Closing Keynote: All Things Distributed: Collaborations Beyond Infrastructure

In the inaugural keynote for ER&L 2006, I spoke about the future: a software-enabled world where computing infrastructure becomes a distributed baseline commodity like electricity, or water. This closing keynote will explore the possibilities inherent in library collaborations built on today's post-infrastructure reality. The readily-available distributed cloud computing environment simplifies and encourages virtual partnerships/organizations, shared computation and collaborative software development. The degree to which we as the library community, through strategic cultural and monetary investments, embrace and enable this distributed collaboration will shape the destiny of our libraries for years to come.