On-Line Practices of Data Base Producers

Page, J. & Sichra, U. (1978). On-Line Practices of Data Base Producers. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-78-007

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Abstract

This Working Paper reports on a study undertaken by us as a private venture for the Commission of the European Communities. The subject-matter is however closely related to the sub-task, International Data Exchange, included in the 1977 research plan of the Computer Science Group: one of the main areas of international data exchange at the scientific and technical level is the interactive interrogation of computer bibliographic and fact databases. During the present decade this has grown from insignificant levels to become an international business in North America and Europe with a total utilization of several hundred thousand hours of terminal connections per year.

At a Workshop on International Data Exchange held by IIASA at Toronto in August 1977, to identify the critical issues for research in this general field, economic issues scored the highest individual rating, and it is evident that such problems may have a determining effect on future growth-rates, particularly outside the industrialized regions.

The study reported here was essentially a fact-finding exercise on one aspect of the economics of scientific and technical information flows, that of the relation between charges to users and charges levied by the producers of scientific and technical information databases for the use of computerized versions of their products. Other important aspects remain open, in particular the influence of the changing policies of international carriers and telecommunication administrations on total user costs, the economies of scale to be obtained from multi database operators etc.

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