I'm surprised not to see any replies to this particular thread. It seems to me to be a "no-brainer" (to use a nonce-word that I hate) that imaging equipment for local wiki organizations in a position to make good use of it to upload free content for the projects should be a high priority for funding at whatever level.
In the next funding cycle, maybe someone should propose a pilot program of allocating $10,000 and making ten $1,000 micro-grants for this purpose, with the application process to include discussion of what or whose free content would be made available to the projects if the equipment were provided. Newyorkbrad On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 3:04 PM, David Gerard <[email protected]> wrote: > A message I just sent in a wikimediauk-l thread about photographic > negative scanners, which I thought might be of general interest to > Wikimedia organisations. > > tl;dr: an archival-quality negative scanner has potential to be a > white elephant* (a donation that is actually a liability), but could > be a useful thing that an organisation could use to make very good > friends with GLAMs and individuals. > > > - d. > > > * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: David Gerard <[email protected]> > Date: 15 February 2014 20:00 > Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] WMUK slide scanner > To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <[email protected]> > > > On 15 February 2014 19:52, geni <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 15 February 2014 15:23, David Gerard <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 15 February 2014 15:09, Andy Mabbett <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >> > Change of plan: Thank you, but I've been offered the use of one of > >> > these: > >> > http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/scanner/scoolscan_4000/ > >> > by a friend who lives locally. > > >> Oooooooooooooh you lucky bugger. That's the level of archival-quality > >> piece of kit we could do with for WMUK. Though it would have to live > >> in the office. > > > A nikon product at the WMUK office? Is that wise: > > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canon_EOS_DSLR_family_(selection).jpg > > > :-) > > Seriously, though: if you want archival quality, the way to go is a > CoolScan. Not only would we be able to scan negatives ourselves > (though it'd be tied to the office, rather than being a loanable > item), we'd be able to make very good friends indeed with GLAMs that > have random piles of unscanned negatives. > > It'd be nice if someone with a few hundred quid bought a CoolScan, > scanned their collection, then donated the kit to WMUK when done with > it. > > The way it usually goes is: someone buys a CoolScan on eBay, scans > their negative collection, sells it to the next person. WMUK would be > a suitable end point for such a chain. > > The main catch is for it to be *someone else's* problem to make sure a > decade-old piece of kit is in usable condition not to be a white > elephant - donating something that turns into a liability is helpy > rather than helpful. CoolScan IV/4000 use FireWire, V/5000 on use USB > ... software and supported OS is an interesting question as well ... > III/3000 and earlier do archival-quality scanning, but often have > weird hardware requirements. I think the I and II needed their own ISA > card. This is the sort of white elephant *not* to inflict on a small > charity. > > If I had ~£500 to spare I would happily be that person. I'm not though :-) > > I'll borrow the Ion (a rather less fragile piece of kit, so > borrowable), but if I had access to a CoolScan I'd happily do 'em > again. > > > - d. > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
