12 Dec
2013
12 Dec
'13
5:52 p.m.
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 18:01:13 -0800
From: Alan Winston <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu>
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Callers] Fw: Creating a CDSS dance depository
Message-ID: <52A918E9.6090708(a)slac.stanford.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
On 12/11/2013 5:35 PM, Chris Lahey wrote:
Good point Alan.
It would be worth asking CDSS whether they are interested in officially supporting this
effort in some way, perhaps even with resources - an intern??
Also it is worth thinking about the purpose of this database. I see two different
distinctly different important ones:
- one is to provide a comprehensive historical archive of dances.
- the other is to provide good information to new callers to help them become better
callers. I believe that Contra Dancing is going to get to be more popular and as a result
there is going to be the need for more callers. A good database with demos, notations,
etc. would help.
Compatibility with Caller's Companion would be valuable for this purpose.
You're absolutely right that something like
that could go up fairly
quickly. I'm just afraid that it would take away from the possibility
of something much more useful, though harder to obtain. I don't think
it's forking the discussion to discuss whether this is a good idea.
Fair
enough.
I've witnessed a number of volunteer web things things that never got
off the ground at all because the requirements snowballed to the point
where it would be really hard to get started. I've now come around to
the position that sometimes, given limited time and resources, and when
one isn't working on life-critical projects, it's worth figuring out
what the minimum effort to do something useful would be, with the idea
that once something is useful it will be easier to find more resources,
and if you get bogged down you've at least got something useful.
So that's my bias in this discussion.
-- Alan