Is the Internet a Book?

[Tom McIntyre]

While looking at Collection Management Software today I stumbled across this really interesting tidbit about longitude (http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART17687.html).

Should we be finding items like this and sharing them more actively?

Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.AWCo.org)

[Larry S]

Is the Internet a Book? More like Cliffs notes Tom. This is certainly a nice find, and should be posted and shared. Stumbled is a key word here too. My search results never find anything I'm actually looking for, or not enough of what I'm looking for. The great internet - a wonderful idea that has lost it's way, or at the very least, an idea that has yet to reach it's potential.

Larry

[Tom Chaudoir]

We all have our favorite horological sites bookmarked. What if we pool our great finds and publish them all in one place?

Here's (http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/links/submit.html) a beginning for the project.

The links would all be assembled in a new forum. It would be "Announce Only" like the NAWCC News. A few volunteers would receive the suggestions and put them in an orderly format. Each topic would be a category, and would be edited as new suggestions come in.

Of course we will have to talk about a lot of details before it could happen. One that springs to mind is a big caveat. "The NAWCC does not endorse, and is not responsible for, any of the pages listed here. They were submitted by members of the NAWCC message board." Or something like that.

Comments?

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

a site, a watch or a clock or what?

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

[Tom Chaudoir]

Geek,

Hardly. Like many sites, there are handful of the author's favorite links.

I'm suggesting a comprehensive, evolving list. Entries to be submitted by members and compiled by volunteers.

The best list out there used to be horology.com (http://horology.com/). It has not been maintained in some time. It's still a good example of what I'm shooting for.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

Tom,

Thanks for thinking and attempting to upgrade the NAWCC MB; however, why don't you just get permission to build and update Fortunate's work? Why start over? Why has not Fortunate keep this up? Has anybody asked him? Need a committee? What about webhorology's work-is this useable(I have not viewed it--where on Sam's site is it?)?

Chapter 149's newsletter, under editor Hans Dahlke, just listed Howard sites. I am sure "the boys" at chapter 149 can, very quickly, add information to such an index! This is what the chapter is famous for-RESEARCH!

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

[Fortunat Mueller-Maerki]

I would be delighted to get back into updating Horology the Index.
www.horology.com (http://horology.com)

yEARS ago I spent much time creating it, when the web was still a lot smaller. I grew it to about 100 pages containing about 2000 horological links, and it has a logical structure to it.

TWo reasons led to its demise:
1.My primary interest became horological literature and I started to become in the NWCM Library
2. It became to much to maintain for one person and I guess at this stage close to half the links are dead because they have changed URLs or have been closed.

I would be delighted to get help from voluteer editors who would take on responsibility for updating one or a few pages of
HOROLOGY - The Index (http://horology.com)

Any takers?

Fortunat F. Mueller-Maerki, pob 386, Sussex NJ 07461

NAWCC Life # 174
Chair, NWCM Library and Research Center Committee


You can reach me at horology@horology.com

[Tom Chaudoir]

Well, I guess we all have an idea who the geek is now. I will not be responding to unregistered users for the duration of this discussion.

Jon,

I did talk to Fortunat, and am not faulting him a bit. It's his own private site, and he has not had time to maintain it. That's going to happen when one person or small group take on a big project. Sooner or later the maintenance gets to you.

What I'm talking about would be maintained by a group of volunteers. Training would be easy. People would join or drop out, but the project would stay alive. The product would not be a separate web page, but an area right on the message board. If you have not looked at the demo, click here (http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/links/submit.html) to see how links would be suggested.

Am I getting the idea across or just making it worse?

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

Tom,

Would F. take on the project as chair with some volunteers?

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

[Bill Ward]

The Longitude newsclip was interesting; it seems that, in England, Board Members feel no compulsion to DONATE such items to their institutions. It must have cost a pretty penny if they needed national lottery funds to buy it!
A related link mentioned the founding of an "E-Library" but didn't explain exactly what this is; no URL was given. Perhaps one needs to join to use it? Or perhaps it's just computer equipment at the library? If it's a real on-line database, it should definitly be in the list under consideration.
The example Tom Chadoir showed would be fine for adding items to the list. However, for reader's use, I'd like to see something more transparent. I.e., more like open stacks, allowing browsing. A search frontend is only useful if you already know exactly what you want.

[Roger Huegel]

The biggest problem will be to keep "live" links. The Internet is a living, moving thing. People start websites then drop them or move them to another location. Trying to keep an accurate list would be a lot of work. I have a few hundred NAWCC websites listed at
MembersLinks Page (http://www.nawcc.org/headquarters/memlinks.htm)
At any time I'm sure you'll find that about 10% to 20% are dead links.

Roger E. Huegel
NAWCC Webmaster

[Jon Hanson]

Hi Roger,

I would think someone would step up to the plate and take on the task! There are plenty of computer driven members and hanger oners either here or on the 185 site!

It will be interesting to see if anyone volunteers for this worthwhile project!

Jon

PS Why have we not heard from Fortunat?

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

[John Hubby]

Tom and all, I think this could be a really worthwhile effort. If it can be handled on the Message Board, fine. If it's a project to update Fortunat's Horology list that will work also. Whatever the venue, the main point is to have a good look at how it is structured so that as people come and go there will be someone there to keep it alive, in the same way we have succeeded in growing the Message Board.

The primary need is for a leader and administrator, who will work to maintain a cadre of volunteers to do the legwork of finding sites and info for posting and keeping those on the list updated. I would suggest posting a message in several places asking for volunteers and in particular for someone to be the leader. Here on the Message Board on all Forums, on the Discussion Group (ex Members' Forum), chapter 185 site, wherever there may be folks interested in the project.

Definitely worth pursuing.

John Hubby
1st Vice President

[Fortunat Mueller-Maerki]

As I have said a day or so ago (see about 5 message s up in this thread)

I am more than willing to cooperate in a joint effort to update and expand
Horology-The Index (http://horology.com)
with the help of a group of volunteers, and a few (not enough) have recently tenativly contacted me.

I need volunteer "editors" to look after a specific page (ie a subject area) of
PagesHorology-The Index (http://horology.com)
who can update the HTML code and email me updated pages which I will then post.

Any takers.

Fortunat F. Mueller-Maerki, pob 386, Sussex NJ 07461

NAWCC Life # 174
Chair, NWCM Library and Research Center Committee


You can reach me at horology@horology.com

[Tom Chaudoir]

Thanks John,

I think that the best place for the list is right here. We have high traffic and visibility. You sell more candy bars at the checkout than in aisle 12.

I'm going to try a basic structure, and launch it. Everyone who visits the forum will see a link that will take them to an faq page for potential volunteers. I'll run it for now. As it grows we can decide on someone else to take over. If it dies on the vine, nothing is lost. We just try something else.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

I WILL ASSIST, BUT i AM NOT A COMPUTER OR INTERNET EXPERT.

Let's make this work!

I shall call on 149ers to assist in this important project! (I have a list of nearly 20 bodies that hopefully will help and get on board!)

Jon

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

[Tom Chaudoir]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for getting behind this. The support of 149 members will be much appreciated. I hope to have the foundation finished by Saturday so that we can launch. Once it's running, the process of volunteering will explain itself. Stay tuned.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

Is Fortunat going to assume the lead?

Jon

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=frm&s=2386079361&f=4446088461 (http://nawcc-ch149.com)

[Tom Chaudoir]

Hi Jon,

I guess I don't understand why you keep asking about Fortunat.

I'm going to launch it. The first few volunteers will go through basic training. That's going to be the big hurdle as I see it. After that volunteers can train newbies, and I can start backing out of the way.

The ultimate structure of the thing is somewhere in the future. I'm building in a lot of room for flexibility. Let's see where it goes.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Tom Chaudoir]

And another unregistered user steps up to take shots. At least this one can make actual English sentences.

Sure, there are going to be some negative people who just don't like any idea that isn't theirs. The fact is, the opinions don't matter. If this is a bad idea, it will die on the vine. If good, it will flourish. That's just the way these things work, or don't.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Tom Chaudoir]

Wayne,

By now the system has emailed your username and password. You must use them to login before you start a posting.
http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/6/ws/reg1.gif

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

TC,

Now that is one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

WAY TO GO!

Jon

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=frm&s=2386079361&f=4446088461 (http://nawcc-ch149.com)

[Jon Hanson]

I like the TC idea; in fact I am updating my list to include those from Chapter 149 to assist in updating Fortunat's original list!

Previously, I was attempting to find out to whom I send the Chapter 149 list of volunteers!

Jon

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=frm&s=2386079361&f=4446088461 (http://nawcc-ch149.com)

[Tom Chaudoir]

Hi Jon,

I see now. Let me know who heads up the project to revamp horology.com. I have a program that will generate a list of broken links on any site. I think I've seen online versions of that too.

Best,
Tom

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

Originally posted by Tom Chaudoir:
Hi Jon,

Let me know who heads up the project to revamp horology.com.

Best,
Tom

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429[HR][HR]

With all due respect, this is what I have been trying (numerous times here on this link) to find out! WHO??? Or, to whom do I submit my list?

Jon

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149, The Early American Watch Club

http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=frm&s=2386079361&f=4446088461 (http://nawcc-ch149.com)

[Tom Chaudoir]

Sorry,

I'm going to launch something here and see how it goes. I'll need some volunteers for that.

Still, it would be great if horology.com got a good sprucing up. It has the asset of having lots of links going to it. I have to figure that it get's a pretty high traffic. 4 years ago it was the best thing going.

I see no reason why we need to pick one or the other. Fortunat has welcomed help. Get some guys with brooms and buckets, and make it what it used to be. That would be great.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Tom Chaudoir]

Analysis; Horology.com

To repair the site,all links are going to have to be checked. If they are broken, some detective work is in order. The page may simply have moved. Someone will have to try to track it down with google, whois, etc. If it moved, the record will need to be updated. If not, deleted. If the link is an email address, contact needs to be attempted.

Now the stats:

The site contains a whopping 2,457 links. Wow! My hat is off to Fortunat. I have no idea how you managed that. I'm humbled.

There are about 479 email addresses to check.

There are more than 900 broken links to track down. (I know it looks like less than 900, but many go to pages that are no longer horological.)

The full report is here (http://nawcc-mb.infopop.cc/host/broken.html).

Fixing this will be no small job.

Regards,

Tom Chaudoir
Milwaukee, WI
America
150429

[Jon Hanson]

I have my list of 25 volunteers!

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149 (http://nawcc-ch149.com), The Early American Watch Club

[Jon Hanson]

is Fortunat going to turn over his "model" to the NAWCC with Tom C. chairing the project, ultimately headlining the index here for the membership and readers on this MB?

Jon Hanson, NAWCC #8801
Founder and President Chapter 149 (http://nawcc-ch149.com), The Early American Watch Club