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Museion is a universal library for the digital age, offering access to a vast collection of digital content, promoting intercultural exchange, and supporting various initiatives, such as public lending rights and continuing medical education. It aims to revive the fellowship of the library and provide unhindered broadband access to its content and activities.
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Museion or Vault?Universal or Hetairoi?It Depends on Accessibility Nayel Shafei Enkido Nov. 2006
The News of My Demise is Greatly Exaggerated • In 391 AD, The Museion and Serapium of Bibliotheca Alexandrina were sacked, demolished, and its priest,Hypatia, killed. Eusebius (d.410), Socrates Scholasticus (d. 460) “Ecclesiastical HISTORY”, and taught by Two escaped heraitoi grammaticians • Still in 550 AD, Byzantine Emperor, John Paleiologos IV, evidently unaware of the demise of B.A., sent emissaries to copy books from B.A., a deeply respected, but distant institution.
Why Am I Here? • Only provider of OC-768. • Offering NBC News Library to NBC affiliates (Nippon TV, Univision, …) over 1.5 Gbps HDTV. • Member of the Evaluation Board of US National Library of Medicine • Co-Founder of Internet-2 • Supporting Wikipedia (Arabic, Coptic, Japanese)
Universal Libraries In The Age of the Internet • Catalyst & Depository of Digital Content • Problems: • Ave. Lifespan of a digital-content website is 2-3 years. • Lack of Exposure to other civilizations’ views of the same subject. • Solution: • Adopt Wikipedia of local languages (B.A.: Arabic, Coptic, Nubian) • Proactively obtain authorization from content owners • Depository of New Books • Problem: Books don’t sell. • Solution: Put them online, Compensate through “Public Lending Rights”. • Depository of Heritage Books • Problem: Scattered efforts for scanning, with no publishing. • Solution: Master library for all scanned and digitized heritage books. • Venue for Interaction of Civilizations • Resurrect the Fellowship of the Library. • Encourage two-way Translations
Museion with Universal Broadcast • B.A. should not acquiesce to be a time vault. It rather should revive its role as a Museion, a place for thinking with a system of fellowships. • To avoid the insularity of the Hetairoi, the closely knit fellows, B.A. should proactively spread all its content and activities through unhindered broadband access to the universe.
Financial Model • Public Lending Rights • Continuing Medical Education • Bethesda System for pathologists • National Library of Medicine’s “Pub Med” • Arabian Board, Eg. M.o. Health • Genome Library • For local species (Gujarat Cotton vs. Monsanto) • News Clearing House • For regional TV stations
Role of Bandwidth • In the Age of the Internet, a Library does not have to own a copy of the content, as long as it can network into it. • Bandwidth is Central for a Digital Library • Internet Archive needs 2 Gbps • Continuing Medical Education requires OC-12 (622 Mbps)
How to Get Bandwidth • Pay for it, Or • Legislate the appropriation of a share (~5%) of Fiber passing through Egypt for Commons use (Libraries, Education, Medicine) • In 1999, Global Crossing signed an agreement to pay $10,000 a year to pass through the Suez Canal. • Enkido pays $64,000 a month to enter a single building in New York City. • B.A. pays $1.8 m for 15-yr IRU on a STM-1 plus $0.5 m annual maintenance, = $0.8 m a year. • There are ~12,000 STM-1 that pass through Egypt
Wasted Revenue/Bandwidth • Cable Owners can pay in kind (bandwidth for libraries, schools) or in cash. • Egypt is wasting $750 million annual revenue on Cables passing through Egypt. • Using FCC & City of New York Fees • Based on 12,000 STM-1 (Telegeography 2006 assessment, ±20%) • $2 Billion a year by 2016
Revenue of Cables Passing Through Egypt Regulatory: $1.47/DS0 (FCC), ROW: $20/ft (NYC), Maint.: $50K/km (NOAA), Regen: $300K/month/station
Commons Policy • Municipalities, including the City of New York offers the franchise of laying fiber for a fee combined with the condition of getting a share (~5%) of the fiber for Commons use (Education, Libraries, Hospitals, etc.)
Public Lending Rights • A system used by public libraries in Europe, and other countries, since 1946, to compensate book authors based on number of times a book is checked out. • B.A. should be the leader in offering an online version of PLR. • PLR may save publishing in dormant languages
We Need to Move Fast • Or else