Journals on Disk - report

[John Baird, RPT]

This is more or less a report from me, John Baird, the chair of the PTG
Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), and a request for help from
those of you who have expertise in Listservers or Bulletin Boards.

I've been reading my PianoTech Digests in catch-up mode, or about a week
late, since November, so I haven't been able to participate very well, but
a number of posts have been on issues of concern to the ECC, so I wanted to
report what I know.

For about a year now the ECC has been looking at the idea of making PTJ
articles available to members on disk or CD ROM.  This would certainly
help newer members who don't have very many back issues, but the primary
benefit would be to all of us: the information in these articles would be
in searchable format, and that means it would be much more accessible for
learning and research.

But we don't have the official "go ahead" to start working on it, and that
won't come until the question of copyrights to articles is answered.  I
have no word that this is being worked on...perhaps after the January
Board meeting.

Besides the discussions on this list, I've read elsewhere that this project
would not be expensive, that 10 years of Journal article text would fit on
eight diskettes, and that the articles are already in a useable (or
translatable) format at the HO. Initially, diskettes might be the way to
go as the majority of us do not have computers with CD ROM drives.

Another issue discussed here on PianoTech is the need for PTG to have its
own Listserver or BBS, which could be accessed only by members for the
purpose of conducting organizational business, discussing politics, etc.
Our committee needs your expertise on what the options and costs are, and
how it would work.  Would we purchase hardware for the Home Office, or rent
space from an Internet provider?  Can the HO staff monitor/maintain a
listserver?

A big organization like PTG may not be able to move fast, but at the same
time it probably can move too slow.  The Board meets just twice a year,
but to their credit, they have made positive decisions concerning our use
of this technology exactly that often (such as approving the upload of PTG
Technical Bulletins and brochures, currently only on PianoPage and
CompuServe, and the RPT List on PP).  Credit for speeding up the time
frame also goes to all of you who have contributed to the informative
discussions here on PianoTech. By the time you've debated the pros and
cons of a project, we're able to present a fairly well-developed proposal.

Still, at this time we have neither our PTG Listserver nor the Journals on
disk.  As for the latter, I've asked the Board (meeting later this month)
to grant our committee the assistance of the Home Office in supplying
files of Journal articles and other information so we can begin to
determine what this project entails in terms of work, mechanics and cost.
As for the PTG Listserver/BBS we need your help/expertise--if we could
sort through the various ways of setting this up and come up with a
proposal by the April 30 agenda deadline, maybe we'd get the go ahead in
July.

Members are calling for these services (comments like "I'll be the first
in line to buy the CD ROM", or "Frankly, I'm a little embarrassed that the
Guild hasn't set up its own...bulletin board").  Assuming that we will one
day have both, it's more a question of will we have them sooner, or later.

(a separate post coming on the question of whether to go with the
text-based or graphics-based approach to Journals on Disk)

John

John Baird, RPT
Chair, Electronic Communications Committee