Library predictions for 2007
I'll be in Seattle next weekend during ALA midwinter. I just saw FRL's library prediction for 2007 so I thought I'd try some too.
-
eIFL-FOSS will have a major impact.
Listen to this if you want to know why and how.
-
Some project benefiting from the combinatorial potential of F(L)OSS in libraries will have greater impact than any particular library FLOSS project.
It might be some new project that sticks stuff together in a new and mindblowing way. It might be a few existing projects like the umlaut and LibraryFind mashing together to great effect (film at 11 :). It might be a vendor polishing up and supporting some existing package and gaining a ton of customers thinking "hey, so long as we're here, why don't we just add Foo and Bar?" and then doing so. It could be Library-in-a-Box (see #1 above).
I can assure you, though, that when it happens, FLOSS will suddenly be acclaimed as an overnight success.
-
Some big corporation will acquire a library.
There could be any number of reasons -- rights to rare materials, cozying up to an institution, entrance into the library services market by a major conglomerate, or maybe all these and more -- and it will probably be cloaked in "sponsorship" terminology rather than M&A-speak, but it'll be a purchase, not a donation, and it'll scare the hell out of a lot of people.
That's all I can think of for now.
Post new comment