> Does anybody have objections against it? Copyright problems?
> I guess, it is on the same level as mirroring the www-pages
> to a different location. And last not least, don't we want
> to share this information with less well equipped people
> as ourselves (e.g. internet connections...).
This is planned. I'm mostly waiting to get enough photos to make
it worthwhile. We currently only have about 145 Megabytes of data. A
CDROM can hold about 600 Meg.
We have had a few heroic contributors, such as
Jan Schlauer: main db
Juerg Steiger: pings
Isao Takai: pings
Andreas Wistuba: Nepenthes
Arthur Lauffenberger: Nepenthes Guide, Danser
Kevin Snively: Drosera keys: Obermeyer, Gleason
but the overall image coverage of species is still very spotty right now.
I don't think it worth my effort to produce and distribute the data at
this time. Once we get, say, 50% coverage of species, and good pictures
of all the common stuff, then I'll be excited about doing the work.
Once we get a "critical mass" of images, then the issues that will
need to be dealt with are:
development/licensing of platform independent database software
(I now use the UNIX pgrep and awk programs for database searching
this will not work immediately on MAC or PC platforms...)
development/licensing of platform-independent browser software
(Netscape or Mosaic binaries should be on the CDROM for
MAC, DOS, OS2, UNIX, etc...)
conversion of all filenames to DOS limitations
(Files currently have long UNIX-style names)
conversion to the CDROM filesystem standard, burning test copies, ...
(We will need to alpha and beta test the CDROMS before
mass-production and offering them through CPN...)
As far as sharing the data with those less fortunate, many public
libraries have WEB browser capability. A recent newspaper ad offered
refurbished IBM-486 machines with graphical WEB browser software for
$299! Local "free-net" public WEB accounts can be had for $40/year!
The CP WEB database can be browsed with text-only machines for even
cheaper. Kinko's Copy Center will rent you machines and WEB time for
several bucks an hour. Anyone that has a machine capable of using
a CDROM, can incrementally add WEB access for very little extra money.
If I stall enough, everyone will eventually have WEB access and the
issue will be moot (only 1/2 of a smiley :-)).
You can speed things up by contributing lots of nice pictures :-)
Seriously now, I really do want to put out a CDROM. It is just a matter
of deciding when we really have a stable, useful, chunk of info that is
worth the effort to "get it out there".
Please let me know if you think I'm "off base" here, or if you want
to volunteer to do the work... :-).
I'm willing to send a tar file to anyone who wants to volunteer to solve
the above-mentioned issues and spearhead a short-term CDROM project. I
am planning on doing it myself, but only when the data is a bit more
complete.
Best regards,
-- Rick Walker