Re: 3D CD update

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997
>From: P3D Michael Kersenbrock comments:
>>(I said)
>> When I spend time visiting other 3D sites I encounter a number of situations
>> that are less than ideal. The result is that if the CD is just an exact copy
>> of existing material it's not very convenient at all.
>
>For the quantity to be made, I think it's already "too much work" just
>to copy the sites and get them organized and get all the permissions
>and to do all the many hours of disk-burning.

*****  That's my point. Why do a half assed job of copying the information?
If one goes to that much trouble, why not make it into a more readily
available medium? Once the work is done, only one disk needs to be burned.
Then it needs to be checked out because if something's not right, parts of
it may not be readable. Once a copy that works is available, why go through
the same risks a dozen more times? It makes so much more sense to then
duplicate the existing disk instead of creating a new one each time.

>
>IMO, doing *any* manipulations or fussing with formats and such is way
>beyond the scope of the proposed project.  If site-sources want to
>pretty things up before being cast into plastic, then that's all
>the better.  But if they don't and are willing to allow their site to
>be copied as is, then that's perfectly fine too.

*****  When I find material on the internet that I enjoy and want to share
later with friends, I copy the original files and make conversions and image
corrections before storing the image. That's a minimum requirement, not an
extra.

>
>This isn't a thousand disk run.  It's a few dozen.

******  Whether it's a dozen or several dozen, duplicating from a master
copy still makes a lot more sense. If that master copy could be organized
and contain usable content, it's worth a whole lot more than a simple rote
copy of the originals. That fact makes the likelihood of distributing more
copies even greater. Suppose that 50% of the readership of P3D decides they
want a copy? That's not a lot of persons, but it's still a sizable number.
Once each of us have copies of this kind of work, guess what? It's that much
easier to share them with friends and teachers of photography classes,
stereo club meetings, and on and on. That makes it worth doing in a better way.

>
>It makes no sense to have a site be what it is for millions to see and
>only to fix it up for a few dozen to see it.  :-)

******   Well said! Why fix the CD so that only a few dozen will see it or
want to see it!

It doesn't have to be a for profit venture, since the websites are freely
available, but you have to understand this is distribution in a different
medium. Anyone getting a copy of this 3D CD can then easily get it copied
onto more CD's at a small cost. None of the original contributors would have
any control of that additional copying. It makes the most sense to have the
content as readable and easily available as possible, especially if the
purpose is making the current 3D web content more available. No one really
knows that only a dozen or so copies will be the maximum number made. What
if this turns out to be the most collectible and valuable item on the black
market (in future years)?  It's few numbers would dramatically increase it's
value. At the least, I would want the content to be as reasonably available
as is practical and my suggestions for multiple versions of all images is a
practical way to go from the users viewpoint. The easier this CD is to use,
the more desirable it will be to anyone wanting such a thing.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


------------------------------