On Fri, 12 Nov 2004, Marcello Perathoner wrote:
Karen Lofstrom wrote:
The problem lieth not within PG. It lieth within Academia.
I must agree. Academia is perhaps the worst when it comes to the "not invented here," syndome. . .and it pays the price by lagging behind.
If you don't want to cater to scholars, you're throwing away much of DP's work.
Its not our problem. Any amount of catering will not do away with Academias perceived "limitations" of electronic media.
That is, until they take over the eBooks, and claim them as their own.
If you don't want to cater to scholars, you're throwing away much of DP's work.
If we cater to scholars, we are only expanding the "digital divide," so to speak. Our goal is to provide a large viable library to all, not just to the scholars, who represent less than 1% of the people, and are often very elitist. The real value of the work lies in making it available to the masses, not to the scholars. If we can increase literacy by even 10%, we make more difference than if we cater to the scholars.
The best value for Academia (and the least work for us) would be just to include the page scans. Any transcription you make will fall short of the requirements of some scholar. I think we should use our time for producing more books for a general audience instead than producing Academia-certified editions of them.
Hear Hear! Michael