Actually a global contra dance database seems like a bad idea.   Who will decide what dances merit placement in the database?
A much better idea is for CDSS to maintain a web page with either  copies of web page(s) with authors' dances, somewhat like Cary Ravitz now does:  http://ravitz.us/caller/
It would be best for CDSS to keep a copy of  each composer's dances, so to preserve them when  the author dies.
Anyone could submit page(s) of dances, and CDSS would make no judgement as to the quality of the dances.
One might want to set up a mechanism so an author can edit the pages with her/his dances
Visitors could then peruse any author's dances, and initiate discussion about specific dances on a forum similar to this one.  
 
Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801       217-239-5844
Links to photos of many of my drawings and paintings are at www.ArtComesFuerst.com


On Monday, July 28, 2014 10:19 AM, Jeff Kaufman via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:


I think this is a great idea, and the main non-technical limitation is
writing to lots of callers to get their permission to include their
dances.  Several people have proposed something similar, but the
actual work of checking with lots of callers has been too daunting.

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 10:46 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers
<callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm currently in programming school casting about for programming projects,
> and I had the idea of a giant searchable contradance database, where you can
> filter by move combination, etc.
>
> My question: is this something people would be interested in having? Or does
> it run the risk of infringing on intellectual property, or shortchanging
> dance writers on book sales, etc.? (Obviously no dances would be included
> without the author's permission, but it may be that making a huge ton of
> dances freely available and searchable in one place online would be a death
> blow to published books of dances, or have some other negative effect I'm
> not foreseeing right now...)
>
> Anyway: does anyone have any thoughts on this project?
>
> Cheers,
> Maia
>
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