pcplantdb

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

Well said, Chad, in regards to:

1) Image acqusition - quality issues - as you say, PIL (python image
library) and perhaps other options will enable on-the-fly image scaling
for particular purposes from "master" images in the database.
However, we can't make it any better than the original, so the better the
originals the better!
In my experience, most people who buy, have and use digital cameras know
almost nothing about the camera's resolution and quality settings in
relation to actual image quality.  They do things like shoot highest
resolution saved at lowest quality, etc.  So it may behoove us to provide
a FAQ for image contributors.  I have given half-day workshops called
"basic digital image wizardry" so I have some documents that I can offer
as the basis for a FAQ, with a bit of rearranging or whatever.

2) copyright - thanks for clarifying what I was trying to say earlier.  By
default people retain their own copyright (for three years I believe in
the USA, much longer if they have actually filed hard copy paperwork).  So
for contributed images to be "free" as we intend, contributors will need
to agree to some other specific license for images contributed by them. 
We'll need to be extremely clear and up-front about that to maintain
goodwill of contributors.

> I think close intergration of a plant database and a knowledge
> base would strengthen both. There will be a higher visability
> and hits for a combined resource.

I've still yet to see a wiki that wasn't a lot of work to find whatever I
was looking for in - assuming I could even figure out how to look in any
useful way.  I could ususally find it quicker with Google.  On average of
course, as sometimes what I want might be right there on the first page. 
IME that's the exception though.

Which means, I suppose, that I'm generally with Chad on the expansion of
the intially plant-focused DB to encompass more elements and aspects of
permaculture.  I think we can make information much more accessible than
it will be in a wiki.  I have no objection to a wiki - that's not what I'm
here to work on though.

I also don't want to get distracted by this very question.  We have a
fairly clear high-level first stage plan for HG (permaculture-centric
plant database), and Lawrence wants to get this wiki thing going.  So
let's carry on with both, respectively, and see how they might tie
together.  At the very least each can point people to the other.

> This is one of the reasons why I think actually meeting
> physically is important. We could actually do some colective
> visioning. I'm thinking that some of the money might be better
> spent on travel rather than paying my wages.

If we had buckets of money I'd say what the heck, why not, but we don't.
In most tech workplaces I've been, F2F meetings are the least productive
part of whatever the project is.  I don't see any reason we'd somehow
magially reverse that, all else equal.




John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Whole Systems Design Services
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net