Doc's discussion of Printwash is currently #2 on Blogdex. It deserves to be #1. After all, #1 is that truly mindless tale in the Times of blogs and privacy. (Go find it yrself if you care.)
Here's Doc:
Okay, now consider your local library. Look at the periodicals section, the periodicals stacks, all those nearly unsearchable microfiches, and all those Readers Guides to Periodical Literature. You're looking at a system that deeply respects not only the printed word, but the requirement that everything be both sourced, and find-able.
On the whole, blogs are highly compliant with the ethics of the periodicals section, the ethics of the stacks, the ethics of sourcing and archiving, the ethics of giving credit where due.
The bottom line: In the age of the Web, the practice of charging for access to digital archives is a collossal anachronism. It's time for The New York Times and the other papers to step forward, join the real world and correct the problem. Expose the archives. Give them permanent URLs. Let in the bots. Let their writers, and their reputations, accept the credit they are constantly given and truly deserve.
Google is a public space in which a mob is milling that will tear down the walls, and sack the archives, returning to the public domain what was stolen. As prisoners were once released in Paris from the Bastille, so the Reporters for the Times will be released from the Times Business Model, in short, from Wealth Bondage.
Google is the Wheel on which we break the Old Business Model, until it confesses its Sins and gives up the ghost, as the milling mob cheers itself hoarse, and reaches for bits of hair, flesh, and bone as souvenirs of this Glorious Day -- Freedom! Freedom from Spiritual Bondage to Brands! More...
Google is getting a lot of pressure from its advertisers to "devalue" webloggers and push them down. The fact that when you search for "NEC Tablet" and you find me, for instance, might really piss off NEC. Since NEC advertises on Google, Google has more reason to listen to them than it does to listen to me.
This will be important to follow - there is always this pressure. It has ruined public communication in the realm of book publishing, newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV. Will it undo Google?
Hey Jeneane - I think the meeting you describe is being replicated in a lot of places all over the place. For the moment, blogging is the phenom, and lots of people who like to think they can make money out of anything that's "hot" are wondering how they missed this and what they can do with it. They should listen to you. More on this to come. Just wanted to say hey.
