WFA Trench Map project news

[egbert]

Christmas is coming fast. We need a special: "Buy one get one free" (I assume there is another waiting pal who does not have sufficient funds avail?!)

[laughton]

You might be interested in some of the work we are doing over on the other side of the pond. Here at the CEFSG as part of the Nicholson component of the Matrix project, we have been overlaying the Nicholson Maps on Google Earth.

You can get all the Nicholson text, sketches, maps and now the GOOGLE EARTH OVERLAYS at the Nicholson Matrix:

Nicholson Google Earth Overlays

The discussion of this on our forum, with some of the examples is here:

Forum Discussion of Google Overlays

My grandfather with the 26th Northumberland Fusiliers (British 3rd Army, 34th Division) at Roclincourt on April 9, 1917: (matching field notes of battle)

Or how about us playing with Linesman?

[ianw]

I have the "Linesman" product on order and will have to resist the temptation to rush off to France as soon as I get my grubby paws on it. I truly think it will revolutionise our visits and battlefield walking.

Whilst the WFA product will be a very welcome addition to our sources of trenchmap information, I don't think it is comparable to Guy's "Linesman" product. However, I will have to wait to give a fuller description of what it can do following a personal "test-drive" in France. I can see it being particularly useful in the more obscure areas of the fighting which many of us currently know much less well than the more famous parts.

Roll on 2007 !

[CROONAERT]

Whilst the WFA product will be a very welcome addition to our sources of trenchmap information, I don't think it is comparable to Guy's "Linesman" product.

It all really depends on what it is exactly that you want from a product. For example, 50% of the Linesman project is of absolutely no use nor interest to me personally - whereas the WFA product is exactly what I want.

dave

[Paul Hederer]

It all really depends on what it is exactly that you want from a product. For example, 50% of the Linesman project is of absolutely no use nor interest to me personally - whereas the WFA product is exactly what I want.

dave

I think the two products are different enough that to make a comparison is not really productive.

One is designed to be of use with a GPS for battle-field walks and other related activities. The other is to be used as a reference tool, perhaps more in static mode.

I asked Howard the question about being able to use the images from the CD/DVD's he is working on as I am interested in the possibility of georeferencing the maps for my own use, but this falls outside of them realm of most normal users interest.

IMHO though they have similarities these are two different products aimed at two different groups.

Paul

[ianw]

Yes, of course, choice is what we want here and there should be a range of prices and products to suit different pockets and exact requirements.

I for one definitely want the ability to "walk" the trenchmaps on the ground in France (and eventually Belgium hopefully) Given that many of us own lap-tops and PDA's that can rapidly be converted to GPS operation, getting this capability should be cheap and easy.

Plus, if you want a trenchmap database, it seems sensible to go for a big one !

[ianw]

I wonder how the WFA project is progressing. The problem with some non-commercial projects is the amount of time that they take to complete due to understandable time constraints on the good people who volunteer to undertake them.

Also, I am interested by the proposed £30 cost of the DVD's. This attractively low price would seem to infer that the discs might not be copy protected by proprietary software which in itself is quite expensive. It would be interesting to know how the WFA is going to approach this. An easily hackable disc might just see the sales undermined with dodgy copies.

[ianw]

By the way, I understand that the trenchmaps for the "Linesman" project come mostly from the NA and the Geographical Society, so the IWM maps will no doubt add much extra material.

No matter from what source this digitisation occurs and whoever does it), it is very welcome both for protection and preservation of the material and the much greater ease of access to it for researchers and the humble battlefield tourist.

[CROONAERT]

This attractively low price would seem to infer that the discs might not be copy protected by proprietary software which in itself is quite expensive. It would be interesting to know how the WFA is going to approach this. An easily hackable disc might just see the sales undermined with dodgy copies.

Most discs are hackable, Ian, no matter what the security. You don't see many, but the IWM/N&MP Trenchmap CD has been copied. It is also possible to find versions without (and without the need for) the ER mapper software.

The thing is (though I believe there will be some security measures), by keeping the prices low, then the WFA project becomes less of a target for pirating (it's a very selective market anyway and I don't believe there would be much to be made by pirating these DVDs as people wouldn't begrudge the asking price - why buy a copy when an original is so affordable?)

Dave.

[ianw]

Well Dave, we will have to see how things develop.

One thing about good security is that the value of these specialist discs is maintained. I recently sold a IWM trench maps CD Rom Version 1 for about what I paid for it.

As a member of the WFA, I wish them every good luck in this enterprise and hope they can deliver what they are suggesting they can.

[CROONAERT]

I wish them every good luck in this enterprise and hope they can deliver what they are suggesting they can.

From what I've seen of this project, they'll be delivering far more than what has been suggested so far. A few edges to iron out, but it's looking excellent. It actually looks to be almost exactly what I was hoping for in a maps DVD at , in my opinion, a ridiculously low price for what you get.

I think it'll be well worth the wait.

Dave

[ianw]

Dave - I really hope this product does appear on the shelves. I'll be there with my money too. I'm naturally

pessimistic and from my experience there always tend to be be problems with things that sell for a "ridiculously low price". I hope my pessimism is ill-founded in this case.

[ericwebb]

This all sounds grand and extremely valuable; I too am opening a savings account! May I ask: how does this 'sit' with the IWM Trench Map & Official History CD-ROMS curently available from N&M Press? They seem to offer the same material, although having purchased some of them last summer I have had considerable technical difficulties with the software.

Eric Webb

[CROONAERT]

May I ask: how does this 'sit' with the IWM Trench Map & Official History CD-ROMS curently available from N&M Press? They seem to offer the same material, although having purchased some of them last summer I have had considerable technical difficulties with the software.

Eric.

The Official History maps CDs are completely unrelated as they are a totally different type of map. The Trenchmap CD (the British one - the German one shows many other types of map with trenchmaps only being about 50% (?) of the product) that you have do show trenchmaps, but is a lot more restrictive of the available maps than the WFA/IWM DVDs will be. I've sometimes wondered about why certain maps were chosen for the IWM/N&MP project when several better choice maps were available. The WFA project will make these better choices available (along with many , many more to choose from amongst several other "attractions" not to be found on the IWM/N&MP CD).

Dave