CompuServe Messages

Sounds like the book publishing biz, eh? I suppose we can assume that sooner or later someone would get around to providing for smaller specific markets. If the return is big enough. Actually making the physical disc is pretty cheap (say, $1500 for mastering and <$2 per disc thereafter) these days. And that includes labels and jewel disc cases. Almost peanuts. [lurkers: discs are stamped from a nickel master negative] Collecting, creating and organizing the data takes mainly time (and for quality, some good digitizing equipment of course). Figuring out the "hyper" navigation paths takes some time, too; along with testing along the way. A single person with an Amiga could certainly do all this, given enough time. Or… a _group_ of Civil War buffs (in your example) could each work on sections, and modem/mail their work to a central coordinator along the way. (This could make clubs of all types quite interesting in the future!) So they could create the disc, raise some money, and have discs stamped. You brought up a possible impasse: would there be enough other buffs with equipment able to read the disc? Dunno. But let's say yes for argument. A commercial venture would involve several hundred thousand dollars in making a disc… and may not see your example as worthwhile. But a club effort (where no one is paid) might indeed pull it off. Hmmm… sounds like home publishing, doesn't it? Fanzines, etc. If I were rich, I'd do something like this: set up a company to provide tools and Amigas… lease them out to clubs, researchers, businesses… and then also provide the service of sending the final version to be mastered. There are a lot of special interest groups in this country who could use such a service. Profitable? Thoughts?