Friends: There is a culture war brewing in Europe! The French are mobilizing Europeans to bring all their books on open access, as they feel the Google project is favouring English language books. We have a rich heritage of literature and scholarly work in many Indian languages such as Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam. And we have abundant computing and software talent. Should we in India not mount a similar initiative to provide open access to all that is graet and wonderful in ALL Indian languages? Will Balki at IISc, Ramki at C-DAC, and Badri and Satya at Kizhakku Pathipagam and many others from different parts of India take up the challenge? Will the Ministry of HRD, Sahitya Akademi and similar other organizations come forward to support such a projet. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ----- French response to Google library project When we left off, Jean-Noël Jeanneney, former French secretary of state for communications and the current President of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), had criticized the Google library project for Anglo-American bias and called on France to launch a comparable program. His words are having an effect. Reuters reports that French President Jacques Chirac has asked the BNF to draw up plans for a similar digitization program. Quoting Reuters: 'Chirac asked Jeanneney and France's culture minister to look at ways "in which the collections of the great libraries in France and Europe could be made more widely and more quickly accessible by Internet," Chirac's office said in a statement. Chirac would seek support among other European countries in the coming weeks for a bigger, coordinated push to get Europe's literary works online....Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said the French move was not a direct challenge to Google's project. "It is simply the wish for a diversity of influence," he said.' The BBC is reporting the same news. Quoting the BBC: '[Chirac] held a meeting in Paris with Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Mr Jeanneney on Wednesday to discuss the project...."Because of France and Europe's exceptional cultural heritage, they must play a key role" in the development of the internet, Mr Chirac said.' More coverage. (PS: Google's library project was already admirable. If it starts a new code war, sending files across the globe and developing digital arsenals ready for launch at a moment's notice, then it will be even more admirable. France is right to fight bits with bits, to recognize a digitization gap, and to escalate its cultural scan. Who's next?)ct? Friends: There is a culture war brewing in Europe! The French are mobilizing Europeans to bring all their books on open access, as they feel the Google project is favouring English language books. We have a rich heritage of literature and scholarly work in many Indian languages such as Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam. And we have abundant computing and software talent. Should we in India not mount a similar initiative to provide open access to all that is graet and wonderful in ALL Indian languages? Will Balki at IISc, Ramki at C-DAC, and Badri and Satya at Kizhakku Pathipagam and many others from different parts of India take up the challenge? Will the Ministry of HRD, Sahitya Akademi and similar other organizations come forward to support such a projet. Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam] ----- French response to Google library project [A] When we http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/03-02-05.htm#jeanneney left off , Jean-Noël Jeanneney, former French secretary of state for communications and the current President of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), had https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/1675.html criticized the http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html Google library project for Anglo-American bias and called on France to launch a comparable program. His words are having an effect. Reuters http://news.com.com/Paris+match+for+Googles+library+plan/2100-1025_3-5622858... reports that French President Jacques Chirac has asked the BNF to draw up plans for a similar digitization program. Quoting Reuters: 'Chirac asked Jeanneney and France's culture minister to look at ways "in which the collections of the great libraries in France and Europe could be made more widely and more quickly accessible by Internet," Chirac's office said in a statement. Chirac would seek support among other European countries in the coming weeks for a bigger, coordinated push to get Europe's literary works online....Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said the French move was not a direct challenge to Google's project. "It is simply the wish for a diversity of influence," he said.' The BBC is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4358871.stm reporting the same news. Quoting the BBC: '[Chirac] held a meeting in Paris with Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Mr Jeanneney on Wednesday to discuss the project...."Because of France and Europe's exceptional cultural heritage, they must play a key role" in the development of the internet, Mr Chirac said.' http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-46,GGLD:en&q=Jeanneney+Chirac+Google More coverage . (PS: Google's library project was already admirable. If it starts a new code war, sending files across the globe and developing digital arsenals ready for launch at a moment's notice, then it will be even more admirable. France is right to fight bits with bits, to recognize a digitization gap, and to escalate its cultural scan. Who's next?) ct?