FW: USA: Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a page from Napster

[jwantz at hpcc2.hpcc.noaa.gov]

Hi Gena,
I thought the cost of k1000 and Openbook Ruby were the same.  I run 
k1000 on a WINDOWS machine and the image files use tiff format.  As far 
as I know Ruby does as well.  I doubt they want image files though I 
haven't read their web page yet.  I assume they want processed text.

     Jim Wantz
On 
Fri, 15 Mar 2002, Georgina wrote:

> Hi
> 
> Please see my message on the cost of producing these books.  To say that 
> someone with low income can recooperate some or all of their costs is got to 
> be missleading.
> 
> As you already know my feelings on the cost of K1000 there's no need for me 
> to go into that but if someone can't afford a scanner and K1000 or even Open 
> Book Ruby, how are they going to recooperate some or all of the cost?
> 
> Surely, corretcing is out of the question too?  Firstly, they'd have to go 
> and buy the book and then be able to compare words and other symbols on the 
> screen with that on the printed pages of the book.
> 
> Furthermore, that's if they can afford to use Windows to use the above ocr 
> packages.  I understood that the image files were also required, thus only 
> Windows users might and I say might be the only ones to be able to submit 
> scanned material.  What is the required format?
> 
> It'll be very interesting to see how many people will be in a position to 
> submit material to the project.
> 
> Gena
> 
> 
> 
> >Actually, the cost is $50 per year.  First year there is a $25 setup fee.
> >But as stated, if you contribute by submitting books that you scan,
> >correct errors and do what they call Publish to submit books already
> >uploaded and/or do what is known as Basic Publish whereby you clean-up
> >their database to reflect appropriate information about the entried
> >therein, you earn fifty cents per title.  To download and correct a book,
> >you earn $2.50.  Do ten of those per year, you earn half of your annual
> >membership.
> >
> >So, there are ways that a person with limited income resources can benefit
> >and still use the service.
> >
> >Amanda Lee
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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