I stumbled across this article today. I love history written this way; spanning ages and cultures. Real big picture stuff. So while I wait for a chance to visit Japan and the rest of Asia, (tall order - I know). I'll keep search the net.
Where are all archives going to live? and who will tend to them? preserve them?
Archiving books starts to look easy once you think about multimedia requirements.
But given today's Irrational Exuberance with IP - how they'll exist beyond the paywall is a perhaps the more pertinent questions.