Re: [ARSCLIST] A wiki-discopedia?

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Noring" <jon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Roger wrote:
> 
> > Well all I know,is when I have suggested exhaustively
> > researched,and detailed websites,for ARSC award consideration,I have
> > been given all sorts of meaningless reasons why websites are not eligible.
> 
> If we look at a number of published p-book discographies, most if not
> all of them were published without any "vetting" by the publishing
> company. They pretty much border on vanity publications.
> 
> So what is important is the individuals compiling the discographical
> information, and how they are regarded by the record collecting and
> archivist communities.
> 
> I believe that the best future discography would be compiled using a
> wiki-like approach, since that allows continual correction plus
> recording of disagreements. (Since discography is more database
> oriented, it needs to be compiled in a special fashion.)
> 
> In fact, ARSC might approach Jimmy Wales and see if it can work with
> Wikipedia to put together an allied "Discopedia". There are, I
> believe, others working on such discographies of more contemporary
> sound recordings so obviously ARSC should not be an "island" on this
> matter, but work closely with other groups and organizations for
> common benefit.
> 
> After all, the purpose of discographical information is to
> interconnect it with other information, and the current view of
> discography being an end-in-itself makes the discographical
> information much less usable.
> 
> Jon Noring
> 
Some years ago, Steve Abrams sent me, on CD-R, his .C8T and .MX
files...which I posted to a then-free web operation I had read
about...CommunityZero. I hoped that there would be much more
interest...and many more corrections...than I actually saw.
After a very few months, CommunityZero became a "pay to play"
operation...which ended my connection with the process.

In the meantime, Ty Settlemeir has "HTML-ized" many of the "Abrams
Files," and has them on a web site. To my way of thinking, it would
be not only possible but SIMPLE for folks who own 78's to check
these pages against their holdings...and provide correction and/or
amendment where it seems necessary!

Keep in mind that these files essentially provide NO information
on classical recordings...on "non-discographized" records (i.e.
not dance, jazz, blues or (now) country...) and on most post-
1942 records.

I have NO idea how many 78's would be included among the total
holdings of collections (private AND institutional...!)...however,
I would guess it would be WELL over my paltry holdings of 50,000+!

Thus, if each party responsible for a "collection of 78's" (anywhere
from one to a few MILLION...?!) could/would enter the data therefrom
on some sort of either a web-accessible facility or in a digital
data file...all of these could be combined, with the result being
a sort of "78rpm wikidatabase!"

I have seen inquiries about single specific 78rpm phonorecords pop
up (more often on 78-L than ARSCLIST), which usually result in
knowledgeable replies...can we do this with large quantities of
same...?

I MAY still have an application I created using VB6, which allows
the creation and editing of the 160-byte text-based data files
which Abrams originally invented...