Hi Samuel, On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 7:24 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote: This sounds like a pretty ambitious venture, requiring a fair amount of investment in space and hardware, etc. Do you have any ideas on where that could come from. I'm definitely interested in the idea. So please send more details when they become available!

//Ed _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-DC mailing list Wikimedia-DC(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-dc

James is right - For the demo this summer, we find a host space at a tech incubator or coworking space or savvy library; get loaner scanners and cameras and the like to build the prototype; get interested volunteers to come host workshops and parties and exhibits and classification contests. Hopefully there's minimal direct overhead cost; though we should have some partners with a few thousand dollars here and there in their budgets for this sort of exploratory work. The end result should be a documented process for building out this sort of lab from scratch; what permanent and consumable supplies were used; what additional gear would make sense but was too rare/expensive/balky.  Leading to a "lab in a box" inventory and pricelist, and some soft costs for expected overhead, maintenance, installation. A 'DPLA infrastructure proposal' based on this might be something like targeting 3-5 cities this fall, 1 research-lab @ a libschool to help and monitor the process and advise on how to improve it, and an early crop of a dozen roving liblab alums who help make all of this happen. Then more over the spring, aiming for at least 1 liblab in every state by next summer, and 1 in every city with >10 public? sizeable? libraries by the end of the 18 months. That could be funded by grants from a combination of the association of state Governors and the consortium supporting DPLA-phase-1 [the first 18 months; a pool of funds will be available]. I'm making the details up, but you get the idea. The demo work isn't about winning a grant per se, so much as demonstrating a useful piece of infrastructure that someone could carry out.  None of us working on the demo might want to be involved in that next stage; but there's a lot of interest in the idea, so I'm certain some group would be glad to run with that and facilitate it on a national scale, if we can articulate the basic value using the library-rich DC community as an example. SJ 2011/6/16 James Hare <jamesmhare(a)gmail.com>om>: -- Samuel Klein          identi.ca:sj           w:user:sj          +1 617 529 4266 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-DC mailing list Wikimedia-DC(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-dc

Yes, I've been looking for something like this too! Kristin _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-DC mailing list Wikimedia-DC(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-dc

Hello again all... for what it's worth, I do know Ginnie Cooper, the D.C. Public Library Director. I saw past threads about looking for folks to collaborate with in D.C. - I'd be happy to introduce anyone to her if that is helpful. -Nate On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 3:46 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote: -- Nate Hill nathanielhill(a)gmail.com http://www.natehill.net _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-DC mailing list Wikimedia-DC(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-dc