Museion or Vault Universal or Hetairoi It Depends

Museion or Vault? Universal or Hetairoi? It Depends on Accessibility Nayel Shafei Enkido Nov. 2006

The News of My Demise is Greatly Exaggerated • In 391 AD, The Museion and Serapium of Bibliotheca Alexandrina were sacked, demolished, and its priest, Hypatia, killed. Eusebius (d. 410), Socrates Scholasticus (d. 460) “Ecclesiastical HISTORY”, and taught by Two escaped heraitoi grammaticians • Still in 550 AD, Byzantine Emperor, John Paleiologos IV, evidently unaware of the demise of B. A. , sent emissaries to copy books from B. A. , a deeply respected, but distant institution. ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Why Am I Here? • Only provider of OC-768. – Offering NBC News Library to NBC affiliates (Nippon TV, Univision, …) over 1. 5 Gbps HDTV. • Member of the Evaluation Board of US National Library of Medicine • Co-Founder of Internet-2 • Supporting Wikipedia (Arabic, Coptic, Japanese) ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Universal Libraries In The Age of the Internet • Catalyst & Depository of Digital Content – Problems: • Ave. Lifespan of a digital-content website is 2 -3 years. • Lack of Exposure to other civilizations’ views of the same subject. – Solution: • Adopt Wikipedia of local languages (B. A. : Arabic, Coptic, Nubian) • Proactively obtain authorization from content owners • Depository of New Books – Problem: Books don’t sell. – Solution: Put them online, Compensate through “Public Lending Rights”. • Depository of Heritage Books – Problem: Scattered efforts for scanning, with no publishing. – Solution: Master library for all scanned and digitized heritage books. • Venue for Interaction of Civilizations – Resurrect the Fellowship of the Library. – Encourage two-way Translations ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Museion with Universal Broadcast • B. A. should not acquiesce to be a time vault. It rather should revive its role as a Museion, a place for thinking with a system of fellowships. • To avoid the insularity of the Hetairoi, the closely knit fellows, B. A. should proactively spread all its content and activities through unhindered broadband access to the universe. ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Financial Model • Public Lending Rights • Continuing Medical Education – Bethesda System for pathologists – National Library of Medicine’s “Pub Med” – Arabian Board, Eg. M. o. Health • Genome Library – For local species (Gujarat Cotton vs. Monsanto) • News Clearing House – For regional TV stations ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Role of Bandwidth • In the Age of the Internet, a Library does not have to own a copy of the content, as long as it can network into it. • Bandwidth is Central for a Digital Library – Internet Archive needs 2 Gbps • Continuing Medical Education requires OC -12 (622 Mbps) ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

How to Get Bandwidth • Pay for it, Or • Legislate the appropriation of a share (~5%) of Fiber passing through Egypt for Commons use (Libraries, Education, Medicine) • In 1999, Global Crossing signed an agreement to pay $10, 000 a year to pass through the Suez Canal. • Enkido pays $64, 000 a month to enter a single building in New York City. • B. A. pays $1. 8 m for 15 -yr IRU on a STM-1 plus $0. 5 m annual maintenance, = $0. 8 m a year. • There are ~12, 000 STM-1 that pass through Egypt ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Wasted Revenue/Bandwidth • Cable Owners can pay in kind (bandwidth for libraries, schools) or in cash. • Egypt is wasting $750 million annual revenue on Cables passing through Egypt. – Using FCC & City of New York Fees – Based on 12, 000 STM-1 (Telegeography 2006 assessment, ± 20%) – $2 Billion a year by 2016 ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Revenue of Cables Passing Through Egypt 2007 STM-1 12, 000 Regulatory $43 m ROW $360 m Maint. $300 m Regen. $43 m Total 746 m 2010 26, 364 $95 m $450 m $421 m $60 m $1. 03 Billion 2017 165, 000 $596 m $660 m $814 m $117 m $2. 19 Billion Regulatory: $1. 47/DS 0 (FCC), ROW: $20/ft (NYC), Maint. : $50 K/km (NOAA), Regen: $300 K/month/station ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Commons Policy • Municipalities, including the City of New York offers the franchise of laying fiber for a fee combined with the condition of getting a share (~5%) of the fiber for Commons use (Education, Libraries, Hospitals, etc. ) ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

Public Lending Rights • A system used by public libraries in Europe, and other countries, since 1946, to compensate book authors based on number of times a book is checked out. • B. A. should be the leader in offering an online version of PLR. • PLR may save publishing in dormant languages ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

We Need to Move Fast • Or else ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13

nayel. shafei@enkido. com ICUDL ’ 06 Nayel Shafei Slide /13