EN Online qualifications...

[Michael Maul <Michael.Maul@nsc.com>]

In response to:

This is an interesting post. I have a friend that publishes a regional equine
publication. Everything is done in pdf, it is much cheaper than any other
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First - I want to make clear that the scanning/OCR would be for issues 
that are not current - say from a year back and older. This solves the 
reference and search problem. It would be text only unless whoever was
doing the scanning wanted to place the scanned photos in a html format with
the text. It would be done independent of the office - they are pressed 
for resources as it is.

It is also possible that if the office did have old issues from the Mac setup
they use in Pagemaker - a fairly knowledgeable person could take a set
of files to generate something easier.  I would stress that this would have
to be done w/o help from the office.

The reason for minimal effort on this is that if Russ and I do this - we
just don't have the time for more than accepting text input - putting it
in a simple html format - then uploading. Or uploading a complete formatted
input if from the office Mac files.

This first effort is nothing more than an on-line place where the articles
of interest from the magazines could be read, printed, and searched - indexed
by issue.

The question of doing an on-line current version is a much more difficult 
issue - it "could" be a version equivalent to the paper issue with input
directly from the office w/o the need for scanning.

But putting out a quality on-line version is a lot of work - certainly not
one that Russ and I have time for with our day jobs.  And if it is to be done -
it should be done well. 

Issues associated with a current year issue range from availability
on-line of the publication possibly reducing membership if open to all - to
making it passworded is more administration and difficulty for the volunteers
running it.  These are not my issues but ones that have been raised by others.

There are enough things going on with the work on new s/w for the office 
operation that there just isn't enough time on the office or my part to 
work the issues involved in a current issue on-line.

I can work to make an old issue to 1 year past possible if enough support
comes from people willing to contribute scanning/OCR time - and the BOD gives
approval.  Or an expert Mac user wants to provide a good html version from
old office files.

I believe this could be a useful first step - with a transition to a more 
automated on-line version later - if members find it useful.

Mike
W/CT Regions
Sunnyvale/Houston