P3D Re: The Stereo Glossary

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000
> From: "Donald Wratten" <Wratten@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> .........
> As Abram Klooswyk has blown my cover, I had better emerge from the shadows
> of P3D where I habitually lurk in order to own up to being the principal
> editor of a revised version of the long-established Stereo Glossary, which
> will shortly be published, and let members of this forum know what the
> present position is.
> ........
> .......  However, I have to say that this
> democratic process has not been without its pitfalls since many of the
> suggestions received have been contradictory - especially as regards the
> amount of detail to put into them - and each one has had to be painstakingly
> resolved.   The result is therefore inevitably something of a compromise.
> 
> Also, the main purpose of the Glossary is, and always has been, to help
> newcomers to stereoscopy who may be baffled by some of the esoteric terms
> they come across, and as such wherever possible the definitions are limited
> to a single sentence.      This will certainly not satisfy some of the
> intellectual giants who contribute to P3D or the specialists who will be
> attending the upcoming Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Conference
> next week and who may well be considering their own more advanced glossary.
> ............
> 
> My remaining task is to offer the finished Glossary to the Editor of
> Stereoscopy for him to consider how best to promulgate it.   It 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?
> 
> Don Wratten
> 


****  Well and carefully written!  :-) But...

On the one hand you say it's purpose is to help newcomers to
stereoscopy. Then you say it's unlikely to get published on the
Internet...

Isn't that two completely incompatible points?

It can be no use to newcomers unless they have open and encouraged
access to the glossary without regard to any sort of membership in
anything but the human species! Today that means openly available on the
Internet as well as other forms of media. Open access.

In other words, unless it is published openly, you can forget about it's
being any value to anyone but those who already possess knowledge on the
subject. Limiting something like this to a -membership only- routine is
unnacceptably elitist. I have no problem with the ISU holding and
proclaiming it's involvement in the project, but not publishing it would
be definitely the wrong approach. (additional comments withheld)

If they are worried about a lack of membership, then open publication of
this sort of glossary would be more likely to increase their subscriber
list. Not publishing it openly might have the opposite effect as well as
end up making the effort somewhat pointless.

Further, despite the hassles of working with comments from a larger body
of persons, the exclusivity of only discussing the proposed glossary
within the ISU is itself a poor approach. Not all human beings are
members of that group, yet all human beings will be expected to become
aware of and use the -standards- the document is proposing. That is not
an acceptable approach to defining standards applicable to the public.

No matter how democratic you think it's development has been up to this
point, it's only touched a miniscule percentage of stereo interested
persons. Therefore it is anything but democratic. It's terminally
elitist all the way through.

This is not a comment on your skills or knowledge at all. It is a
comment on the intended public nature of the document, while at the same
time keeping it essentially a secret from the public. It doesn't wash.
-- 
Larry Berlin

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