[open-bibliography] New sample of BL data available

[MJ Ray]

Oliver Flimm wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 08, 2010 at 12:09:47PM +0100, Deliot, Corine wrote:
> > You're correct, the datasets are for non-commercial users for research
> > purposes only.
> 
> I guess the inherent question is: Why should anybody put a lot of/any
> effort into the datasets - eg. augment its usefulness with the
> combination of other *free* datasets - considering its limited further
> use/audience - eg. no Wikipedia et al?

Yes, that's exactly right.  For example, the co-op does donate time,
effort and money to community projects, but this sort of
anti-commercial action by the British Library contradicts our
principles of autonomy and widening economic participation, so we
shouldn't support it.

Why isn't a national organisation like bl.uk supporting the new
ukgov Big Society and mutualisation agendas?  The government is
the BL's main source of income, after all, so it's disappointing
that the data isn't being freed for mutuals and VCSes too.

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
Webmaster, Debian Developer, Past Koha RM, statistician, former lecturer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha