[open-bibliography] BibSoup/BibServer collaboration model?

Fri Feb 3 00:28:51 UTC 2012

Thad Guidry <thadguidry at gmail.com> wrote:

> There is a COST to collecting facts, however.  Each one of us on this list
> gets PAID for our time by our employers collecting various facts and even
> maintaining them.  Someone has to bear the cost of collecting and
> maintaining public facts, and others will want to form a business model in
> maintaining and improving the collection of those public facts.  I agree
> that Mendeley is not a public institution, and I also agree that Mendeley
> with good technological resources and ideas is allowed to form that
> business model.

Also agreed. However, I think we should preferentially assist those who develop business 
models for truly open data, such as MusicBrainz  from which we find:
http://musicbrainz.org/doc/About_MusicBrainz/Data_License
"The core data of the MusicBrainz dataset is placed into the Public Domain, which means that anyone can download and use the core data in any way they see fit."
while at the same time:
"MusicBrainz users give the MetaBrainz Foundation the right to license this data for commercial 
use. The income from these licenses keeps MusicBrainz running and covers the paychecks of paid MusicBrainz developers."
It takes some imagination to develop a business model for collecting and maintaining public facts without unnecessary licensing restrictions, but it can be done, and OKF should encourage those efforts.
--Jim
----------------------------------------------
Jim Pitman
Professor of Statistics and Mathematics
University of California
367 Evans Hall # 3860
Berkeley, CA 94720-3860

ph: 510-642-9970  fax: 510-642-7892
e-mail: pitman at stat.berkeley.edu
URL: http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/users/pitman