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Re: January BNL cool article - why not on the web page?
Discussing JAKA in modern media...
"Donna M. Recktenwalt" wrote:
>
> Possible .. on the oversight bit. But we definitely would need to know just
> exactly what it was the BOT wants us to do, and what our final product
> should be. A "committee" of however many would need a guide bit of guidance
> on this. Let's keep talking ... donna
As always, Donna offers wise council! She should know better than to invite
*me* to keep talking, though. ;-)
I think it's exciting how the Klee article in the BNL triggered this whole
topic into a life of its own here. What is *most* refreshing is the eager
participation of BOT members and BNL Editor in the discussion. This is a
breath of fresh air compared to some of the ways things happened in the past
(with the members being treated like mushrooms).
I think spending AKA reserves to have the JAKAs all converted to CD by a
commercial service leaves a *lot* to be desired. The end product would be
out of the price range acceptable to most hobbyists, and the conversion
would be done by folks with no understanding, whatsoever, of the subject
matter. The risks are too high, IMHO.
I also think using Adobe Acrobat is a very bad idea, indeed. The results
would be essentially as inaccessible as they are now, and subject to the
whims of indexers who haven't the foggiest what *I* will want to know 5
years from now. Review the problems of the indices in the Baensch Atlas
series (1,2 and 3) if you want to see a small taste of what I mean. :-) What
a MESS! And those were done by *fish* experts, too.
I have no interest in someone else's index. I would want a searchable
document. Period. That would be most useful to the hobby and to the academic
world. We wouldn't be producing a sales catalog. We would be broadening the
distribution of killifish knowledge. There's a huge difference there.
IMHO, the intellectual property issues are mostly those of being sure the
costs of production and distribution can be fully recovered, so AKA *keeps*
the resources to continue such service to the hobby and the greater
community. To that end, doing conversion as a labor of love by knowledgeable
hobbyists could keep total cost way down and quality superb.
Using modern media where production costs are effectively zero and
distribution costs are nearly that, the AKA could conceivably make quite a
bit of money by providing the entire JAKA back issues for a few bucks (<$10)
for download and less than $20 on CDs. Copying, reprinting, etc. would still
be covered by copyright law, so making the information inaccessible seems to
defeat the very objectives of AKA to disseminate knowledge and improve the
world's understanding of killifish. I think all members who want them should
have (and be able to afford) all the back issues of JAKA/KN. It is within
our reach, I think.
Unlike past publications, where the BOT had to guess demand and stockpile
huge stacks of dead-tree product (which rapidly became stale), the risk is
extremely low as there is no need to accurately estimate demand in advance!
The risk/investment would be the time spent by volunteers doing the
conversions, and that could be spread around a bit and stretched out in time
to allow a decent learning curve to form.
I would like to offer a suggestion to the BOT. Devote initial resources only
to acquiring multiple sets of the back issues of JAKA and KN to provide
clean copies to all those, like Donna, who volunteer to do conversion to
modern media. Other, downstream, investment in server functionality to make
production flow smoothly might eventually be desirable, IDK.
Do some articles for inclusion on the web pages, BNL, etc. to get a flow
going and let folks doing it explore ways to make the conversion least
painful.
I'm a rotten typist and worse proofreader, so I have to admit my
limitations. That leads me to think, "Where I can make any contribution?" I
do have a system with two CDs, one of which is RW and the software to make
duplicating of CDs very easy, but in very limited quantity.
I would volunteer to do modest, ongoing production of CDs, at cost (probably
<$2ea plus postage) on my system as long as it was down in the 10-20/month
volume or less. I suspect that most will have CD-R, Zip, etc., capability by
the time the project gets done, so most production could be by download,
anyway. If many pre-orders were taken before publication date, the AKA BOT
might choose to spring for a modest commercial run of CDs, knowing costs
would be totally recovered on those particular sales.
There will be tons of problems to overcome on how to convert pictures and
incorporate them, whether to completely retype the text into a word
processor or use OCR, how to copy the latest KMI into spell checkers, what
word-processor format makes sense, etc. The process will certainly need an
editor-in-chief to decide whether to duplicate or correct original JAKA
mistakes (or mark them?), to coordinate formats from one translator to
another, etc. [Donna?]
I think it's a worthy task to start small and cautious, but eventually aim
to have all of JAKA and KN in modern format for inexpensive distribution to
the membership. IDK what the BOT should decide to charge libraries, academia
or non-members. That would be a judgement call on what value there is to the
hobby and the members in wider distribution of the information vs need for
cash. Again, with no real risk involved.
I think it's a most worthy task, deserving some member-donated time and
energy, so would love to see the BOT move ahead on it. That's my $0.02,
anyway.
I'd like to be a part of it.
Wright
PS. First question: How many CDs will it take to hold all of JAKA/KN? Never
having seen them assembled in one place I can't even make a WAG!
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
"DEMOCRACY" is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
"LIBERTY" is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.
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