K8JE wrote:
I accept everything you have said about current issues of news/information publications as regards older birds such as us. On the other hand, would it be desirable and, maybe, even fiscally responsible to post past issues of our major publications online? I don't know how far back doing this would be a relatively simple operation, but to the extent it would be an easy task to post existing digital copy on the ARRL web site, it might be a decent member service to initiate.
I agree that posting "archival" digital documents is a far different thing than providing current editions that way. In considering this, some may argue that the (recently deceased) program of publishing QST and other journals via multi-year CD-ROM could not be sustained. To forestall this, I'd like to point out that the interface provided for these issues was a severe impediment to actually using them. Also, on some of the very old versions, the scans were quite atrocious. I think a casual user would be deterred from further purchases by the lack of user-friendliness. An important dimension for a technical subject, such as ham radio, is that if the documents are in PDF or similar formats (i.e., not images), they can be made full-text searchable. There are times when this can be a great benefit. Even though we are limited in how many years our electronic copies go back, we could at least begin from that time forward, then continue to add with each new year of publications. Obviously, the revenue model will be critical here. -- 73, Greg, KØGW Vice Director, Dakota Division