P3D Internet & publications (was: The Stereo Glossary)

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxx>]

--- Donald Wratten <Wratten@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> As Abram Klooswyk has blown my cover...

It was about time! :-) :-)

> [The Stereo Glossary] will become the intellectual property of 
> the ISU, and I would doubt very much that they would decide to 
> publish it on the Internet.  After all, the ISU depends on
> its subscriptions from individual members for its very
> existence and receipt of Stereoscopy is their main benefit.  
> How many people would continue to subscribe if the value of 
> membership were diminished by making its property so widely 
> available without charge?

Very good question!  We have been though this discussion
one time in the past but I would like to revisit it 
with new data.  As the Editor of the "Stereogram", the 
newsletter of the Ohio Stereo Photographic Society, I have
been thinking along these lines for the past few months.
First I studied what others have been doing.  Here are
three approaches:

1. Give the publication for free in the Internet.  This is done
by the "3DNews" of the Stereo Club of Southern California.  This
makes very little sense to me and it made less sense when the
"free for grabs" announcement was coming two weeks before the
loyal hard-cash-paying subscribers got their newsletter in the
mail (fortunately, this is "corrected" now).

2. Allow for email subscriptions, in addition to regular
snail-mail subscriptions.  This is currently done by the
"3D Window" of the Sydney Stereo Camera Club (Ray Moxom
Editor)

3. Do not offer email subscriptions but put a good amount
of information in the Internet, with perhaps the option to
download a free issue.  Offer something for free and hope
that this will generate interest that will result in more
subscriptions.

It seems to me that most Editors and most publications today
should be looking at options #2 and #3.  If ISU is not
ready to distribute their newsletter electronically, they 
can still consider putting the Stereo Glossary on line.
A lot of stereo enthusiasts will link to it, which will result
in more exposure for ISU and possibly more memberships.  This
is something to think about.

[I have been thinking of working on a glossary of stereo
terms, as part of the tutorials in my web site, but why
invest time in the project if something like this already 
exists?  Unless... if my definitions differ from the
traditional ones... which does not appear to be the case...]

I will continue with a few more thoughts on this subject...

George Themelis
http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/