Zooming interface -- my 5 cents worth

Alan Kay Alan.Kay at disney.com
Sun Feb 25 20:02:12 UTC 2001


Richard --

At 5:49 PM +1300 2/23/01, Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
>	So my claim here is that via what libraries are for, it should not be
>	difficult to find out what has existed over the last 40 years, nor
>	should it be difficult to get it. Compare this with other fields, the
>	relatively small amount of stuff done since 1960, the tremendous ease
>	of copying using xerox machines, video tapes, digital media and
>	communication. If you can't find it readily then there is something
>	wrong with the larger university processes re computer "science" (and
>	I suspect there may just be).
>
>Can you say
>
>  - funding cuts
>  - skyrocketing journal prices
>  - a dollar that catches cold every time America sneezes?

I can say lots of things, but sometimes I can even rise above 
enormous temptations ....

>
>I knew you could.  The will is there, the skill is there, but the money ain't.

A very large number of difficulties blamed on "money problems" are 
actually better attributed to failures of imagination, planning, and 
cooperation.

For example, there are at least 1000 college and universities in the 
US that grant degrees in "Computer Science" (I've heard there are as 
many as 4000 -- a frightening number).

A video tape e.g. of a history talk I gave about user interfaces that 
has lots of old footage in it can usually be purchased for around 
$30, and often can be gotten for free if someone is willing to copy 
it. Students work for about $15-$25/hour. So we are talking about $50 
max to buy and digitize this tape to put on the Internet. This means 
each university library only has to chip in about 50/1000 = $ .05 to 
get that tape on the net for the entire world to see.

There are probably not more than 2000 pieces of old film from 1955 to 
1985. I think that means that each US university library only has to 
chip in about $100 total to get the whole lot on the net. No one 
would have to even burden the rest of the world to pay anything 
except net hookup charges to get any of this.

>But they're huge files and it will take forever to download.

But we'll supply thumbnail versions for perusal at no cost as a 
byproduct of the digitizing process.

That this hasn't been done by university libraries sounds like a 
failure of "imagination, planning, and coorperation" to me. It by no 
means is a money problem, even if my calculations are off by a factor 
of 100 (they aren't).

Just to help matters along, I am going to donate a chunk of money to 
the Computer Museum at Ames Laboratory to hire some students and 
start digitizing (they've already done quite a bit) and uploading 
their extensive library of footage. I will also donate copies of 
anything I have that they don't to round our their collection a 
little.

If we wait for libraries to actually deal with the current realities 
of the situation, we will be waiting a very long time.

Cheers,

Alan






More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list