Microsoft, libraries and open source

We are finally starting to see the early signs of transformation inscholarly publishing. The innovations we've been expecting for years areslowly being adopted, but we can also expect the pace of change toaccelerate in the coming 3 to 5 years. At the same time, many of ritualsand artifacts of the scholarly communication lifecycle are still rooted ina centuries-old model.  What are the primary goals of scholarlycommunication, and what will be the future role of librarians in thatcycle?  What are the obstacles in information flow (many of our owndesign) that can be removed?Is the library profession moving fast enough to stay ahead of the curve...or are we ever going to be struggling to keep up? With the advent of thedata deluge, all-XML workflows, the semantic Web, cloud servicesand increasingly intelligent mobile devices - what are the implicationsfor libraries, archivists, publishers, scholarly societies as well asindividual researchers and scholars? The opportunities are many - butcapitalizing on this ever-evolving landscape will require significantchanges to our field, changes that we are not currently well-positioned toenact. This talk will map the current scholarly communication landscape -highlighting recent exciting developments, and will focus on therepercussions and some specific recommendations for the broader field ofinformation management.About the speaker:Alex Wade is the Director for Scholarly Communication within Microsoft'sExternal Research division, where he oversees several projects related toresearcher productivity tools, semantic information capture, and theinteroperability of information systems. Alex holds a Bachelor's degree inPhilosophy from U.C. Berkeley, and a Masters of Librarianship degree fromthe University of Washington.During his career at Microsoft, Alex has managed the corporate search andtaxonomy management services; has shipped a SharePoint-based document andworkflow management solution for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; and served asSenior Program Manager for Windows Search in Windows Vista and Windows 7.Prior to joining Microsoft, Alex held Systems Librarian, EngineeringLibrarian, Philosophy Librarian, and technical library positions at theUniversity of Washington, the University of Michigan, and U.C. Berkeley.Web: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/awade/