Collaborative Catalog Collection Management Site

Hi,

I haven't posted on this site for quite a long time. I am a software developer by trade and I have recently started work on an old idea of mine. For the last few months I have been developing a site where collectors can collaborate to build a comprehensive catalog as well as keep track of their collections.

I have found a few similar sites, (001) This link is not allowed by the Staff being the most similar in concept. Although I fully appreciate the amount of work that must have gone into constructing that site, there are many things that are just not there. My intent is to use the latest web technologies to provide a fluid, intuitive and aesthetically pleasing interface that thinks like a philatelist not a computer.

I would very much like to hear what you all think of this idea. If there any developers who are interested in sharing their technical thoughts or are interested in helping that would be especially nice.

Right now I am looking for a listing of currencies used by all stamp issuing entities since 1840. Linn's has a list but it seems that it only covers the current day. I have done a rather extensive search and have come up empty-handed. Does anyone know if such a thing exists on the web or in print?

I like the idea of a collaborative catalogue as I like all stamps mint or used or covers and like cancels too. And personal stamps, or personalized stamps.

http://www.picturepostage.net/ is a great site down by Stamp Community (SCF) member rallymann here just for Canada Picture Postage personal stamps (one of my collecting interests) and shows people's collections too, if they wish to share them.

The sharing of collections is a personal matter I would think and some would not wish to do this, or not be named if they do share.

One of my wishes for any online / electronic catalogue is to be able to search it and see results displayed for topics that I am interested in.

Example, if I search for cat I would see all the cat stamps, or animals, see all stamps with a tag 'animal or fauna' on attached to the file.

I suppose such a thing would be best done by an enthusiast of cat or animal stamps (or whichever topic) as not everyone needs or cares about such categories.

The other site (which I haven't visited much recently and have seen on my one visit that it has improved a lot) is http://www.stampsoftheworld.co.uk/w...of_the_World by SCF member stampstudy and all contributors.

This site is designed to be just a catalogue type site and has topical categories also. No catalogue numbers (yet) as the catalogue owners are usually very protective of their numbering systems. But all other info is usually there.


I like your idea of newer web or programming technologies to make it easier for collectors to add / modify stamps and information. Part of the 'fun' of any system is learning how to use it and I suppose any site or system has a learning curve and is easier to use after you have learned it.

bzurer - don't get me wrong, but is there really a need for such a site? And I'm speaking from a collector point-of-view.

All the major players (Michel, StanleyGibbons, Scott, Yvert) already provide online catalogues, and some even have tools for the inventory keeping as well. I agree these all are miles away from the quality I would like them to be. But by giving constructive and public critique they can only get better as years go by (or that's what I hope).

I'm well aware of the "user contributed" alternatives ( (001) This link is not allowed by the Staff ,Stampedia,StampData, StampsofTheWorld etc), but I seriously doubt their usefulness. Even the best of these can provide nothing more than a highly limited selection of tidbits when compared to traditional stamp catalogues. And many of these have been under development for over a very long time. Unless you manage to re-license the data from catalogue publishers, I fear you'll end up with a project that will hog 15-30 years of your life.

I'm not saying "don't do it". I'm just trying to state that possibly you could achieve more by taking alternative route (such as developing addons/browser extensions that make the use of existing services much more comfortable).

Just some thoughts from fellow developer from the other site of the world ;)
-k-

PS. Apparently adding the name of certain stamp related website that starts with "C" is prohibited as it brings up the " (001) This link is not allowed by the Staff " warning Oh well, such is life. Those that follow the topic of online catalogues, likely know the website I (and likely bzurer) was referring. And if not, then Google around for topic of 'online stamp catalogues' and you'll be enlightened by various alternatives

When other sites spam the snot out of my sites for their own agenda they get blacklisted for life.

Puzzler, - Thanks for your input.
Yes I understand and agree that collectors may not want to share their private data. This is definitely in accordance with how I envision the site.

At a high level the site will consist of three main parts: The "Reference Collection", "My Collection" and, for lack of a better name right now, "The Sandbox".
The "Reference Collection" will be the main collaborative effort. It will give the site its unique value. It will contain no pricing information whatever.
"My Collection" will be totally private by default. This will be the place that individuals can inventory and keep track of their own collections utilizing the Reference Collection. This area
can contain things like mint/used status, condition, price paid, current value, notes etc. This information will appear nowhere else on the site.
"The Sandbox" will be the area to which proposed Reference Collection entries are submitted and where additions, annotations and corrections will be applied.
A stamp will find its way from The Sandbox into the Reference Collection probably by some community voting method or other, I am not sure.
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scb - Let me first say that I have recently visited your blog many times in the last few months. Great job.
Judging by the comments on your blog having to do with this topic, it seems to me that yes, there IS a need for such a site.
Although I have not laid out the money for the SG product, I have read very disappointing reviews. I have not looked at the Scott or Michel offerings either.
Being commercial sites, they by needs must charge and by necessity must be used to generate business for the catalog publisher. Not an ideal situation.
As far as the desktop based inventory programs, they are not worth mentioning. The way I see it, Excel is the only real solution at present and not a good one at that.

I have also visited the other user contributed sites that you mention.
I feel that they do not have enough support largely because of their lack of a well-designed user experience and their paucity of features.
My plan is to have a very rich user experience with full featured searching, tagging, creation of multiple collections, intuitive data entry, album page creation etc.

As a very small example or what I mean, at the end of my post I asked whether anyone could direct me to a listing of currencies used by all stamp issuing entities since 1840.
My aim here is to prepopulate a list of valid currencies once the country or stamp issuing entity is chosen from an autocomplete list. This will greatly help with ease of use and the accuracy of a search.

Again thanks so much for your response, I am one of your fans.

Nice. This is why ebay is still there and used by many, ease of use.

Ease of navigation so the site, and moving around within it, seems fun (see Flicker site, and I am not even a photographer)) is a Big thing. Very important.

Thanks. There will also be many features that are not (yet) present on ebay mostly centering around new web technologies.
Things like being able simply dragging a link to an image or a local image to a page to upload it (no more clicking an 'Upload' button). The site will have the ability to search by image similarity and color as well. Most things happen on one page. It should not have to be learned. It should just flow.

Something like what Google is working towards and I read the other night ebay also is working on their version 3 search.

I like the Google+ (Plus) circles idea myself.

Any problems with everyone being able to use all the new tech?

For example I still use WinXP and a dial-up modem and others do also at times. There are those in the 20% who are the big purchasers / users but there are also us folks out along the long tail of reducing returns that still want to use contribute too.

Good question. As regards a dial-up modem, it should feel no different than it does now uploading or downloading content. I haven't used a dial-up modem in probably 15 years so I forget what that is like. As far as the operating system goes it should make no difference. What _will_ make a huge difference is what browser you use. I made the decision to write this using HTML5 which is not supported by all browsers as yet. It will work on the latest versions of Google Chrome and Firefox and I think that Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 supports it as well. It will not work on IE 8, or earlier versions or the other browsers. Since browsers are free it should not pose any real problems if you upgrade to the latest version

My run at an online catalog, StampData, does include what I believe to be a complete list of currencies used by stamp issuers. In lieu of an apparently-forbidden direct link, you can find it by going to Statistics > Data values > currency, and you can click on the column headings to sort by name, frequency of usage, etc. Right now it shows 451 currencies.

One thing I'd like to suggest is the possibility of joining forces. Although StampData isn't a particularly fancy-looking website, the database design includes solutions for many of the knotty problems of stamp cataloging (currencies, overprints, multi-year issues, sorting, etc), and the database is probably the largest freely-licensed body of stamp data out there. If somebody else wanted to work on the website code, I'd put it under a free license and set it up on a public repo somewhere.

As to the value of this sort of website, for me it pays for itself every time I visit a dealer or a show - having my collection at hand on smartphone has forestalled me from buying hundreds of dollars' worth of duplicates!

Now this really is exciting. I would love to join forces. I don't that this forum is the place to share the development details but perhaps we should communicate via email. If you agree, I see that there is a link provided on the profiles page. I also looked at your Wikipedia page. I am equally obsessed.

Sorry guys, the email function through the forum is only available when you have 50 posts and 2 weeks in.

We would be interested in updates, of course, to anything stamp related (no spamming please, whatever that is).

Stan, do you have personal stamps on your site? I haven't visited.

Puzzler - I fully understand and respect those restrictions.
Stan - I will contact you via LinkedIn if that is ok

hey bzurer in regards to a currency would suggest you start with the ISO standards and work back from there as I am not aware of any list that starts at the beginning and incorporates all currency units ever used

I agree it should not pose a problem. But speaking from experience, a lot of people (especially of older generations) are far more "technologically challenged" than me or You. So it is a real world problem that you'll have to deal.

I think an real life example speaks best... My stamp blog has roughly 20K unique visitors a month. Only about a third of these rely on latest or somewhat recent browser versions (IE9,Chrome etc), another third use an heavily outdated browser version (IE7 or similar), and remaining use an moderately outdated browser (IE8 etc) . And what I've talked with other "stamp related" website owners, they're browser statistics aren't much different.

So by limiting yourself to 'advanced HTML5'-features, you're making a miserable user experience to 50-60% of potential users. Are you sure that is the route you want to go?

You could always try to rely on various shivs etc. to make the website more compatible, but from experience I can tell that it's not the silver bullet. Alternatively, you could create multiple fallback versions of the site (like the 'big boys' such as ebay) are doing - but do You have the resources?

I'm not saying "don't do it". I'm just trying to state that possibly you could achieve more by taking alternative routes.

just my 5 cents of worth again,
-k-

And a bit more...




Please do try them out. Only after that you know what you have against (and what their potential is).





If it wasn't for their business, there would be a whole lot less for us stamp collectors.

Out of curiosity... If You succeed and your website becomes popular, what's your plan on (if any) on keeping the website running. The fees from bandwidth consumption alone would eat you alive in no time (not to mention You'd need staff etc. to keep the servers up & running etc). Are you thinking some sort of monthly/annual subscription, or some similar fee/paid access model? In that case, you would end up on the same boat as catalog publishers.

I know you are just starting out with this project. But if you are serious with this, you must have something planned up.





Would you buy a book that looks great on the shelf? Or a book that has great content?

Right now the problem with existing online tools is that what major catalog publishers have is 'great content', but they can't put it out properly online. The problem with 'user contributed' sites is that they have both tech & services to produce great looking websites, but they lack great content (and IMHO it would be very foolish to except the community to produce this content for You) .If you manage to combine these two, you're going to become a "rockstar" (a bit of web-developer humour).