AVSA Andrew wrote (paraphrased and numbered):
1) As a matter of interest, what is the opinion of the forum members on this publication as it stands now?
2) Is it useful? If so, why? If not, why?
3) What about its shelf date - right or too late?
Yes, it is useful - otherwise I probably wouldn't buy it...
As to timing, I suspect the current date has more to do with fewer AVSA deadlines between November & January...
Maybe another question needs to be around the "format" of the Buyer's Guide - in other words, should it be a hardcopy or should it become an electronic reference mechanism on the AVSA website? Or maybe both?
The big problem - from a buyer's perspective - with any hardcopy annual publication of this type is that it can tend to become "obsolete" before it even hits the newsstands. The obsolescence derives from two aspects:
a) Product supercession/product discontinuation/new products require the buyer to wait for the next edition a year later...
b) Pricing information is subject to change due to manufacturers' price-changes and shifts in exchange rates
The main potential problem - from a publisher's perspective - with any electronic reference "database" would be the loss of income from the sales of the hardcopy version (hence the "Or maybe both?" above).
The major effort is going to lie in the initial creation of the "database engine" and "query engine" and NOT in the creation and maintenance of the database.
For any published hardcopy document, the content needs to be available in "machine-readable form" - either supplied by the importers as a softcopy or captured from hardcopy submissions by the publisher. In either case, it would not be a complex exercise to create a "database loader" that would use the "machine-readable form" as input files and create the database.
While that addresses the initial "database creation" aspect, it could potentially be used to handle any maintenance via running the "database loader" in "update mode" instead of "create mode" and still use updated versions of the "machine-readable form" as input files.
What would, however, probably be a better solution to both creation and maintenance of the database, would be to provide "Add/Update Access" to the various distributors which would only allow them to Add/Update products from their ranges and would block access to products from other distributors. This would address the obselescence aspect in terms of both product and pricing.
The end result would be a "queryable database" which could be accessed from a link in the AVSA Home Page and permit queries such as:
- Integrated Amplifier; 50wpc; R5000-R9000
- CD Player; R4000-R7500; Coaxial Digital Output
- Loudspeaker; Floorstander; Sensitivity >89dB; Bi-Wireable
The query response layouts could include all major specifications (if loaded), pricing, e-mail links, dealer listing, etc.
In fact, this database approach - if designed intelligently - could provide the basis for hosting websites for all SA audio distributors and, in this way, could potentially be an income-generating process...
One other question that is usually asked in situations such as these is "What's in it for the distributor to provide this input?"
Website creation and maintenance effort/costs could be minimised (Sorry GD, etc) and website "hit-rates" would probably be higher with this type of query facility.
Comments? Have I been in the IT industry for too long? Or is this sh*t I'm smoking actually working?
