Hey Mike, Right on the money. And we shall see what happens today, smile. Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Advisory Council www.guidedogs.com The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. -- Vance Havner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Pietruk" <pietruk@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 8:09 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: identifying books from download list Sue Different people use different approaches to scanning. I know several people who scan for themselves and, once establishing initial settings, just scan to the edit without reading or checking. If their primary motive is for their own reading, they hardly are going to do any editing, validating, whatever. Hence, you will get scans that range from the excellent to the less than average when using that approach. Note that the initial premise upon which Bookshare was established was just that; and having a "fair" category was for those less than optimal scans. What BookShare, and this isn't our call, is facing is a question of whether they want scans done primarily by individuals for their own benefit or scans primarily intended for others. They also need to be careful in how they posture themselves for if they go the latter route, and that is how in practice many of us prepare our books, they may raise the ire of the publishing industry which is exactly what isn't wanted. Hence, by accepting a wide variety of quality submissions, Bookshare is what it says it is. If suddenly you totally eliminate all lesser quality materials, legally speaking, you may be changing the nature of the service which is what Benetech may not want to see happen. If the lesser quality scans are properly designated and labeled, if fair scans are worked upon to bring out upgraded replacements if totally unreadable texts continue to be rejected, then Bookshare will continue living up to its original mission. I think a lot of us have become spoiled over the last several years by the bounty of materials now at our disposal; and hence, less appreciative and more demanding. 20 years ago, I would have accepted any attempt to get me a book that I wanted or needed; now, we forget those roots and scowl when something is 2--3% imperfect. Once again, no one is forcing anyone to read any book. No one is currently denying anyone the opportunity to supply a better scan of a book. And we need an environment where newcomers are encouraged to participate not one where their efforts are blasted by others because they are somehow shy in technical expertise. I listened to 4 hours of an audio book yesterday, while on a car trip, without one page designator, one chapter indicator, without even a mention of an end of a side. This was a commercially produced audio book, not something home done. Should the publisher be required to recall their tapes; should the reader be flagilated for not incorporating all that info, that publisher be publicly flogged for providing incomplete books, whatever. Would my wife and I not play those cassettes if we, in advance, had known all of the above? The decisions Benetech faces with BookShare are tough ones. No matter what route they choose, they'll ruffle some feathers. I can promise you one thing: if standards are highly tightened, the same complainers who quibble about quality will be the very same ones demoaning that this or that book hasn't been scanned and available. The higher the standards, the less will be available. The higher the standards, the less likely new individuals will be willing and able to submit materials because they believe that they cannot cut the muster. The closer Bookshare becomes to perfection, the greater the likelihood the publishing industry will consider services such as BookShare to be competition. You can argue until the cows come home that all this is legally defensible; do you want Benetech to use its limited resources in proving that point or would you rather have it pay people like Marissa and Peter their salaries so that ground zero services can continue? Fortunately, none of these decisions are ours. Fortunately, we can do what we do best namely scan and validate and enjoy those fruits. And rather than continually casting stones at the efforts of others, we can focus on what we do and remember that others are ready to cast stones at us as that is what human nature tends to do.