How about a "Global Piano Roll Convention" in 2018, 110 years after
the famous Buffalo meeting (December 10th, 1908): "Gathering of the
Player Man (and Woman)"?  It's time for a real global approach!

During the Leipzig Hupfeld Symposium last weekend, I again had the
impression that there is much valuable knowledge distributed all
around the globe on how to find, scan, process, digitise, interpret,
publish, store and recut rare piano rolls and related resources.

And, currently many different approaches are underway to invest in
new scanners, publishing projects, recut machines, etc.  Many public
and private collections are out there waiting for getting scanned and
shared.  On the other hand there are many fully understood individual
restraints on fully sharing knowledge and investments.  I am convinced
that just a joint approach would allow to identify, scan and share
the still existent piano roll treasures out there in a way that all
stakeholders do benefit.

If we would find a way to join into a shared initiative, considering
and respecting the individual requirements of investments being done,
I am sure we will make a huge step forward for the entire community.
There are hundreds if not thousands of authentic rolls out there,
even for rare systems like Hupfeld DEA or Philipps DUCA, etc.; we
just need to bring all these together.

We would be very willing to share and invest into such a joint
initiative, and to help getting such a convention in 2018 carried out
successfully.  It would be open to anyone interested, inviting all the
key players and stakeholders all around the globe: museums, research
centers, roll producers, experts, collectors, pianola organisations,
etc., etc.

Your thoughts would be very appreciated on whom to be invited, where
to locate this convention, how to prepare, the agenda, necessary
pre-conditions for the highest possible participation, workshops and
presentations, sponsoring, etc., etc.

Please share this with anybody interested or with whom it may concern!

Marc Widuch - Faszination Pianola
Munich
http://www.en.faszinationpianola.de/ 
info@faszinationpianola.de.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/17/12/03/171203_230010_FB_PianoRollConvention2018.001.jpeg