Electronic archives

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Putting on my tech geek hat (and taking off the "chair" hat)...

Neil has reservations about combining a TAG Archive with the Showcase CD.  
He also raises concerns about cutting into paper sales.  I agree that a
single CD may be cross-purposes, because the showcase and archive may have
two separate audiences.  We must make the showcase CD; this was mandated
by the charter of the showcase.

Diana also sent some comments (bounced) of similar nature, noting that
back issue sales still bring in $70-400 per month, worries that a CD will
cut into these sales, and suggests only selling electronic versions of the
ones that are now out of print.  (Folks, it's going to be WAY more
difficult to burn specific CD-ROMs of "what's no longer in print now" than
it is to just have one master that gets duplicated.)

So based on these concerns, I withdraw the suggestion of a sellable CD-ROM
archive at this time.  We cannot possibly sell anything of this sort if we
have worries about bootleg copies, or it cutting into paper sales.  So I
will burn off a copy for Mike for the club archive, and perhaps we can
revisit the notion in a few years.

My take (and last words on the subject, 'cause it's been a long series of
projects and I've already had this conversation with two other clubs): We
are a service organization, not a business. Our job (well, one of them) is
to provide information to hobbyists.  Selling a CD of back issues is a way
for more people to access this information.  If it is sold at a reasonable
price ($20-40?), then lots of people may buy it.  If it's low enough,
people will prefer to buy it instead of bootlegging it.  But not everyone
will prefer it.  In fact, I don't think ANYONE will prefer it over the
print version -- it's harder to read, and you have to use a computer.  
And back-issue collectors are often specifically looking for "the real
thing".

   - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com