the electronic age and the SCTA

[bbb]

has anyone within the SCTA entertained the idea of creating a CD to be issued with or as an alternative to the paperbound rulebook? The amount of information that could be shared on it could be enormous. The costs minimal. thomas jefferson knew there was a better way to make two copies than using his stenograph invention.

rules books
record books
photo albums from the previous year
historical photos
historical footnotes
photos of record breaking vehicles and riders/drivers from the previous year.
in memorium of landracing immortals
in memorium of landracers passing from the previous year.

there is a ton of information not currently available in any format that people who became interested in LSR via WFS movie can learn about the entirety we call land speed racing. it can all be protected to preserve copyright concerns.

If the SCTA has an interest in developing something like this, I have the time, ability, software and willingness to help make it happen.

[aircap]

I'm not a member, nor a racer - but this sounds like a swell idea!

[Glen]

The rule book is printed for paid up members. It can be purchased by non members. If everything was put on a CD everyone would be copying it for their pals. The book is $10.00 and is copyrighted for our protection. The minimal cost helps pay for the day to day operation of the events.

The Bonneville program gives a page to our lost friends from the past, Other bits of history are also in the program. Become a member and you get a rule book, a bonneville program, and if you join a member club you get a monthly lakes program as well and decals, posters etc.

The operating costs for 6 lakes meets and 2 meets on the salt are expensive and we don't need to provide information such as the rule book free to the whole world.

[hotrod]

I think your missing his point!

He is trying to suggest a way to add value to the rule book and increase your revenue, ------ not create a freebie giveaway!

we don't need to provide information such as the rule book free to the whole world.

To publish the written rule book, my best estimate on  printing costs  in volume, based on the hand book I self published a few years ago, is that it costs SCTA at least, $5.00 each for a sale price of $10.00 = net return $5.00 minus all the storage and handling costs.

Same material on CD - cost of CD 50 cents @ sale cost of $10.00 net return $9.50. Also now with both formats available, many people will buy both a printed copy and a CD = net return on each racer $14.50, rather than $5.00.

More useful space for advertisers on the CD, means more visibility to their ads = easier to sell ad space and for them to justify placing the ad in the first place, which would result in secondary return of more capital.

The material on a CD can be copy protected in various ways.

It would not matter in any case, if folks did make copies because it would have zero impact on the SCTA. First under copyright law it is perfectly legal for them to copy the complete rule book for their own use.
Second under the "fair use" concept it is legal for them to copy parts of the book for "educational purposes".  Even if they did copy the full book and pass it off to a few friends, it would have no measurable impact on rule book sales as they would still want a hard copy book for the salt if they were serious racers.

The rules package is there primarily, to provide a safe racing environment, not to earn revenue. Getting some revenue from it is a nice side benefit, but you could make so much more revenue if you added value with a package as mention in the original post. With the added material you could charge considerably more for the CD version yet it would cost the SCTA 1/10th as much to produce.

All the other major racing organizations are currently publishing their rules in electronic form in addition to hard copy books. It actually increases the visibility of the organization, as the rules are the first and most important look at the organization by new racers. They still acquire a written rule book for the very reasons posted in the other thread. You want a pocket book when you get there to carry around anyway.

Trust me it would pay big dividends to the SCTA to make an electronic copy available.

Larry

[delawarecrew]

there is no such thing as total copyright protection

if its easy to copy dvds and other seriously encripted media  you could easily copy a rule book no sweat.

[bbb]

but you cant have it both ways.

it has been stated in several other parallel conversations that many of the SCTA long term members are not "electronicly adept" as of yet; if ever.
do you really think people are not photocopying the hard copy manual?

think added value. there are many many programs that encrypt the info in such a way that if reproduced, it is useless to the new end user. it is in no way foolproof, but the potential few dollars "lost" with E copies are more than made up by the total volume of E copies sold.

in the end, do you think steve forbes wants to wait for a hard copy to arrive or do you think he would rather install the CD on all 34 of his PC's?

[AJR192]

So does that make you a criminal for loaning your copy of the rulebook to someone else???

[Glen]

Don't hold your breath

[bbb]

trust me, I'm not.

[dwarner]

"has anyone within the SCTA entertained the idea of creating a CD to be issued with or as an alternative to the paperbound rulebook?

rules books
record books
photo albums from the previous year
historical photos
historical footnotes
photos of record breaking vehicles and riders/drivers from the previous year.
in memorium of landracing immortals
in memorium of landracers passing from the previous year."

As the sole person doing the physical rule book I sort of like this idea. The rule book is a yearly project which includes soliciting changes, researching the changes, providing a pre-meeting adgenda, monitoring the rules meeting, taking the meeting results and putting into rule book format, preparing this document for voting, explaining the impact of each change to the board during the voting process. Once this is done I work with the printer changing the previous rule book with the new updates. This part of the process includes spell check, record upadates, redoing mis-printed records after researching the valitiy of the claimed record. Then I sort thru hundreds of photos to choose representative class icons amongf other items I can't think of of the top of my head.

The above is just the car side. I still must attend the motorcycle rules meeting and redo that process for their deal.

On going I try to get approval of changes to the rule book such as my idea this year to slim down the book by moving things like records to another format. All these things take time because I rely on the people involved to work my requests into their schedules. This is all volunteer time on everyones part, hard to fire free help.

All that said, I like the idea of providing a cd of the current book along with the purchase of the hard copy book. Items one and two would be pretty simple to accomplish. If the costs are as stated, I know nothing about creating a cd, it sounds beneficial.

While all this is going on I am still employed, have a family, a street rod, a racing program, a yard to mantain (got a neighbor who is the lawn sheriff) and attend every dry lakes meet to perform my duty as the Chief Impound dude. I also maintain the driver's license database and attempt to keep up with those requests.

I may be able to do the cd with items one and two if someone can point me to where to go to research the process.

Help would be appreciated, bbb want ot come to California a few times to assist? Your dime of course.

DW

[bbb]

Dan,

I am in Virginia until next summer and then it looks as if I am going to Buffalo long term... however, I think some of this stuff might be easier to manage than you might think.

I will PM you my contact info and we can chat via the phone and exchange some of your known info with what I think you/SCTA needs to make the CD happen. there are assumedly people and processes already in place that can make this media easy to assemble.

thanks

[joea]

now this is cool...........

I get to learn even MORE about how freakin
awesome our SCTA guys are and appreciate
more and more about the extent of their
volunteering.............is PHENOMENAL..........!!!!!!

AND I get to learn more about the extensive
expertise.......available from the newer blood.........

and see it become intertwined..........most definately
sooner than ever...........thanks to the electronic era.........

Joe

[dwarner]

Yeah, but who will fill in items 3-6?

No one has stepped up yet.

DW

[joea]

I make a motion that Freud IS THE MAN FOR THIS (with a helper)
.............my brother just seconded it........

 his south dakota grandkids  3'rd and 4th'd it.............

lets make it happen..........

Joe

[bbb]

does the scta have an "official photographer?"
is there an "historian?"
are the electronic copy lists of record breakers from year to year? points lists and club winners lists?