Hi, Since my mailbox is swimming in 'Images!' emails I would add my irrelevant two cents:
Image storage does not pay for itself. There has to be a source of funding for it. Storing, transmitting, etc. of the ever-increasing number of terabytes costs money, which at the moment no one seems to have [if you do, please say so - I am sure that large numbers of very smart (but financially disadvantaged) people are available to design a very nice system for image storage, if only there was some way to pay for it]. In my opinion all other arguments are very elegant and probably most of them are correct - but ultimately pointless until someone figures out a way to get the cash for this enterprise. Monstra mihi pecuniam! Artem --- When the Weasel comes to give New Year's greetings to the Chickens no good intentions are in his mind. -----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Bernhard Rupp Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:46 PM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] images > expressing, purifying and crystalizing the protein They are also useful. The NIH PSI initiative for example is trying as a part of their Protein Structure Knowledgebase to establish a material repository. How well this will be generally accepted is another question, and the storage and retrieval problem is even more formidable than the comparatively simple storage of images. http://kb.psi-structuralgenomics.org/KB/index1.jsp?pageshow=37 The time for such material and data repositories certainly has come. But even simple tasks such as analyzing and data-mining all crystallization data from all centers are still not readily possible. Others and myself pointed this out over the years in various publications - for example emphasizing consistent metrics etc etc, but not much has changed. It is an enormous loss of opportunity for information gain, just as neglecting diffraction images. The issue of standardization is in most situations a very difficult one. Just see the multitude of opinions on the ccp4bb..... BR -----Original Message----- From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:ccp...@jiscmail.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Liz Potterton Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:17 AM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] images Dear CCP4BB, For further research of a particular structure wouldn't hints on expressing, purifying and crystalizing the protein often be more useful than images or amplitudes? Liz
