I read the recent postings about the upcoming 2020 Global Piano
Roll Meeting in Switzerland, on both MMD and Facebook postings.
It is always good to see international events involving piano rolls.
I support any such endeavor.  [Ref. 191003 MMDigest]

I re-read the older postings on MMD since MMD's subject archives are
well organized and easy to search.  A comment that was made in 2017
stood out to me.  Peter Phillips wrote on MMD 05 December 2017,
regarding the Global Piano Roll Convention:

  "I believe that the future for piano rolls and the like belongs now
to academia.  Collectors and enthusiasts have taken us to the point
here there is not much more that can be done.  We are indebted to
these erstwhile people, and their collective knowledge must not be
underestimated.  Unfortunately, being erstwhile does not always mean
an enthusiast has adopted the best way to seek answers, and there
are many examples of misinformation published on the internet by
enthusiasts.  Academics are by nature mistrustful, and tend to seek
answers through extensive research."

As one that has researched piano rolls for many decades now and been
published in various print publications, I am vexed by the comments
of Mr. Phillips.  Certainly, academia merits an important role for
future research and it is positive that institutions now take an
interest.  And I agree that there is much misinformation on the web.
I do not see one as replacing the other.

I like to think that there is value in both academia and well,
otherwise.  Given the limited time afforded to applicant's thesis,
some research requires significantly more time to develop more
complete answers.  It is of those people I am in awe.

I list a few of those collectors and enthusiasts whose endeavors
I still highly value today:

Hans-W. Schmitz
Dave Junchen
Charles D. Smith
Richard J. Howe
Elaine Obenchain
Q. David Bowers
Art Reblitz

I look forward to a future when academia provides more information to
the discourse.  My intent is not to disparage one over the other but
to say that both sources of inquiry and analysis are important.

As for the 2020 Global Piano Roll Meeting, with Marc Widuch as an
organizer, I am confident that it will be a balanced meeting of
interested parties.

Mark Reinhart,
Charles Town, West Virginia

 [ What can we collectors and music fans do to help the universities
 [ and museums with their respective missions?  And what can they do
 [ to help us?  -- Robbie