<VV> Online Encyclopedia (was Communique Improvement)

[Ron]

Good idea, and make more benefits for members only.
RonH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Johnson" <barry.johnson at activant.com>
To: "Virtual Vairs" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 9:13 AM
Subject: <VV> Online Encyclopedia (was Communique Improvement)


>> Imagine if you will. We offer the back issues of the Communique on CD
> by
>> year or five years or pick a time period. I would think that ones that
> are > already electronic would be real easy to do. The ones that are
> hard copy
>> only could be scanned and OCRed. I would even offer my teenaged
> daughter
>> to type them in (and I'll pay her, not CORSA).
>
> Here's a twist on the idea.
>
> Don't sell them -- publish them on a CORSA members-only section of the
> web site.  Provide access to the back issues as a CONTINUING BENEFIT TO
> MEMBERS, not as a one-time product sale.
>
> In fact, that library of technical information could (perhaps) be
> expanded into an online encyclopedia of Corvair-related information --
> and, again, be reserved for use by CORSA members only.
>
> If it grew to a sufficient size, access to this online encyclopedia of
> technical and historical information could become THE key benefit of
> CORSA membership.
>
> Some people are probably saying, "Great idea -- but the labor costs are
> prohibitive.  Who's going to maintain it?  Who's going to keep it fresh?
> We'll never find a volunteer to take care of it, and we can't afford to
> pay someone to do it."
>
> There is a technology solution to this.  How many of you have used
> Wikipedia?  (http://www.wikipedia.com)
>
> For those that don't know, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia maintained
> solely by volunteers.   They have a very small professional staff that
> keeps the web site running, but ALL of the content is supplied by folks
> with lots of topical expertise, but few computer technical skills.  It's
> amazing how effective a volunteer organization can be in self-organizing
> information.
>
> I've seen Wiki's work in other applications as well.
>
> The software to run a Wiki is free.  I don't think Bryan would increase
> his charges to CORSA to cover bandwidth.  As far as I can tell, most
> Wiki packages are already configured to run on the same operating system
> and web server as this host.  There are lots of free Wiki
> implementations out there -- but the "gold standard" is Wikipedia's tool
> itself, called MediaWiki.
>
> MediaWiki can be downloaded for free from http://www.mediawiki.org.  It
> would take some of Bryan's time to install the software.
>
> It would take a little bit of someone else's volunteer time to start
> putting some content into the site.  The most valuable thing of all
> might be a donation of content from some of our current skilled members
> that are publishing articles on their own web sites.
>
> Bryan, would you be willing to donate a copy of some the content from
> your Autocrossing site?  Kent, would you allow CORSA to publish some of
> your articles on the site?  Jim Rice, Clark Hartzel -- would you donate
> some historical articles?
>
>
> Why not try it?  The cost in dollars is trivial.  There's no downside if
> it fails.
>
> But the upside potential is incredible.
>
> baj
> -------------------
> Barry Johnson
> Lake in the Hills, IL
> 64 Monza 4-speed convertible (for sale)
> 65 Monza 140PG hardtop
>
> [ I've hesitated to publish this because I can't volunteer time to get
> it started.  But full-time job, part-time job, and leadership positions
> in three other volunteer organizations are chewing up every available
> minute. ]
>
>
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