I am suggesting that an extension of the "index" section for scans/photos of vintage catalogs, brochures, and advertisements would be a nice feature to add to the site when it transitions to the new platform.
The population of the forum could crowd-source this documentation as I am sure most of us have a bunch of it cached.
Basically a collaboratively created version of the Danish Furniture Index, but wider in scope. Basically anything you sell on radar, you can document in the index.
Each image would be tagged with maker, designer, year of publication, type of documentation, etc. And each image could be open for commentary.
As a fringe but important benefit, it would bring in significant traffic and outside links (which increase the search ranking of the site) all of which would bring in more money for Patrick & Alix to continue indulge us forum users and improve the site.
thoughts?
Funny Leif, we were just...
Funny Leif, we were just working on this project this morning.
Very good idea of course!
Building a collaborative design "knowledge depository" is our dream since the very beginning of the DA adventure.
For the moment, the system only allow us, the managers, to add content, which obviously limits its growth. But we all have interesting documents that, put all together, could be a source of culturally invaluable information.
In addition to scans / photos of vintage catalogs, brochures, and advertisements, one could also add photos of brands, labels and signatures or pictures of technical details that are useful for identifying and restoring some items.
But there are two obstacles to allow proper development of such tools.
1. The copyright management: How can we determinate if the members add only materials free of copyright or with the permission of the right holders?
2. Reliability: This kind of place needs to be as free as possible of any errors, misattribution, etc. We do not have the time for verified everything (and we do not know ALL!). Obviously, this new index needs to be community managed, but how?
Since we are talking about of this part of the website, our web designers think that the term "index" in not the most appropriate (possible confusion with the homepage). They are probably right. So we have to find another name for it. Short (ideally one word) and easy to understand. Our best try for the moment is FILES. A place with a stack of files on designers and manufacturers where we could collectively add content.
Any other ideas about all this everybody?
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Hi Patrick and Alix,
Well, I was thinking of it in terms of allowing forum members to post the images and to allow commentary on each image, which could include corrections, anecdotes, maybe snappies of their exemplar, etc. Conceptualize it as a special forum where each image is the first post of a thread. Perhaps the section could also have a "flag" button for users to flag any content they think needs moderator review.
And each metadata item about the image (maker, designer, catalog, year, etc) would link to indices of that content with thumbnails and condensed metadata and number of comments. So you can organically browse all of it through those tags.
copyright
seems to me like it would be an unlikely problem. And since it would all fall under the category of "advertising," copyright doesn't apply the same way. If anyone wanted to complain, it would probably be trademark related.
No vintage catalog or advert I've yet seen has a copyright notice.
I would make all the users (forum and otherwise) agree to a user agreement stating the user is responsible/liable for their own content, not DA. And provide a page somewhere with instructions for complaining to DA/requesting a takedown in the case of offensive language or infringing content.
And I am not a lawyer, and so this can't constitute legal advice.
Attached is a link of actual lawyers opining on the general subject.
http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/who-owns-the-copyright-to-old-advertis...
Resources
I like resources. And strike archives, that is confusing for the same reason index is confusing.
Here is an interesting catalog: Pastoe, 1959. Asserted to be in the public domain.
http://archive.org/details/PastoeCatalogus1959-60PastoeCatalogue1959-60P...
Furniture Forum - 1949
Fascinating catalog. Many American designers I've never heard of. Has a section of vintage fabric, bowls, and pottery too.
But the reason I am linking to this: Also asserted to be in the public domain.
http://archive.org/details/FurnitureForumAHandbookOfContemporaryDesign
USA: public domain
This applies in the USA:
- Anything published between 1923 and 1977 WITHOUT a copyright notice is in the public domain.
- Anything published between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice and WITHOUT renewal of that copyright is also in the public domain.
As for the USA, I think that definitely resolves the copyright question.
http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/public-domain-faq
LOVE Furniture Forum
Does anyone know if all the volumes of Furniture Forum have been reproduced or reprinted? If not, why? I watched with great interest recently as a collection of 8 or 9 volumes sold on eBay for about $100 per volume, so I assume they have not been reprinted. I was able to look through several volumes a local dealer had on hand, and was able to find several ID's for pieces I had that I could not find online. I'm sure this resource is no revelation to many members of this forum, but it would be a great service if these catalogs were made available online. I couldn't tell in the link that Leif provided if all the volumes were available. It seems the number of ID requests irks some members of this forum, (understandably so when it's apparent little or no effort was give to research) and I would think having resources like this readily available may relieve some of that.
Great idea,
but I do hope once the proposed Resources section is enabled people will still post requests for ID's to the main forum.
I have learned a great deal about items I would not normally ever run across this way... I would hate for id's to get buried, or have to run through all the latest posts in an ID section (or another sub-section) to avoid missing anything.
I wonder how many people would just go directly ID their item through the Resources section, and then just disappear, without sharing a photo, a story, or even join the forum and participate?
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