Raw as Archival Still Image Format: A Consideration

Source materials like fine art, over-sized, fragile maps, and delicate artifacts have traditionally been digitally converted through the use of controlled lighting and high resolution scanners and camera backs. In addition the capture of items such as general and special collections bound monographs has recently grown both through consortial efforts like the Internet Archive's Open Content Alliance and locally at the individual institution level. These projects, in turn, have introduced increasingly higher resolution consumer-grade digital single lens reflex cameras or "DSLRs" as a significant part of the general cultural heritage digital conversion workflow. Central to the authors' discussion is the fact that both camera backs and DSLRs commonly share the ability to capture native raw file formats. Because these formats include such advantages as access to an image's raw mosaic sensor data within their architecture, many institutions choose raw for initial capture due to its high bit-level and unprocessed nature. However to date these same raw formats, so important to many at the point of capture, have yet to be considered "archival" within most published still imaging standards, if they are considered at all. Throughout many workflows raw files are deleted and thrown away after more traditionally "archival" uncompressed TIFF or JPEG 2000 files have been derived downstream from their raw source formats [1][2]. As a result, the authors examine the nature of raw anew and consider the basic questions, Should raw files be retained? What might their role be? Might they in fact form a new archival format space? Included in the discussion is a survey of assorted raw file types and their attributes. Also addressed are various sustainability issues as they pertain to archival formats with a special emphasis on both raw's positive and negative characteristics as they apply to archival practices. Current common archival workflows versus possible raw-based ones are investigated as well. These comparisons are noted in the context of each approach's differing levels of usable captured image data, various preservation virtues, and the divergent ideas of strictly fixed renditions versus the potential for improved renditions over time. Special attention is given to the DNG raw format through a detailed inspection of a number of its various structural components and the roles that they play in the format's latest specification. Finally an evaluation is drawn of both proprietary raw formats in general and DNG in particular as possible alternative archival formats for still imaging.

An Inexpensive Alternative to CS Photoshop & Bridge: Archival Master Image Capture and Batch Derivative Creation in Canon Scan Gear & Adobe Photoshop Elements 7

This presentation was made at the Connecticut State Library Service Center, Willimantic, CT, April 14, 2009. It focused on digital capture workflows for both archival and derivative image creation using accepted current standards. Tools used were inexpensive by choice and focused towards the needs of small to mid-sized cultural heritage institutions who wish to begin digital capture in their own facilities.

Cognitive Comparative Advantage and the Organization of Work: Lessons from Herbert Simon's Vision of the Future

In a marvelous but somewhat neglected paper, 'The Corporation: Will It Be Managed by Machines?' Herbert Simon articulated from the perspective of 1960 his vision of what we now call the New Economy the machine-aided system of production and management of the late twentieth century. Simon's analysis sprang from what I term the principle of cognitive comparative advantage: one has to understand the quite different cognitive structures of humans and machines (including computers) in order to explain and predict the tasks to which each will be most suited. Perhaps unlike Simon's better-known predictions about progress in artificial intelligence research, the predictions of this 1960 article hold up remarkably well and continue to offer important insights. In what follows I attempt to tell a coherent story about the evolution of machines and the division of labor between humans and machines. Although inspired by Simon's 1960 paper, I weave many other strands into the tapestry, from classical discussions of the division of labor to present-day evolutionary psychology. The basic conclusion is that, with growth in the extent of the market, we should see humans 'crowded into' tasks that call for the kinds of cognition for which humans have been equipped by biological evolution. These human cognitive abilities range from the exercise of judgment in situations of ambiguity and surprise to more mundane abilities in spatio-temporal perception and locomotion. Conversely, we should see machines 'crowded into' tasks with a well-defined structure. This conclusion is not based (merely) on a claim that machines, including computers, are specialized idiots-savants today because of the limits (whether temporary or permanent) of artificial intelligence; rather, it rests on a claim that, for what are broadly 'economic' reasons, it will continue to make economic sense to create machines that are idiots-savants.

The Old Ball Game: Organization of Nineteenth Century Professional Base Ball Clubs

The first professional base ball clubs came in two varieties: stock clubs, which paid their players fixed wages, and player cooperatives, in which players shared the proceeds after expenses. We argue that stock clubs were formed with players of known ability, while co-ops were formed with players of unknown ability. Although residual claimancy served to screen out players of inferior ability in co-ops, the process was imperfect due to the team production problem. Based on this argument, we suggest that co-ops functioned as an early minor league system where untried players could seek to prove themselves and eventually move up to wage teams. Empirical analysis of data on player performance and experience in early professional base ball provides support for the theory.

The Organization of Consumption

No abstract available.