The Early Days of Bookshare

FEBRUARY 8, 2012 http://blog.bookshare.org/2012/02/08/the-early-days-of-bookshare/

Well looks like once again I will be in Bookshare.org / Beneblog limbo:

1. John E. Miller PERMALINK February 10, 2012 1:59 pm Please Note: Your comment is awaiting moderation. I remember my earliest days with Bookshare.org it was 2003 and I had just (proudly) become a US Library of Congress Certified Braille Transcriber. I read on the Bookshare website that they were requesting anyone who had edited proofread BRF Braille files to contact and maybe provide such files to Bookshare. I sent several emails to Bookshare saying that I had several such volumes that I had pains-takingly entered via 6-key as back then I had no scanning / OCR / automated Braille translation capabilities. But I never received a reply. Nothing. I did not again come in contact with Bookshare until 2007 but that is a whole nother story. REPLY 2. John E. Miller PERMALINK February 10, 2012 5:03 pm Please Note: Your comment is awaiting moderation. BTW the wording from the original Bookshare.org website c/ 2002-2005 (which I have saved) was: BRF (Digital Braille) Bookshare.org accepts submissions of BRF files, so if you have access to carefully proofread BRF files, we welcome you to submit them as the quality will likely be better than what the Bookshare.org software automatically generates for its downloadable BRF files.

This is what the Bookshare.org was saying in 2003:

Support
Basic Format Information Download Formats
BRF (Digital Braille) Bookshare.org accepts submissions of BRF files, so if you have access to carefully proofread BRF files, we welcome you to submit them as the quality will likely be better than what the Bookshare.org software automatically generates for its downloadable BRF files.

Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization Copyright 2002-2005.

Bookshare Passes 150,000 Student Members & 125,000 Titles, Wins New Award -- I kid JimF that he is originally from Chicago and has this McDonalds numbers complex: Bookshare Millions Served

My real concerns regarding Bookshare.org are two-fold: 1. I believe that any one who legally and legitimately receives Braille BRF file materials in the USA should be allowed to have that file in the best quality Braille possible and that no contractual agreement with the provider of such material should prevent the Braille reader from obtaining that end. 2. I think that some of the Bookshare.org efforts at the WIPO SCCR sessions along with other well-meaning organizations have become counter-productive to the end such that materials in accessible formats at least in Braille can be more widely reproduced and distributed on a world-wide basis. All one has to do is read the recent WIPO SCCR interventions by some of the groups including Bookshare.org who were involved in drafting the original WBU/Brazil SCCR18_5 Treaty Proposal. Those in favor of a binding international Treaty believe that there is some mandate either in the Universal Declaration of Human rights or the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities that compels the adoption of such a Treaty. Those who oppose such a Treaty do not seem to agree.