Microsoft, libraries and open source
by
We are finally starting to see the early signs of transformation in
scholarly publishing. The innovations we've been expecting for years are
slowly being adopted, but we can also expect the pace of change to
accelerate in the coming 3 to 5 years. At the same time, many of rituals
and artifacts of the scholarly communication lifecycle are still rooted in
a centuries-old model. What are the primary goals of scholarly
communication, and what will be the future role of librarians in that
cycle? What are the obstacles in information flow (many of our own
design) that can be removed?
Is the library profession moving fast enough to stay ahead of the curve...
or are we ever going to be struggling to keep up? With the advent of the
data deluge, all-XML workflows, the semantic Web, cloud services
and increasingly intelligent mobile devices - what are the implications
for libraries, archivists, publishers, scholarly societies as well as
individual researchers and scholars? The opportunities are many - but
capitalizing on this ever-evolving landscape will require significant
changes to our field, changes that we are not currently well-positioned to
enact. This talk will map the current scholarly communication landscape -
highlighting recent exciting developments, and will focus on the
repercussions and some specific recommendations for the broader field of
information management.
About the speaker:
Alex Wade is the Director for Scholarly Communication within Microsoft's
External Research division, where he oversees several projects related to
researcher productivity tools, semantic information capture, and the
interoperability of information systems. Alex holds a Bachelor's degree in
Philosophy from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters of Librarianship degree from
the University of Washington.
During his career at Microsoft, Alex has managed the corporate search and
taxonomy management services; has shipped a SharePoint-based document and
workflow management solution for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; and served as
Senior Program Manager for Windows Search in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Alex held Systems Librarian, Engineering
Librarian, Philosophy Librarian, and technical library positions at the
University of Washington, the University of Michigan, and U.C. Berkeley.