UPDATES:
Catching up on blog entries, we have some terrific material and thoughts being shared. Thanks to everyone for contributing and reading.

I’ve been able to meet with Brenda Cooper and Louise Marley in person, and Dave Kusek by phone in the past couple of weeks. They are all excited to attend. Brenda and Louise will be able to join us for the entire Think Tank. They will stay in the discussions, and Brenda will help with facilitating if needed.

Brenda’s first novel, with dean of Science Fiction Larry Niven is out this month. Title: Building Harlequin’s Moon. I am reading it now and it’s a great summer read. Earthborn people escape an over-technological earth but get stranded on the way to a new world. They have to build their own world, and in so doing must use the same technology they set out to escape, plus they have to birth a new civilization of moon-born. Thus they must come face-to-face with their own prejudices and fears.

Now some thoughts on the future, specifically the future of “search.”

Mark Anderson, publisher of Strategic News Service, recently did a newsletter called “What is Search?” I am going to paste in some of his letter here. What is the purpose of libraries, and librarians, if it is not to help with “search?”

Here is Mark….

Begin Quote from Strategic News Service, 02-15-2005

What is Search?

During a recent NPR interview I (Mark) shared this thought: Every task begins with a question.

A little more cogitation, and you finish it: And concludes with a document.

That document, almost always intended for communication, is where Microsoft lives: MS Word, Excel, Outlook Express, etc. You might say that MS Office has the back end down cold.

But what about the front end? Does every task begin with a question? And, if so, does that mean that Search is the beginning step of every task? Now That is Interesting.

If it’s true, and if we increasingly live in an AORTA (Always on real time access) world, then – every task starts with Search. Now that is big.

This isn’t just a bolt-on function, a menu-bar add-in, this is the front end of how we think and work. And, thanks to AORTA, That is why search is Search.

Is there more? Sure. [There was a time when] there was no Web, and getting things off your disk was less a problem, since disks were smaller. But diskspace per dollar has been outgrowing Moore’s Law ever since Alan Shugart joined the fray, and today we’re approaching moderately priced hard disks with capacities of several hundred gigabytes. Think of finding a needle on Mars.

Add in the Web, and that needle could be anywhere in the solar system. But there is a more compelling reason why search matters today: because the world’s content is searchable. Even five years ago, this was not true, in the sense that most of the world’s content was still in analog form. You might find the title of a book or paper, but probably wouldn’t have a complete digital copy of the work. Today we are well on the way to digitizing almost all content on the planet, from illuminated manuscripts to phone calls.

In other words, we have Reach. Every library, almost every book (just search Amazon, and the books within it - and now the streets of America, presented by streetfront photos), every Web page (via Alexa, Google, MSN Search, Yahoo!, Altavista, Dogpile, Lycos, Excite, Lexis/Nexis, etc.), every scientific article, all are reachable now, and so are searchable.

John Sculley seemed to think that the magic was in the device, in his case the video concept device Knowledge Navigator, apparently purloined from Robert Heinlein. But what Heinlein knew, that Sculley didn’t, was that it was the Library, the networked content, and not the device, that held the magic.

Today, every connected device is infinitely more useful than all of the Library of Alexandria, ancient or new.

The same is true for “news.” As I predicted earlier, we have now crossed the moment when broadcast networks held sway over the news. Today, the networks are used for propaganda (thank you, Mr. Murdoch), and, as difficult as it is, the real story will be found somewhere on the Net. (SNSer Dan Gillmor, a well-respected technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury for many years, having written a book on this subject has just launched his own new site and business to pursue it.)

Does Search do more than just fetch things back to us? Sure, it changes our business, and perhaps personal, landscape of connections. More important, it has caused us to turn to Search instead of the old ways. Yesterday, you might have found one of the cheaper saws in your neighborhood. Today, you can find the cheapest Hitachi 15″ compound miter saw within three hundred miles. This not only changes how those saws are sold, and who makes the money, but how you use roads (less) and shipping (more) and your own town (less) and how you even perceive your home turf.

For most of the people I know today, Amazon is just part of the new AORTA / Search neighborhood – unfortunate for small bookstores everywhere.

People talk about Google as if the word is interchangeable with Search, even though Yahoo! has almost as many users, and MSNSearch is now getting fired up. In fact, if you fire up the International Director of Search Engines, at http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/ you’ll notice search engine entries for each of 198 countries and 68 territories. The U.S. alone has listings for 130, and this number probably is short.

And not only does the Web searched today have Reach, it also has depth: almost every website has its own search function, finishing the arborization of the library-turned-brain.

So Search, unlike search, evolved to the time when it changes not only the world around us, but changes us, too.

Is it yet more?

Google has been pretty well managed so far. Let’s go back to that original idea, that every task starts with a question. With a little luck, that may mean that Google is the starting point for almost every project. Now here is the part I wonder about: once they have you, why should they let you go? They are already giving you email, the most common form of document, so they have most of the back end of this process covered: find something, communicate it.

If you were Microsoft, you’d have to be awfully nervous about that last paragraph, as I’m sure they are. Recent figures have Office users pegged at around 400MM. Do you know how many people use Google?

Trailing in search was one thing; trailing in Search will be another.

End Quote from Strategic News Service, 02-15-2005

What will be the role of libraries in the future of SEARCH?

Glen Hiemstra