Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!pacbell.com!ames!haven!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: CD-ROM documents (was Paperless Office)
Message-ID: <28083@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 90 10:00:50 GMT
References: <1990Nov16.234227.3246@cs.cmu.edu> <11191@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <00940487.15804140@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 28

(I have no idea what this has to do with computer architecture...)

In article <00940487.15804140@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU
(Doug Mohney) writes:
[$799 ACM CD-ROM]
>So what format are the papers in? Were they scanned in or are we
>talking simple ASCII text? Compilation of the works cost someone a
>certain amount of time and energy, plus the initial mastering of the
>disk (some number greater than $2 bucks).

Musician friends tell me that you can walk into a CD house with a digital
master tape, plunk down $2000, and walk out with a digital master tape
and 1000 CDs.  This means that the cost is $2/CD for very low volumes,
hence only lower for reasonable volumes.  I have no idea whether CD-ROMs
use the same mastering techniques as music CDs, but a good estimate for
100% markups at two levels of delivery would put CD-ROM prices at around
$5 each, *provided* that the equivalent of `making the master tape' was
free.

Personally, I would imagine people would happily pay the same as the
total price of the year's issues for a year-end CD-ROM of a technical
journal.  Shipping this should cost much less than shipping a year's
worth of the journal!  (Libraries would pay this, and then get rid of
the paper version, so as to fit more in less space.  Shelf space is
expensive!)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 405 2750)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris