TUESDAY'S KEYNOTE (ToolKit B for 671)

The keynote address was given by Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan.  As an expert on the history of media, he has written a book about Google's lofty mission to, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." He asked us to think about such a presumptuous statement and what it means.  Google has partnered with many agencies and libraries in order to digitize their collections.  Is it safe for us to trust all of the world's collected knowledge in the hands of one company that may or may not make it available for free use?  Also, because Google is constantly tracking our browsing habits and feeding us information, are we going to be able to access the information we want if Google doesn't want to give it to us?  Of course, this is a simplistic review of his talk, but Dr. Vaidhyanathan gave me a lot to think about. I picked up his book,  so I can read more.

On a separate note, Dr. Vaidhyanathan was unable to fly out of his hometown due to weather so the speech was conducted via Skype.  There were some internet connection problems that made the speech somewhat frustrating, but the Dr. and the ILF staff handled the problems calmly and with a good sense of humor.


Next Up:  THE EXHIBITION HALL and A Mountain of Free Candy




References

Company – Google. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from https://www.google.com/about/company/

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2011). The Googlization of everything: (and why we should worry). Updated ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.