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Author Topic: Frank's websites  (Read 14548 times)

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Offline Frank

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Frank's websites
« on: July 24, 2007, 09:17:33 PM »
Ysartglass.com It all started with newsletters I published in the 1980/90's on Monart, Vasart and Strathearn and the book in 1990... they went on line circa 1999 and it slowly grew. 2001 saw me classed as to old to work and I worked full time on the site for 2 years and went through two complete makeovers. It still has some loose ends and a backlog of images to put live but the way it was built got too labour intensive and I needed to find an income. My personal view is that Ysart Glass is the result of well over 100 collectors sharing their knowledge - a superb example of collaborative publishing! It's peak was a glass conference organised via the GMB in Scotland - a great success.  Parts of Ysartglass will be migrating to Scotland's Glass in the future. But the core will remain.

Scotland's Glass initially started as a list of people recorded in research on Scottish Glass but quickly turned into a more ambitious scheme to record everyone who had or has worked in glass. A task much to big for one person to achieve. It has been built using software that allows anyone to get involved in building the site and it is very close to being stable enough for others to join in with me to continue its growth. I am not actively looking for people yet, but if anyone who is already doing research in the area is interested - do get in touch.

The Glass Zoo Several years ago I decided to put some examples of the lampwork animals made by Pirelli Glass onto the Ysart site, just to expand on the existing article. Well, it seemed to attract interest and I got infected by others enthusiasm... the collection grew and naturally other makes crept in, research started to throw up interesting snippets... but there was virtually nothing written outside of the USA on the vast array of glass figures made by almost every glassworks on the planet! I thought hey, I can do a Scotland's Glass for animals to give collectors a way of expanding knowledge together. However, my financial problems deteriorated and I need to either close my sites or charge. I decided to introduce a subscription system - the only problem was would people contribute and pay or would they pay and still contribute? A few months down the line the answer has proven yes. And this site covers the basic expenses for all the above. Once a security hole is repaired the images in the Zoo can be referenced anywhere for discussion - as with any book but with just a little more freedom as long as they are fully link-referenced and the copyright respected.

The Glass Study This is the end result of a business concept that has been planned for five years, but having got seriously burnt with one publishing venture, I needed someone to take on the role of managing the business while I dealt with the publishing. A couple of candidates were found but both withdrew so I switched the concept to an on-line facility and the first part of this was a five year project to digitise over 400 books and original catalogues.
Phase one of this effort (books & periodical only) is a fully searchable library which I hope will ultimately offer free access, phase two The Glass Catalogue does the same for the original catalogues but not in the way it is normally done. Phase three will follow when those are complete - although adding more texts will continue indefinitely. In order to do this I need to make my living from it and I have set an annual subscription of 30 Euros. Membership to the Glass-Study gives free membership to the Glass-Catalogue and The Glass Zoo. It is my hope that the membership reaches sufficient levels that a charitable fund can start to be built and eventually its income reduce and then replace subscriptions. I know I can build a site with voluntary help from the glass community, can I build one with funding from the glass community is another question... I do not know!

The Glass Catalogue was opened this week but is very much in a beginning state and until it has some complete catalogues included is only accessible to Glass-Study members.

Thanks for reading all that!

Note: All sites respect copyright and in the Glass-Study publications that are still in copyright will be fully indexed so that searches at least reveal where to find information. Out of copyright material is fully digitised. This means that there will be erroneous information being republished - where it is known the text is annotated to indicate the items of concern. Visitors can also advise of errors and the information added to the original text. Spelling mistakes are corrected where certain and highlighted if questionable. All images are fully restored and very high resolution copies are stored for use in books etc.

It is intended to provide language facilities for the major European languages and with assistance any language can be added for navigation. 
There is no direct connection between my websites and Angela Bowey's sites other than references in various threads and posts and my signature line of course.

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2007, 12:11:28 PM »
OK Kev, most of my glass projects are very long term and I always seem to have several thousand images waiting to be uploaded.

Update on the Glass Catalogue. It now has a few complete catalogue contents, Moser 1948, Stevens and William 1893, Bruder Rachmann 1907, Chance Bros 1930 and is also being used for Glass-Study member projects, two that show on this site are Decorated Glassware and Numbered Glassware. I expect to offer direct subscriptions to this site in early 2008, Glass Study subscribers have full access now.

Update on Scotland's Glass: Over 2,500 Scottish glass items in catalogues illustrated by over 6,000 images - still a drop in the ocean. Biggest need for this site is articles from others with an interest in Scottish Glass including active glass workers. Latest addition has been the work of fused and stained glass artist Eilidh Mackenzie, an article will be appearing shortly. The forums are starting to get used too. A recent addition has been a catalogue section on Scottish themes, glass decorated with Scottish motifs but possibly, or certainly, not made in Scotland, for example exhibition ware and commemorative pieces of glass.

Update on Glass Zoo. Growing steadily 434 figures, over half of which are identified, some with several examples - coverage is lampwork, blown, moulded, sculpted glass with the only criteria being animal shape or human shape, including abstract but excluding decoration... although if anyone wanted to use the site to showcase their collection of animal decoration on glass - get in touch. This site has a very long way to go, as glass has been used for figures since Egyptian times as well as by almost every glassworks in addition to all the homeworkers!

Update on Glass Study. 80% of my time is on this site which is intended to provide me with an income as well as build a fund to allow preservation of web-sites. Currently well over 2,000 pages of content, mostly from obscure and scarce resources (Books, articles, extracts, magazines, directories and ephemera.) and growing weekly. While intended to be fully multilingual only the German navigation is complete. Content is mostly English (US, UK and International) but there is some German language content and one item on sheet glass in four languages (adding French and Spanish). Criteria of inclusion is glass.

If anyone would like to get involved in translating the navigation and all site notices to any other language, they will get a free subscription. German translation involved about two weeks work, and ongoing occasional updates - you must be willing to commit to maintain for 5 years and provide references.

Update on Ysart Glass. Very little other than minor corrections and additions, a large project on Moncrieff trademarks is nearly complete with 8 pages being added in the near future.

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #2 on: February 29, 2008, 02:29:09 PM »
Update: A fully researched update to my original bibliography is now available free to all on the Glass-Study. Built and still growing with community help.

Early version of the software has some problems but is generally usable. Use the Search field not the Author/Title filter to locate text in the abstracts etc. After the first search more search options are available.

Authors, publishers and collectors are asked to give details of books, articles, catalogues and CDs etc. published post 1940 to help it grow. Opinions and reviews are accepted in any language.

The format used is a public one that allows subsets to be downloaded for inclusion in other more specialised bibliographies, various free software exists for presenting it on web pages. Anyone copying the entire database will be deemed in breach of copyright, so please discuss your intentions first and always provide a link to the original source which will be subject to ongoing review.

As with all my sites there are no commercial aspects. If you want to obtain one of the books listed you will have to find it yourself. The original biblio spawned many requests to buy the books listed.  ::)

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #3 on: February 29, 2008, 03:46:33 PM »
At some stage a list of antiquarian booksellers will be added. People can always help voluntarily support the effort by joining one of the pay sites - and gaining additional benefit too.

Also, as I will be getting institutional help in populating for post 1940, that would also give cause for some to back away as their rules preclude providing for commercial purposes. Without such help it would be impossible to make this comprehensive.

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Offline josordoni

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #4 on: February 29, 2008, 03:57:03 PM »
At some stage a list of antiquarian booksellers will be added. People can always help voluntarily support the effort by joining one of the pay sites - and gaining additional benefit too.

Also, as I will be getting institutional help in populating for post 1940, that would also give cause for some to back away as their rules preclude providing for commercial purposes. Without such help it would be impossible to make this comprehensive.

that makes sense, and that kind of funding should bring you in a sight more than just commissions. 

Thank you very much!

Lynne
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Josordoni Collectables - eBay Store

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #5 on: February 29, 2008, 04:08:52 PM »
Not funding, just data.

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Offline josordoni

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #6 on: February 29, 2008, 04:10:04 PM »
oh that's a shame...

institutional funding would be very useful  Is there no EU grant money for research available?
Thank you very much!

Lynne
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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #7 on: February 29, 2008, 06:10:36 PM »
Not without a piece of paper that I don't have. So I just rely on collectors and dealers who have benefited from what I do by subscribing. Quite a few do. But it also has to be borne in mind that hundreds of people have shared pictures, snippets of knowledge. So in that sense the free parts is payback to them. The sharing economy is still a relatively small part of the web and has reached the stage where sophisticated software that is almost as good as the paid for stuff is widely available. The knowledge sharing part has yet to provide support for the gatherers and providers that are raising the quality of based material in many areas.

The Glass Zoo is proof that the concept of paying a little for access to a site can work, before the Zoo existed only a handful of Pirelli lampwork had been identified - in the Zoo it is over 140 now and several previously unknown makers have emerged. I expect the Glass-Catalogue will also prove popular once it is possible to subscribe to it, the Glass-Study is something else and most people doubt it is worth joining. In fact I have had more nasty, obscene and abusive mails about being greedy then members so far. Yet it has already unlocked knowledge for many queries on the GMB and for its members. Being a pioneer is never easy and it will take several years to fully implement the entire concept that has been planned. The current annual fee will increase substantially as the volume of contents grows.

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2008, 03:45:47 PM »
The Zoo continues its growth - thanks everyone: Of course not just animals... figurals too!

Well over 600 inmates with over 2,000 images including:

American Glass Co. - Avon Cosmetic - Baccarat - Balmers Glass Fabrications - Bayel - Bols - Bridge Crystal - ? Burke (US) - Caithness Glass Co. Ltd. - CALP (RCR) - Cambridge Glass US - Central Glass Co. - Chance - Charleton - Chatur & Co. Derbyshire & Sons - Duncan and Miller - Harry Ellaway - Exbor - Fenton - Wynand Fockink - Fostoria Glass Company - G Marquet, Veuve et Fils, Verreries SA. - Glassbobbery - Goebel - Goose-Khrystalny Glassworks - Gozo Glass, Malta. - Heisey - Heron Glass - Holmegaard - Iittala - Imperial Glass Co. James Powell & Sons - Jangles - Kristaluxus - Lalique - Langham Glass Ltd - Lauscha - Libbey Glass - Liberty Glass Co. - Libochovice CZ - Lindshammar Glasbruk - Marcolin Art Crystal - Matrau - Mdina Glass - Mikasa - Alessandro Moretti - Morgantown Glass - Mosser Glass - Mtarfa Glass Blowers Ltd. - Murano, Italy - Nachtmann Bleikristall - Nazeing Glass Works Ltd. - New Martinsville - Ngwenya Glass - Nuutajärvi-Notsjö glass - Owens Illinois Glass Co. - Paden City Glass - Pirelli Glass Ltd, UK - Powell/Whitefriars - Pukeberg Glasbruk - Reijmyre Glasbruk - richardson - Riihmäen lasi - Rynbende - Sabino - Schade & Buysing - Selkirk Glass - Sklo Union - L E Smith - Spojené České Sklárny - Steuben Glass Works - Swarovski - Vasart - Verrerie d'Art de Bendor - Walther - Waterford Crystal - Wedgwood Glass - Whitefriars. And many others

Countries:


Africa, Austria, China, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Éire, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine, USA.

Lots more to come!

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Offline Frank

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Re: Franks websites
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2008, 07:23:34 PM »
Scotland's Glass nearly has 3,000 items in the catalogue now, a lot more from Edinburgh Crystal will be added this week and with help from Josordoni and Wolf just completed Caithness paperweights from 1969-1979 - there will be more images added to those as available at some point in the future.

Please support Scotlands Glass by signing up to one of my pay-sites,  :D purse is a little bare  :-\ Zoo costs just 10 Euros per 2 years and the Glass Study/Catalogue 30 per year (first year not officially started yet.)

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