Press: “DPLA Plenary: First, Second Session”

“I’m at what is in effect the public launch of the Digital Public Library of America — ‘in effect’ because the DPLA has been open to all from the beginning. But today we’re in the theater of the National ARchives and have just been greeted by the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero.

“I spent yesterday at the ‘workstream’ meetings of the DPLA. The openness of the DPLA has meant that there has been no moment at which all have agreed on precisely what the DPLA should be. Yesterday could have been a day that had people walking apart from one another or walking toward a center as yet to be fully located. It was a day of walking toward that emergent center. Given the continuing significant differences in the group, my sense that the convergence was enabled by a shared sense of the value of what we could build, by shared interests and backgrounds (a bunch of librarians and admirers of librarians), and by the carefully crafting of the day’s events and processes. (That last goes to the credit of the Berkman Center.)”

From David Weinberger’s liveblog posts on Joho the Blog, DPLA Plenary, DPLA First Session, DPLA Second Session