Bill Gates’ Carnegie act: Can he be AC for real now that he is retiring from full-time work at Microsoft?

June 27th, 2008

Bill Gates’ Carnegie act: Can he be AC for real now that he is retiring from full-time work at Microsoft?

Some in the press love to liken Bill Gates to Andrew Carnegie, Mr. Free Library, who funded more than 2,500 of ‘em.

Can Gates be Carnegie for real? Now that he is retiring from full-time duties at Microsoft—check out this hoot of a Wired mashup—let me pass on some totally unsolicited advice for Mr. Not-So-Free Software.

Three friendly Carnegie tips

Here are three e-book-related ways in which he could embrace Carnegie ideals in a modern context. I know. Bill will still have Microsoft ties that could compromise him, but at least his Inner Carnegie can enjoy a little more independence than before. And now the three ways:

Way #1: Start paying for e-books for public library users. Come on, Bill. Your foundation’s endowment is a whopping $39B or so. Can’t you set aside a conspicuous percentage of the endowment to purchase library e-books? Maybe even buy up the copyrights and release them into the wilds? Andrew Carnegie might not have given away steel, but in your place, he might very well have considered e-book purchases for libraries, with fair compensation for writers and publishers.

There are other ways, too, of spreading around books and other content, such as permanent checkouts. Readers, especially children, will show more interest in books they can keep; help library users build their own personal libraries. I’m biased, as a reader and writer, but, yes, I think that books are special as encouragers of sustained thoughts and much else. Still have those several copies of The Great Gatsby in your mansion? Good! Mightn’t that be Book Number One that you released into the wild in E format—with fair compensation to his heirs?

Way #2: Get the Gates foundation behind e-book standards—to be exact, ePub. You can’t trust e-book for the long run if formats are going to keep changing. Will the foundation care more about libraries and schools or about Microsoft’s bottom line? And isn’t it possible that the Tower of eBabel could hurt even Microsoft? Standards might reduce Microsoft’s share of the pie but mean a much larger pie.

Way #3. Think about a shift from DRM to digital watermarks and other alternatives. DRM is why I wasted more than 90 minute last night trying to get my Cybook to work with the Fairfax County (VA) library system’s e-books. Oh, how DRM tortures library users and reduces the trustworthiness of books as a permanent medium! If not watermarking, how about other alternatives such as timed, browser-based access? The man in the photo with James Bryce, 1st Viscount, probably would have looked askance at DRM, business’s assault on literature.

I’d also suggest that Bill Gates consider sponsorship of open source projects for e-book-reading and creation software, but even in the realm of dreams, I know that’s stretching it too far.

Happy kind-of retirement, Bill, and enjoy this shot of a Carnegie-funded library in Macomb, Illinois. Yes, that’s a tangible building. But with the right approach—funding of nonDRMed books that families can keep forever—the benefits from your donations just might outlast the brick and mortar.