German situation maps on this site

[Ogiwan]

I sat in my chair at work for about 30 seconds and just stared at the screen while my mind tried to wrap itself around this. Even as a hobby, or to prove someone wrong, this would be a fantastic resource, and since i'm supposed to start graduate school in the near future, working towards a masters in military history, well.....now i need to learn german and russian.

[Jason Pipes]

Get ready folks! We should be getting the info ready to post this weekend!! This is going to be a great addition to the site!

[MadDog]

Whats the news ?

Tom

[Jason Pipes]

Making progress! Getting the technology in place for the pay section is going to take time, but the cds will be available shortly for direct purchase. Thanks for your interest!!

[MadDog]

Besides selling the CDs, was there a plan to host the maps on the site with a pay per download ?

thanks,

Tom

[Tom Houlihan]

Yeah, Tom, that's the part he's having trouble with. Once that's squared away, I think that will be a great asset to not only the forum, but the historical research community at large! Well, at least us WWII types!

Tom

[MadDog]

Are there any plans to add more maps on demand, for a fee ?

thanks,

Tom

[Tom Houlihan]

As long as Matt can keep scanning, they'll slowly be added to the list.

[konev]

Drang nach Osten!!! :):):)

konev

[Abicht]

Well as most of us likely do, I have a full time job as a senior researcher for the government, so scanning the maps is something I must do on my own time. That said I have modified my time in order to get about 100-200 maps scanned in every 2 weeks. I have had a good number requests for areas, but will now focus on the east in 1942, which will take a a bit of time.

[MadDog]

I would be willing to throw money in for map scans to help defray your costs.

Mad Dog

[konev]

Is there any news about the Situation Map project.

Is Jason still stuck on trying to get a format for selling them/download on his site?

konev

[Bizoh]

Hi

As someone who buys these maps I can tell you your prices are dirt cheap. Dirt cheap. For instance, there is a 1_100k 1st October Stalingrad situation map for sale currently at USD1,350. In truth situation maps rarely got onto the market for the obvious reasons. Even tactically marked originals command a high premium.

Dr Glantz was earlier doing this with his Atlas series, selling them at US$50 (in 2003). So, the Kursk atlas with78 maps was US$45. This was for poor quality reproductions giving a net result like a bad fax. It was heart breaking to see it because the originals are striking as evidenced by the Leibstandarte map booklets.

Final pricing example is that of single-sheet downloadable Cold War military Russian maps which are avaible between US$29-49, though many are free if you can find them!

You are proposing to sell the crown jewels. Digital copies may be inifinitely duplicatable and therefore close to zero in cost but as almost none of this is in the public domain, the scarcity gives them a high value.

I have for many years wanted to find a researcher to pay to do this duplication. That someone is effectively doing this for free is truly noble, fantastic for those of not able to get to the archives, great for us amatuer historians and I would think scholarship in general. However, I for one would not complain if there was a bit more capitalism in the project and you made a decent turn.

Simon

[Abicht]

Bizoh-

Thank you very much for additional insight into the situation maps subject. When I approach Jason with the idea it was basically that I found that these maps were easily able to be reporduced in digital form. I wanted to sell them at a fair price, as they are a key factor in historical research, but I didnt have a market, Jason did and although I am a member of other forums and considered them all, especially a larger one, Feldgrau seemed to be the one.

That aside, we have been tending to a few other things in the past week or so and this project has been a little delayed. Hopefully this will be the week to begin offering them (ones scanned in so far). I think that orders will be place via Feldgrau, and shipped out by me on CD until there is the ability to have them all downloadable here.

Again thanks for the additional angle- we hope to provide some great maps at the cheapest price out there. I for one hope that a few more books and research products come out of all of this.

[Quasimodo]

Yes please.