MAP material digitization

[The Archivist]

Those with an interest in the topic or relevant materials to share are warmly invited to get in touch.

[The Archivist]

Exposure, I feel, is more important than finding the material, as we already have more material than can be shared efficiently.

Exposure is the domain of museums, yet museums themselves are inconceivable without archives.

Naturally, the notion of a MAP museum — if it were ever a worthwhile endeavour, even in a post-acceptance world — is entirely unfeasible at present. However, let me emphasise once more: archives are not intended for exposure. Their purpose is primarily to exist in their own right, until some individual or institution finds cause to utilise them.

[Jim Burton]

I don't see the point of controlling access unless your documents are subject to copyright or only useful to a select number of individuals.

We have a MAP museum called NewgonWiki; I'm looking to expand the range of historical documents it makes available to members of the public.

[Outis]

A great initiative. I'd love to contribute but I don't know what I could contribute from where I am.
I'd love to have access to the archives because I'm fascinated by the history of the map movement. In fact I was talking recently about the importance of maps who were part of the advocacy movements of the 70s and 80s to write down what they remember about these periods because there's a lot of good history and learning there we don't want to lose.

[The Archivist]

So I have this idea: wouldn't it be nice to have an audiobook of O'Carroll's Paedophilia: The Radical Case? It's 45th anniversary, after all.

[FairBlueLove]

So I have this idea: wouldn't it be nice to have an audiobook of O'Carroll's Paedophilia: The Radical Case? It's 45th anniversary, after all.

Absolutely!

Do you also have an idea on how to realize it? Of course Tom's voice would be best. A good "voice actor" like Little Nicky or our RoosterDance would be great.

I can offer text to speech using AI. I could try to replicate Tom's voice (in case, I would obviously ask him for permission).

[RoosterDance]

I do have some experience with making audio books. I could help with this one.

[The Archivist]

I’ve had a go with some AI audio apps, and I must say they’re not quite as good as they’re made out to be, haha. Here’s a snippet from O'Carroll’s preface.

FairBlueLove:
Of course Tom's voice would be best

Well, it’s a solid choice, but for me it’s second best. However, I do wonder if there’s a way to recover his ‘original’ voice from the time he was writing the book.

FairBlueLove:
A good "voice actor" like Little Nicky [...] would be great.

I did consider him, but more in the context of dubbing Loving Sander. It’s relatively short, so it ought to be easier for a real person to produce. It’s by an American author, so Little Nicky’s accent fits perfectly. As for O'Carroll’s book, I picture it with a British accent so posh, even Prince George might raise an eyebrow

[The Archivist]

I've been looking at the Ipce website for some time now, and I find myself wondering how Frans is doing. He's in his eighties now and, naturally, won't be around forever. What becomes of the site is one matter, but there's also the 'Documentation' section, which hasn't been digitised.

Much of the material may already be available online – such as newspaper articles – but some of it is extremely rare, like transcripts of TV appearances by the AMBLA chairperson or snippets from the German pedo movement. There's also a significant number of items (in Dutch) that aren't even listed on the website at all. Once Frans passes away, there's a real risk that the archive could be lost or closed to the public, much like what happened with the Brongersma's archive.

If we repeat in the 2020s the same mistakes made with Brongersma’s collection in the 1990s, I swear I’ll lose my mind.

As I understand it, many of the entries marked with '@' already exist in digital form, whether as screenshots or native PDFs. Perhaps we, as an organisation, could take steps to acquire copies – so that Frans doesn't feel compelled to hand out files to random individuals on the internet.

And then there are the undigitised files from the 1990s. I firmly believe we ought to encourage Frans to make these available beyond his personal archive. Maybe some of our Dutch members (like JeroentheGoon or neveragain72) could help facilitate this? Just a suggestion.

[Jim Burton]

When Frans can no longer manage Ipce (he says this day is not far away), the site will be run as an archive. All of the materials added by Frans will be preserved permanently, but going forward, the way they are categorised and organized may be unified in some way. There is a general need for a central documentary archive of some sort, and the person tasked with looking after the archive in Frans' absence is open to an interactive solution, where new archivists can be recruited to submit and organise new documents. I have made the case that this should include copies of all the documents saved by Yesmap and the archivists on Matrix. The concept is in the early phases of planning and could take years to come to fruition.