Google Unites Europe
France's decision to create an online repository of European literature got critical backing from five other European nations this week when the heads of Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain joined French President Jacques Chirac in asking for support from the European Union.
European media reported that a letter signed by the leaders asks EU President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to coordinate the effort and, more importantly, cut a check to fund it. The letter comes after the national libraries of 19 European nations agreed to support the plan as well....
What France -- and soon Europe -- is doing is a good thing. To successfully digitize and place online the collected libraries of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden is no small feat. (Latvia, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus and the UK are still on the fence.) But it is a public works project with the highest goal in mind -- promoting knowledge around the world. We can only benefit by bringing so much invaluable literature online. That's why it is so strange that the European project was sparked by fear, a misplaced fear at that....
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042900432.html
-- ----------------------------------- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media & Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com ----------------------------------- _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
