Federal Scanning Commission, ook in Nederland?

We are not necessarily suggesting that the federal government immediately undertake an ambitious effort to scan the holdings of .gov, but if we ever hope to begin even a small piece of making available our past for use by our future, we should at least begin to scope out the size of the problem. We believe it would require a decade-long commitment to digitization to make our nation's cultural, scientific, educational, and historical resources available, but we can't even begin that discussion unless we know how big the problem is. Such an effort is indeed ambitious to contemplate, but we can only ask if we were able to put a man on the moon, why can't we launch the Library of Congress into cyberspace?

Nieuws van Karl Malamud, de man die de International Amateur Scanning League oprichtte. Hij pleit voor een "Federal Scanning Commission" die binnen een jaar de volgende vragen moet beantwoorden:

1. What are the holdings of our national institutions? How many images, documents, videos, and other objects are there?
2. How long would it take to digitize these materials?
3. How much would it cost given current technology? Is there directed research or are there economies of scale that would bring those costs down?
4. What is the strategy for digital preservation of these materials? How will we avoid digital obsolescence?
5. What is the strategy for identifying restrictions on use of the material? How does one identify and safeguard materials that have copyright restrictions, contain personally identifiable information, or contain classified materials?
6. What are the economic and non-economic benefits of such an effort?
• What are the cost savings to government?
• What are the economic benefits? Would this effort industries that build on top of scientific and technical information, spur innovation in the legal marketplace, or enable our creative industries to create more effectively?
• What are the non-economic benefits? Will such an effort lead to better STEM and other educational efforts? Will it promote a more informed citizenry and better access to justice?

Kijk, dat zijn de betere ambities: binnen een jaar antwoorden op de meest cruciale vragen om binnen tien jaar alles gedigitaliseerd te hebben.

En weet je, dit past redelijk binnen de Archiefvisie van de staatssecretaris.
Wat als we een deel van die innovatiegelden nou eens aan een vergelijkbaar onderzoek besteden?

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Amateur scanners aller landen verenigt u
Daar is hij dan, de #archiefvisie

Plaatje: Rogue Archivist van Justgrimes