netscape browser Ver. 1.0?

I'd say, if the book goes out of print, it becomes public domain, because there's no more money to be made from sales (otherwise it'd still be printed, right?), therefore the author has gotten everything he's going to get out of it already.

Also, there's the "harmless/harmful" knowledge thing to account for. As he mentioned, it's much more likely that the "free knowledge" bases would be nothing more than collections of useless trivia that couldn't be used to hurt a fly.

Anything that could possibly be used against The System, such as NBC weapons construction data, would stay hidden behind the firewalls of the goober-ments netwonks ;), safely out of the sight (and minds) of the sheeple.

As with all revolutions, virtual or otherwise, it's up to the people to organize and fight the battles themselves.

To strike a telling blow for the Peoples Democratic Internet Library (PDIL), you must arm yourself with the latest weapons (5+ Megapixel cameras), go to a target rich enviroment (library), and proceed with selective assassination of high-value targets (copying of decent books), making your kills known to all by posting the trophy heads (digitized files) for The System to see and fear.

Only then can the war be won.

Long live the PDIL! Glory to the People! ;)

[Nihilist]

As some of you may know, there are many password protected databases out there used by schools and colleges. However these sites are incredibly poorly protected. I'm not sure how much information relevant to explosives and weapons can really be gleaned from most of these(as they are intended for college or high school students, and not real scientists), but they have quite a bit of other information. And without further ado, some account names and passwords.

The EBSCO databases
http://search.epnet.com/login.asp?group=empire
Username: pioneerchs
password: pioneerchs

Britannica Online
http://members.eb.com
user ID : !@#Ramona
password: Ktwelve

Proquest
http://www.bellhowell.infolearning.com/proquest
username: 07SNXJX2C9
password: WELCOME
username: BRV3G3S8V6
password: WELCOME
username: 0039KJK4DB
password: WELCOME
password: 87TFK6VCPC
Password: WELCOME


Junior Reference Collection @GaleGroup
http://www.galenet.com/servlet/ProdList?q=aber60151
LIBRARY ID: aber60151

World Book Online
http://tryit.worldbookonline.com/
username: straighta
password: student

Grolier Online
http://go.grolier.com:80/
username: casls
password: casls
Spanish edition :
username: Top
password: dog

Infotrac
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/york28503
Password: york_log


http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo/accountlogin
Username: malory
PW: welcome

Electric Library EDUMark
http://www.elibrary.com/s/edumark/
User: SUBCHJWJ06417
Pass: 12345

INET Library
http://www.inetlibrary.com/
User: BCHJWJ06417
Pass: 12345

The Shared Library Network
http://tln.lib.mi.us/epass/

library barcode id #'s

29082000000000
29082016582640
29082019566871
29082016576048
29082005916882
29082007333185
29082002317563
29082005913467
29082016573003
29082007279552
29082011035800
29082016566148
29082005896639
29082014197557
29082014191519
29082014219633
29082005898502

SIRS Database
http://www.sirs.com
Customer #: CECIL
Password: County

World Book Online
http://www.worldbookonline.com
User: Cecil1
Password: county


Some of these accounts may be out of date(though most of them worked the last time I checked which was a couple of weeks ago), so if you see any that don't work, please tell me and i'll try to find one that does, or just take it off the list.

[darkdontay]

Having been using ProQuest, Grolier Online at College for a while now, I can tell you empheticaly, NO. If you are doing a research paper and need some sources yes. Otherwise, they are not of much help. They are designed more for writing research papers and thesises, then any real hard information. But hey they are allways fun to browse through. I try to go on an search for random related topics to items discussed here. Sometimes you can land on a nice article that sends you down the road to some fun reading.

Though I would have to say that they serve more as a refernce poiunt for mainstream articles on the subject then instructional education. Never shone away a source though, you never know when you might need it.