BTW, my subscription to the electronic checklist expires in 2015.
Love the electronic checklist. Love the WIKI. Want both to include
as much accurate information as possible.
Thanks.
Dennis Hager
----- Original Message ----- From: "John I Jones"
<jijones@usjoneses.com>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 1:25 AM
Subject: [AISdiscuss] Irisregister and the Wiki
I have been pondering an issue for some time and feel that it is
time to bring it before the board to make sure that what is
happening is what the board wants,
The issue is what irisregister information should be allowed in
the Wiki.
The Wiki is moving forward and entries are being made as you read
this. I has become apparent that people entering the irises into
the Wiki in addition to what ever description and pictures they
personally add, are also copying the full text entry for that
iris from the irisregister into the Wiki entry.
If this is what the Board wants then so be it, but I think that
we should consider the impact of such action.
The irisregister has been a significant source of revenue for AIS
since its inception garnering over $16000.00 since 2003— almost
$2300.00 per year. The effect of putting the irisregister
information in the Wiki is to give the information away for free
to anyone (since the Wiki will be open to anyone at no cost).
There are also lots of people that have paid for 3, 5, and 10 year
subscriptions to irisregister who will now see that we are giving
that information away for free.
It is true that irisregister will still have some advantages over
the wiki.
- the search engine has greater flexibility and control than the Wiki
- Irisregister gets updated with new and corrected information
particularly on older irises
- Irisregister has the reserved names included in its database
People use irisregister primarily for:
- Getting descriptions of irises for sales or their own database
(s) - Wiki will provide the same
Other (but far less) uses for irisregister:
- doing research on parentage - Wiki probably won't be able to do
this as well
- doing name searches for new introductions - Wiki won't do this
as well because it will lack the reserved names
The irisregister information can be kept out of the Wiki because
every entry to the Wiki must be reviewed by the "docents" for
propriety and they can easily recognize an irisregister entry.
The Wiki has some 4000 entries already, but that should not be a
major effort to correct. I am sure that not all of the entries
have irisregister excerpts in them.
The Wiki's real claim to fame is that it has pictures (up to 20
per iris) and I applaud its value in that regard. I am, in fact,
against having pictures as part of the official AIS registration
primarily because of the inconsistency of photographic and
display technologies and vagaries, and in that regard Wiki
provides a valuable resource. The full registration descriptions
are of limited additional value in the Wiki unless people want to
copy them out for their own purposes.
The Wiki will also have some advantages because the newest
introductions can be placed in the Wiki whereas there is a delay
in placing the newest R&I information in irisregister.
I think the Board needs to proactively decide what, if any,
irisregister information should be allowed in the Wiki. I think
we need to consider the monetary impact on the AIS through loss
of use of the irisregister. No I don't know the magnitude of that
impact, but I can tell you that the majority of irisregister use
is to get descriptions.
John
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