My view would be only to show people how. e.g. I felt it was novel that we were digitising someones stuff they had left in their will to be published. However once we have proved it can be done and it is easy then we should leave it to volunteers. Our budget does not compare to Google's.
On 17 August 2011 04:04, Fae faenwp@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
The Chapter has had recent grant requests of the following sorts:
- A request to scan and release papers from a notable person's estate
after their death, the papers have not previously been in the public domain.
- A suggested volunteer project with Wikipedians to scan several
thousand major items of significant artwork and records that can be released for the first time into the public domain.
- A suggested project to pay institution professionals to scan several
thousand major items of significant artwork and records that can be released for the first time into the public domain.
- A proposal to jointly fund an institution to pay for digitization of
hundreds of thousands of previously unreleased historic papers where there are no copyright implications.
In the light of the British Library's recent agreement with Google Books to partner with them to scan and release a vast number of "old" books on Google's well known system, I remain uncertain about whether digitization for larger projects is the best use of WM-UK funds. These are all good projects that push forward our mission of opening up knowledge for maximum possible public access, however it can also be argued that such projects may be far more effectively managed by a specialist partner (such as Google or established academic institutions and charities with specialist skills and equipment).
I welcome any feedback on how well these projects fulfil our mission and how often our funds ought to be invested in these projects compared to other projects which may have greater impact for new user outreach or wider "e-volunteer" engagement.
Cheers, Fae -- http://enwp.org/user_talk:fae Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/faetags
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