I’ve just read a number of posts about MIT’s decision to cancel their subscription to the Society of Automotive Engineers’ web-based database of technical papers.  I’ve groused about both SAE’s control based approach to their content, and to a lesser extent the IEEE. Shouldn’t government funded research be freely available? This blog is my small attempt to encourage the "knowledge should be free" movement. Companies should be paid for products that add context and value to basic knowledge, but the knowledge itself should be available. Let me explain:

• Many engineering research companies subscribe to Engineering Information Village’s Compendex database. At it’s most basic level, Compendex is just a database of engineering research abstracts. However, Engineering Village enhances the value with add-in’s like tagging.
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• If one knows how to do research, the same basic data found within Compendex is available via Google Scholar, and other sources. Here are examples … these are both screencasts I created:
  • Google Alert + Google + RSS = Knowledge
  • Google Book Search Screencast

In summation, I hope that web collaboration trends & tools will eventually spell doom to the closed access approach. Here are two final examples … from the world of wikis (both from wikia.com). Both wikis are in their early stages:

• Engineering Wiki
• Science Wiki

Finally, my initial reference points for this blog entry were:

• It’s all about ease of access to the content (Rafael Sidi)
  (and)
• MIT Refuses DRM; SAE Digital Library Canceled (Randy Reichardt)

Major Ben Danielson is finally coming home from Vietnam … he is a MIA no more. There will be a memorial service in Kenyon, Minnesota on June 15th and 16th. If you would like more information about the memorial service, which I plan to attend, please contact me at: rhoeg@comcast.net.

This posting relates to House of Hope Lutheran’s Freedom Tree (see thumbnails, click to view expanded). The tree ultimately introduced me to Major Danielson’s son, Brian, who I now consider a friend. Brian is a pilot with the USN. The aircraft photos from the USS Nimitz (see right hand margin) are from him.

• House of Hope Freedom Tree / The Story of Major Danielson

Here are excerpts from an email I just received from Brian:

"This is to provide some noteworthy information in regard to Major Ben Danielson (my father, and my mother’s husband). For those of you who weren’t aware, he was shot down over Laos on December 5th, 1969. His shoot down prompted an odyssey which has produced some recent revelations.

Based on the results of my trip to the Ban Phanop area of Laos with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, combined with the positive DNA matching of returned remains, we have decided to close my father’s case and accept the remains recovered by the government. This decision is a contingency that we had really ever expected and a type of divine intervention that reveals the power of God’s providence.

We invite friends and family, squadron mates, college friends, any current and past POW/MIA supporters, veterans of all wars past and present, and certainly seek the presence of anyone who participated in the Boxer 22 rescue. Our planned events will involve a military tribute ceremony with flyover, a Boxer 22 reunion, a dedicated time to debrief and share pictures of the recent trip to Mu Gia Pass, and will culminate in a funeral service dedicated to the life of the man. Our time frame will be in the 15th to 16th of June, 2007. We are sending this initial email to let you know the news, express our intentions, request your updated contact information, and ask you extend the information to those we may have unintentionally omitted."

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In August of last year I blogged about Motorola’s Web 2.0 efforts. Dan Bricklin (inventor of Visicalc) posted a podcast interview with Toby Redshaw (corporate VP with Motorola). At the time I was impressed with Motorola’s approach to propagating internal blogs and wikis.

I’m happy to report that Dan Bricklin has posted an update to Motorola’s efforts, including another podcast with Toby Redshaw.  Here are the links.  I’ll be listening to the podcast tomorrow (i.e. it’s time for bed in Minnesota)!

• Dan Bricklin’s Motorola Updates –  Blog Posting | Podcast

This is almost too hard to believe, but it’s true.  Have you been avoiding the IRS?  Did you take one too many tax deductions?  You may now send you anonymous avatar to the H&R Block Second Life Island.  There will actually be online tax discussions.  I guess knowledge isn’t free after all … open source guys need to pay their taxes too! Click upon the thumbnail for a larger image. My thanks to the Endless Innovation Blog, my source of this information.
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