Re: CD-ROM

Tom Tadfor Little wrote:
> 
> Ian Efford writes
> 
> :A couple of the recent communications have been about the development of
> :CD-ROMs for the summary of geneological registries.  This approach seems
> :very retrograde at this time.  CD-ROMs are very expensive to produce and
> :studies have shown that very few cover costs.  They are also static and
> :become dated very quickly.  I would suspect that the CD-ROM is dated and
> :will disappear over the next ten years.
> :
> :The alternative is to archive the information on a computer and make it
> :available through the Internet. The information can be in the form of a data
> :base or list and pictures. This information can be made available to
> :everyone, up dated at any moment in time and, when required, downloading
> :access can be sold for a nominal fee to cover costs.
> 
> I agree with this assessment of the available technologies for electronic
> publishing. The biggest hurdle, I think, will be in taking the checklist
> texts and intelligently translating them into a database; once that is
> done, we can choose the best electronic publishing channel available at
> the time.
> 

I would certainly agree that the most expensive part of creating a CDROM is 
creating the database structure and accumulating the data in it, and you have 
that cost no matter what distribution vehicle you choose. However the cost of 
"burning" that is making an individual CDROM is getting less and less expensive. 
For example, media cost is $10-12 per CD for a "one off" on a standard machine. 
No one would of course do this for production, but at low volume it is certainly 
reasonable. Of course one of the things that having a CD gives you is faster and 
direct access. With the Web getting busier and busier, access may become an 
issue. It would certainly be possible to create an environment that would allow 
the main data base to reside on CD and updates downloadable to extension files as 
needed.
-- 
John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

John Jones, 35572 Linda Dr., Fremont CA, 94536
jijones@ix.netcom.com, USDA zone 8 (coastal, bay)
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