Digitizing Archives Not So Easy

From: John Allain <John.Allain_at_Donnelley.InfoUSA.Com>
Date: Mon Apr 9 16:52:52 2001

The story I like in this thread of conversation is
the one about how the creation of the first Hyperdocument
CD for ACM-Siggraph.

Now, Siggraph is a pretty cash rich organization at one time
topping out ACM's SIG groups with the largest membership.
Each member paid something like $100, plus the tradeshows
which brought even more outsiders, paying more. These show
tended to fill two or three of the best Hotels ($$) in the
biggest cities.

The paper 'Transactions' catalog was very expensively produced,
with state of the art internal Xerox machinery. The director
of the effort was a name figure in Computer Graphics. Quality
and generational loss must have been very important to them
because at one time they reproduced and remailed an entire monthly
issue just because the rendered colors in one article were a
little off. No doubt the transactions were Computer typeset.

The Project director when tasked with making a CD of the whole
thing did this: Sawed off the binding off the catalog and sent
the whole thing to be re-scanned. If this is what they do with
a current and in house item, then you can guess the rest.

John A.
Received on Mon Apr 09 2001 - 16:52:52 BST