Re: Wiki and Irisregister

["R. Dennis Hager" <hager@aredee.com>]

John, et al.
There is no doubt that the irisregister is your baby and I completely 
understand your desire to protect it. That's what parents do. Kahlil Gibran 
(1883-1931), noted Lebanese-American poet, writer and artist is most famous 
for his poem "On Children" which I have pasted here for your benefit.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

John, you should be proud of what you have done with the irisregister, but 
it is time for you to become the proud grandparent of the iris wiki.

Dennis Hager (who occasionally reads poetry--who would have guessed?)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John I Jones" <jijones@usjoneses.com>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:09 AM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] Wiki and Irisregister


> As i said from the beginning of this discussion, my intent is to be  sure 
> that the Board understood the impact of putting the iris  registration 
> information into the Iris Wiki. I will support whatever  position the 
> Board wishes to take about irisregister and the  registration information, 
> always have.
>
> I am also in favor of the iris wiki. I think that it will be a great  tool 
> for advancing irises and the AIS.
>
> A lot has been written about the issue of incorporating the iris 
> registration information into the wiki, some of it conjecture, some  fact, 
> and some opinion. I thought it would be a good idea to try to  summarize 
> the relevant issues.
>
> Much has been said claiming that irisregister will actually increase  its 
> subscriber base because members of the wiki will want "higher  authority". 
> First we have to recognize that if the registration  information is 
> included in the wiki, there is no need for someone to  access 
> irisregister. They already have all the information and at no  cost. Every 
> time the irisregister is updated the information will  migrate to the 
> wiki.
>
> The most common user of irisregiser are those that access it to get 
> descriptions for their iris sales. They are by far the majority of  users. 
> They will be able to get that information at no cost  from the  wiki.
>
> Most of the people that will access the wiki are just after pictures. 
> They won't care about the descriptions.
>
> Using pictures for iris sales has become the best way to sell. With  photo 
> printing technology getting cheaper and cheaper, and software  programs 
> freely available to print multiple pictures per page,  "custom catalogs" 
> are a breeze and inexpensive. At the very beginning  the wiki was proposed 
> as a "Photo Wiki" to the board by Bob.
>
> It is probably true that some of the people that will be adding  pictures 
> to the wiki will subscribe to irisregister to be able to  migrate the 
> information to the wiki, at least until the majority of  iris registration 
> information is in the wiki at which point they   will drop the 
> irisregister subscription. However, the majority of  wiki users that add 
> pictures are going to do only that. Oh yes, it  has been said that many of 
> the current docents will quit if they can  not put the iris registration 
> in the wiki. If they perceive that the  wiki is only valuable with the 
> registration information in it, then  they are just trying to get the 
> information for free.
>
> Frankly, there is so much more information that can be added to the  wiki 
> that is of far greater interest and value to the (predominate)  general 
> user that it is hard for me to understand why the  registration 
> information is so important. Growth habits, hardiness,  disease 
> resistance, geographic limitations, increases and on and on.  What kind of 
> iris to grow in what environment. This is all much more  important to most 
> of the future wiki users.
>
> There is no doubt in my mind that the wiki will be good for AIS. It  will 
> advance irises tothe public and bring in more members.  Irisregister was 
> never conceived or designed to attract more users to  the AIS. It was 
> designed to provide as database and search engine for  the information. 
> There will be far more wiki users that irisregister  users.
>
> The problem is of course that no one knows for sure that will happen.  Not 
> I, not Bob. We can all make guesses about what will happen but no  one 
> knows with any degree of confidence. It is my considered opinion,  and I 
> have years of experience with irisregister, that we will loose  a 
> significant part of the irisregister revenue. That may be well 
> ameliorated by more members drawn in from exposure to the wiki, and I 
> hope it is.
>
> John
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