Lagondaforum

Subject: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Greetings

Glad to see someone taking the initiative to create this forum.

I have a '34 Abbott tourer and would love to see photos of other owners' cars to aid the restoration.

While I love the monthly Rapier register, it lacks detailed photos and its not really searchable. Which is a shame because there are scores of valuble technical tips as well as hundreds of photos that have been published over the decades. If there were anyway to merge that extremely useful body of knowlege with an online support community (such as this) it would not only make the restoration and maintenance process easier, it could help preserve the Marque for generations to come.

I'm interesed in suggestions on how we may accomplish this.

thanks

Richard

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Richard,

verry good idea, this is just what I think should happen not only for the Rapier. What amount of data are we talking about in Mbyte (number of photos times size of photo if compressed enough but still of acceptable quality) ?

I see 3 options: put it in this forum, create a separate one or create a wiki (wikipedia). I will ask my son Anton, he probably knows more. A wiki for all Lagonda things would be great (I assume for my son it is not a big problem to create the base, it is much work for those contributing later, is like writing a book but with several authors). A possibility is also to start to use this or a separate forum and to switch to a wiki later

If you want to start in this forum (at least as a try), you can tell me the subcategories you want and you have it in five minutes. I think you should have than acces to the Rapier part as a moderator

Peter

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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There is a considerable ammount of data in existance on the Rapier. Unfortunatly it is not yet available in electronic form. There are many photo albums maybe between 20 and 30. All of these have been catalogued but not yet scanned. There is a card index system with detais of each car and it's owners. There is a card index of owners and cars they have owned. There are hundreds of drawings a few of which I have scanned. There is a spreadsheet listing many of the drawings but this is not yet complete. There is an index of technical articles from the News updated regularly. I collated the original technical notes and the available articles many years ago but that predated word processors. This was published in 1977. In the late 1990s I had all subsequent technical articles keyed in. In an attempt to produce comprehensive technical notes I started with the first chapter and published it as the Data Book in 1995. This now needs revision mainly as a resut of new information coming to light. When I have found a satisfactory WordStar to Word converter I guess that progress will be made.
All of these projects need a terrific ammount of work and there are not enough hours available. I was involved with the digitisation of some of the Bugatti information and know what is involved.
Who can help and where will the several GB of data be stored?

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Dear Paul,

To store 100s of GB of data on a PC is no problem but not on a server on the net. Alternatively there are other ways that people can be given acces to your computer. But the question is if that is needed.

If you mail me a wordstar document, we can try out some converters (best you tell us which you know do not work satisfactory)

What about posting here a detailed overview (content) of what is available, then at least if somebody is looking for special information, he can ask you directly. We can create a separate category for this.

Best regards
Peter

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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I have boxes of the Rapier register back issues (10 -15 years).

For the last year I was thinking about getting them scanned with OCR software. If its only text, then it shouldn't occupy too much space would it?

I undertand hi res photos would take up a lot of space, but just archiving the text of the articles is something I though could be the first step in an online seachable knowledgebase. (we can work on a photo database in phase 2)

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Hi

Just an idea:
What about myspace. Its free and a good place for a Rapiers .
made one for the 12/24 and earlier

Groeten
Patrick

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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or simply use this forum, it is free to the users too (the little cost are paid by me) and it is free of adds or popups. Only if we come into the Gigabytes we would have to upgrade somewhat, but I think the content of what is available plus some (100) images would help already. May be it is to much work to scan everything.

If Paul wants to digitise all, he would have to store it on his computer (no problem for several 100 Gbyte). And give access to people who ask for.

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Please keep going, gentlemen...
Tom Bibb

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Hi,

Sounds an interesting project though I'm not a Rapier owner (LG45).

I'd be surprised if you need several gigabyte of space - that'd be thousands of images at quite a large size. I'm a graphic designer by profession and maintain a few websites which are image heavy. As a rough guide 500 images at 600 x 460 pixels would take up around 120 mb or so. And that's at a high jpeg setting (fussy clients). Less if jpegged down a bit. You save space too by making sure black and white photos are scanned as greyscale and not RGB (colour). If the images are big you use a lot of bandwidth as well as storage space.

Text takes up much less space than an image so OCR scanning is the best way to do text. You do need to proof read it though as, for instance, an "r" and a "n" close together can turn into an "m" etc. Or at least run a spell checker. You do need to get the original flat on the scanner which can be a problem if in a book. A blurred edge of a photo scanned from a book may be acceptable but if it's text you end up having to key in the missing bits as the software won't read the bit you can't get flat. So really depends what your originals are whether OCR is practical.

Also don't ignore copyright issues.

David Eldred

Subject: Re: Creating a Rapier knowledge base on line?

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Hi All. Have a look at the Model t club site at http://www.modelt.org Then have a look at the tech corner on the blue bar at the bottom of the screen. In my opinion this is how a club site should work lots of info with a good tech support area including photos showing details of how a part was repaired. Large files such as operating manuals etc can be down loaded via PDF format (Anybody can down load PDF but can’t alter the text) Other data that is in various formats such as scans large photos tech drawing etc can be purchased via the club on DVD’s which helps with the running costs also helps keep the club site manageable. There are large amount of information about all aspects of the Lagonda’s of all models but on paper which is difficult, slow and expencive to manage. You can put this articles’-photos-scans on a website like Youtube BUT! If this site is taken off the Web everything is lost.
Should this type of site not be run by the Lagonda club and cover ALL models? I know the club is looking at a web site; here is a fully working model which could be adapted to the needs of the Lagonda club with minimal outlay as the database is already in existence.
I could go on put you get the idea!

Peter

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