| Jan 11, 2006 | Listing of Galleries and Dealers | |
| | There are several new resources that are well in hand for 1 February 2006. The first is a super-charged listing of significant galleries and dealers that handle photography. The key point that will make this different from a simplistic directory listing is the integration with the themes, photographers, exhibitions and other resources. This will improve the site by starting to include the considerable expertise of dealers and collectors and I'm very excited about this. The mutual benefits of this participation will become apparent when the enhanced virtual exhibitions start to come on-line but more about that later.
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| Jan 11, 2006 | Quality assurance | |
| | Improving data quality is essential and Greg is now dealing with the letter 'S' - this is remarkable progress and we are expecting to have the photographers checked by the end of January - well ahead of schedule. We will then commence filling in gaps wherever we can.
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| Jan 2, 2006 | Plans for 2006 | |
| | The coming year will be busy and there are some key projects that are proceeding:
- The preliminary checking of all the data on the existing 2,000 photographers and Greg Drake has that well in hand and we are now up to the letter 'M'.
- By the end of January there will be the initial release of the prototype 'Knowledge enlarger' - this will allow people to find out who are the experts in a specific area.
- Work is continuing on a system to embed your questions and information needs into the website.
- The integration of high quality biographies will go ahead through the year. (Project Get-A-Life)
- Project Authenticate will start to acquire and integrate photographic authentication data and images.
- The first virtual exhibitions are being prepared for release.
- Initial work on creating an index to major photographic data sets is continuing.
- The objective is to have a quality reviewed history of photography on-line by the end of 2006.
There are other lines of development in hand and they will be announced as soon as possible. It will be a very productive year. All the best, Alan
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| Dec 29, 2005 | Timelines | |
| | The TIMELINES are being developed and I'd welcome input from photo-historians and others interested. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people with different perspectives on the history of photography; for example chemists, stereograph historians, people who study the photography of, and by, minorities.
More...
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| Dec 21, 2005 | Knowledge sharing | |
| | I have also been working on preparing the information we will need when we start the knowledge sharing parts of the site.
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| Dec 21, 2005 | Progress being made | |
| | The last few days have been busy and Greg has just completed checking the biographical details of photographers up to the letter 'E'. This will provide, when completed in about two months, the most reliable on the internet for biographical information on photographers. If you see any errors please let us know as data quality is critical to all of us.
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| Dec 18, 2005 | Quality assurance - Great news | |
| | I'm delighted to say that Greg Drake will be assisting with the quality assurance of this site. Photo-historians will be aware of his work as an editor on various editions of the reference "Index to American Photographic Collections" while at George Eastman House.
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| Dec 17, 2005 | What's next? | |
| | I was asked recently what my plans are and it made me think and so I've decided to set some goals. Firstly the plan is to continue the development of the underlying software to incorporate sophisticated features that encourage collaboration and awareness throughout all sectors of the photo-history community. Secondly by enhancing existing content I intend to produce a thematically based illustrated history of photography that is peer reviewed and made available on the web by the end of 2006. Biographies will be included along with illustrative examples including sophisticated virtual exhibitions on different themes. It is impossible to produce a single definitive history of photography, as there are so many different viewpoints, but this work will be sufficiently flexible to allow for future developments. Is anybody ready for a challenge like this?
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| Dec 13, 2005 | Project Get-A-Life | |
| | Many of you will have detailed biographies for photographers on this site and if you are willing to share I'll incorporate the material. Full credits will be given with links to you, your books, websites, copyright etc. How far this project goes is limited only by what we are prepared to share.
More...
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| Dec 12, 2005 | Data standards and normalization | |
| | If you don't know these terms don't worry about it as I'll explain. When one creates data sets, for example a list of photographers, it is crucial that we can exchange them with others as easily as possible and so I'm planning for that. This is part of the reason why this site includes Getty ULAN (Union List of Artists Names) codes and references to the 'Art and Architecture Thesaurus'; although these systems may seem far removed from photography they aren't and are important for how we share information or will share it in the future. If any of you are involved on data standards or normalization groups for the exchange of biographical information on photographers then please get in touch. For everybody else - sorry but this will be important in making all our lives easier down the line so we might as well plan for it.
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LuminousLint 
@LuminousLint