-----Original Message----- From: Pavi Mehta Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:45 PM To: 'bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: RE: KES to RTF Hi Monica and others, "Chef M.D.'s Big Book of Culinary Medicine" has been converted to RTF and is on the Download list awaiting validation (smile) We converted it in-house a few minutes ago and it now has a comment attached to it mentioning the conversion and the fact that it requires a sighted validator. Regarding policy change on file formats: That's something that will happen with the coming of the new site and I will definitely keep the volunteers posted on that. Regarding the suggestion that willing volunteers can download KES files from Step 1 convert them and upload them -- this is definitely an interim possibility (and something Bob brought up awhile ago). Credits would still apply to the original submitter. The person who does the conversion will be considered as a validator. Before uploading the converted file he/she should send a note to Carrie asking her to send the file back to Step 1. Validation credits will go the final validator. Awhile ago a staff member did work on converting a batch of KES files to RTF from the download list. She is currently working on other projects but if anyone urgently requires another title to be converted please bring it to my attention. Please let me know if there is anything unclear in this mail, and thanks for the discussion around this topic. All good things, Pavi Mehta Volunteer Coordinator, Bookshare Benetech 480 S. California Ave., Suite 201 Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609 USA Phone: +1 650 644-3459 pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx www.benetech.org The Benetech Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity A Nonprofit Organization -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Willyard Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:36 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Concerns About A Book On Step 1 Hi, everyone. Yesterday Elizabeth let us know that the book Chef M.D.'s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, by JOHN LA PUMA and Rebecca Powell needs a sighted validater. Guess what! The book is in kes format. None of our sighted validaters can open it. This situation frustrates me because this is the kind of book that will be passed from blind volunteer to blind volunteer with no resolution. Why? Because only blind people can open it! I'm especially frustrated because Bookshare could resolve this easily with a policy change on file formats or by providing a converter at the time of upload. There are 11 more cookbooks like this, all in kes format. If sighted help is needed, it won't happen with these books since they aren't rtf files. Cookbooks are tough to scan and validate, and sighted help is usually needed somewhere along the way. Sighted people *don't* have Kurzweil because they don't need it, and it costs a thousand dollars. I'm not trying to bash the submitter here. I'm saying that this situation seems wasteful and silly to me. I know I can't change it, but it sure would be nice if everyone were required to submit in rtf since that's what all validaters can open and have to upload to Bookshare anyway. (sigh) Ok, I'm going to go and get some coffee. Maybe I won't feel so grumpy then. -- Monica Willyard Visit my blog at http://www.scannersguild.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.