What if we could all just switch sides?

Lots of people come here to give talks. It's like that in all big cities, but a citizen seriously committed to finding out as much as possible about a wide variety of topics could do a lot worse than sample what our city has to offer.

At San Francisco's Commonwealth Club Monday night, for example, a panel debated "The Future of Books."

One of the speakers was Dan Clancy, who is the chief engineer at Google Books, which is a controversial effort to scan millions of out of print books and make them available in digital form to anyone who wants to access them. (Most will have to be bought, but some will be free.)

One of the most prominent opponents of a proposed settlement of a class-action suit against this Google effort is Dr. Pamela Samuelson of U-C, Berkeley. She has demonstrated in a series of interventions how Google and the parties to the lawsuit could improve it for the good of all, but have not done so.

Clancy and Samuelson have obviously met often in public debating this issue and remain cordial and respectful toward one another. But they are also on an intellectual collision course, as the case wends its way through the courts.

Watching these two impressive people struggle with the issues that divide them got me to wondering: What if they switched sides? You know, like in Debate Club.

What if Google hired Samuelson and Berkeley hired Clancy.

Give them a year to get used to their new digs (and perks) and then have them meet again.

To tell you the truth, as I see it, neither of these two would change much. And, to be fair, their skill sets (she is an expert in law and copyright; he is an engineer) could not simply be swapped, so my fantasy could never, in fact, come true.

But the point is, from my experience, you argue from the interest that you represent. If your boss is a search engine, you are representing a search engine. A university is a slightly different kind of boss, but from my years inside Berkeley and Stanford, I can tell you there are certain pressures that come down from above there, as well.

Anyway, it was a nice event at the Commonwealth Club, which has been presenting lectures and panels for over a century now, here by the Bay.

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