[Rich, 11:38]
How About an Arlington CD-ROM?

I had to stop in at the Town Clerk's office today to pick up a copy of the Town By-laws (for $10), since the version on the Town website is not up-to-date, plus the printed version has a helpful list of all the Legislative Acts that affect the Town, all the way back to March 5, 1838.

Walking out of Town Hall and wishing my wallet was $10 heavier, I was hit by the thought that in addition to selling $10 copies of dead-tree versions of the Town By-laws, it would be great if the Town would make a CD-ROM with:

• the Town By-laws
• the Zoning By-laws
• All the zoning maps and overlays (surely the GIS system we have should be able to create PDFs of those, and if not, then GIFs/JPGs).
• All the Board of Health regulations
• All the regulations issued by the Board of Selectmen
• School Department rules and procedures
• Official School Department curriculum documents
• Blanks of all the various forms/applications the Town has
• and so on.

Then sell the CD-ROM for $1 or $2 or $5 or so.

Yes, I know (and agree) that all this should be on the Town's website. But websites have their own inherent limitations (for starters, you have to be online to access them). Being able to stick that CD-ROM in a computer and search, view, and print out what I need would be really nice.

As for format, I don't really care initially. The first edition of the CD-ROM could simply be a collection of all the relevant existing files, whether they are Word, PDF, etc. I'll take pragmatism over ideological purity on this any day. However, once the files are discovered and collated, an effort definitely should be made to convert them to searchable PDF to the extent possible. Consider that the second edition of the CD-ROM :-)

If you like this idea, tell that to the relevant Town powers. I think it would be a great idea, but of course, I'm biased :-)