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Post by Henry on Aug 16, 2011 12:28:30 GMT -5
Dear Colleagues,
In the past, I have already scanned the entire 4 volumes from which the Village Database is derived and also have scans of the 4 maps that came with these hardcopy volumes. Please note that since these volumes were published by the US government - it is public domain information and I believe, as such, it cannot be copyrighted.
Moreover, there needs to be conversions of the military coordinates in the Village Database to geographic coordinates which can be used in applications such as Google Earth. As a professional geographer, I know how to do this. There are also some non-trivial issues with the Hoiping data because the military coordinate sets are reversed in their Easing & Northing coordinate values and also the people that created the Hoiping map - incorrectly numbered the UTM grid lines and also posted the wrong 100K meter square identifications in some of these maps.
Henry
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Post by chak on Aug 16, 2011 21:42:28 GMT -5
Once we have a database set up, I volunteer to do - or help with - the data entry.
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Post by Doug 周 on Aug 16, 2011 23:00:37 GMT -5
Another thought that I have had is creating a database ... laohuaqiao This is exciting. There is always the concern about the data limitations of the Village Database which was compiled by the American Hong Kong Embassy in the 1940-1950. This can dovetail into some of the ideas of cataloging Chinese cemeteries. Of course, because of sampling issues, even this method can never associate every name with every village I will private message you about this. This is one way to enhance the Village Database and expand the information. First, we need to get the Chinese Cultural Center of San Francisco (CCCSF ) to at least get the database back up. Another way is to get them to allow this Genealogy forum to ‘mirror’ the database. It would be nice to know who is in charge of the database. Again, the more people we can get to inform them of our concerns, the greater the chance of some type of input to the Village Database. Even those people who are not registered with this forum (we have had 280 people who have read this forum over the past 24 hours), please help and email the CCCSF at: info@c-c-c.org and voice your concerns. Doug |
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Post by Woodson on Aug 17, 2011 21:47:31 GMT -5
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Post by Doug 周 on Aug 18, 2011 5:40:04 GMT -5
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Post by lachinatown on Aug 18, 2011 9:26:53 GMT -5
Can we ask Christine, who is located in San Francisco to contact CCC to find out exactly the problem with the site? Is money the issue or they just don't want to keep it going? Would they willing to share the data with us?
Doug, don't know someone connected with CCC?
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Post by Doug 周 on Aug 18, 2011 12:12:28 GMT -5
lachinatown,
My conversations with Christine is that she was only contracted to do the Search for Roots section, and now that her job is finished, has no more nor had any prior involvement with the old Village Database and CCCSF.
It is a lot of work to try to reproduce the Village Database, and the old Village Database preformed its job admirably. However, it is getting long on tooth, and Woodson's and Henry's addition of GPS coordinates would be a nice integration feature. The database should also be expanded and laohuaqiao's ideas of an additional data source is being explored. It would be nice if they would offer the database to Chinese Roots Wiki for our sysops to mirror their site and henceforth allow these additions. The people in this forum are of the ilk to groom and grow this database. However, like Walt Disney might have said: 'When you wish upon a star, it makes a (hella) difference who YOU are'.
¿Does anyone know Dominic Yu, the workhorse behind the Database? It would be nice to get him on board with the Chinese Roots Wiki.
As for my influence: I live 90 miles from the CCCSF in a Chinese cultural void called the Central Valley of California. I am as figuratively close to CCCSF as lachinatown is, based in LA. Christine was my only access to the CCCSF and all my prior independent inquiries have fallen upon the deaf ears of a large organization. To use a Star Wars analogy from a Princes Leia quote: 'Help me Christine (Obi-wan Kenobi), you're my only hope!'
Maybe one of the lurkers on this site can step up and help.
Doug
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Post by christine on Aug 28, 2011 2:42:26 GMT -5
Hi All,
Update: I just tried looking at the database again (I've been looking at cached pages after I already have a village name confirmed so I can grab the rest of the historic info) and it looks like the database is PARTIALLY back up. The browse function works but the search does not.
Dominic was one of the main villagedb coordinators back in the day, but I think the relationship between him and the CCC may be a little non-existent nowadays. From what I had heard, everything was entered manually one by one when the original database was built.
My take is: let's grab the info off the database using the browse function NOW as soon as we can before the site flops again, and then let's get it transferred on to a separate and more reliable host site, and from there we can add coordinates as well. I am not familiar with how the old military coordinates work but it sounds like some of you already are.
Since I worked on the new Roots database (rootsdb.org), I have some background on how we created a new a more modern site with maps, etc, while including the locations as they are known nowadays. Perhaps we can use this model to capture the original database info as well, though this project will be a LOT of man hours no matter how we slice it. I don't know if the Roots database will ever include the original database info, but don't hold your breath. It would be best if we really want the original info, to just capture it and host it elsewhere.
thoughts?
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Post by mugenpower168 on Aug 28, 2011 22:44:19 GMT -5
I am not familiar with how the old military coordinates work but it sounds like some of you already are. Hi Christine I believe the coordinates used in the village database come from this map [a href=" www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/china/txu-oclc-10552568-nf49-8.jpg"] www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/china/txu-oclc-10552568-nf49-8.jpg[/a] (clicking the hyperlink doesn't work, you'll need to copy and paste the link). This map is quite old (compiled in 1954) and the English transcriptions are in Wade Giles so it can be confusing to many users. Nonetheless, it is still very useful as a guide since there isn't much difference in the names of individual villages between this map and a modern map. In regards to the actual database, do you know when it will be up again? |
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Post by lachinatown on Aug 29, 2011 0:08:10 GMT -5
Glad they did not completely shut down the site.
Let's hope what ever problems they are having can be resolved soon. The search feature is especially valuable to us.
BTW, UTexas site link not working for me.
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Post by Doug 周 on Aug 29, 2011 8:52:29 GMT -5
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Post by christine on Aug 29, 2011 11:10:34 GMT -5
Wow, very cool map! I have saved it to my desktop.
As far as when/if the full database gets back up under CCC's oversight, I have no further knowledge than what I've shared so far (I would share more if I had any). My impression is that the original database is not something on the CCC's radar/to-do list, nor within their capacity to take care of now. I truly believe we should take this in to our own hands using the public information found in the original 4 volumes, and not rely on the one CCC version of the information.
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Post by mugenpower168 on Oct 14, 2011 3:43:03 GMT -5
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Post by mugenpower168 on Oct 14, 2011 3:49:16 GMT -5
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Post by lachinatown on Oct 14, 2011 11:28:34 GMT -5
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