Re: C 3-D

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997
>From: P3D Bob Aldridge writes:
>>>(I said)
>->>I have several objections to the proposed format for this 3D CD.
>->I've seen >some discussion ........................
>->>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. 
>
>And John R replied:
>
>->On first reading, I disagreed with that view, but on further
>->reflection I think it's a very good point.............
>>.......... For the stated predicted price, I'd much rather
>->have 25-100 nice images, well organized in multiple formats, than
>->100-400 "straight run" in a chaotic jumble. 
>
>But surely you're missing the point? 
>
>The CD is designed to preserve a "snapshot" of the wisdom on the
>Internet at a particular time. Only a small part of that wisdom will be
>in the form of images.

******  No, I don't think we are missing the point. Any approach to the
suggested project is going to be a significant amount of work. There are
definite improvements that can be made to images from a certain percentage
of websites, for whatever reasons. Those improvements don't have to remove
the textual web content, just improve the images.

Someone suggested providing entire directories of certain types of images.
That might be nice but the way it was suggested might separate images from
the other web content. Maybe the better approach is to use the web content
as web content, with improved images, and even multiple examples of the
images so there is reasonable choice. (some HTML editing) There could also
be directories that reference the images by type, so they are explorable in
a direct sense instead of only being able to go through the web structure
for access. Some will want to view the full web structure, others will just
want to review the images. Both purposes could be served if a bit of thought
and planning goes into preparing the CD.

>
>I see the biggest values in this CD as twofold:
>
>1. I can get a preview of what people are doing,.....
>
>   I will also, hopefully, have an e-mail route to contact the author   
>directly. ......
>
>2. People who don't have web browsing capabilities would be able to view
>   the CD and get sight of all the information.........

******  I agree with your assessment of the CD's value and feel that
improving the overall quality of the images included would be a very
worthwhile step, especially in light of the values you mention.

>
>If you want a compilation of images, then that is a totally different
>animal. If you want that, then get the CD, contact the site owners
>directly and request the images that you like in a form that you like.
>When you've amassed a suitable collection of your favourite images, just
>archive them onto your own CD. By the time you've collected them CD
>writers will be standard issue in all new PCs...
>......

****   I think the proposed CD could serve both purposes. It can be an image
library as well as a snapshot of the web pages represented. Either way or
both ways the project will require a bit of organizing and work. Were I
doing such a project just for myself, I'd want to definitely improve the
overall standard for image presentation. It may not be possible in all cases
to get original images to work from, but the effort to do it in that fashion
would make a better end result. It would improve current web content (due to
the attention and effort involved) as well as making the contributors to
this project look better and provide easier access to anyone using the disc.

Larry Berlin

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


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