The REDristry / RED Registry

[Remo Fritzsche]

Hi There

As a software engineer (and, of course, filmmaker), I've been thinking about a new project: The REDristry (or probably "RED Registry"). The basic idea is a portal that continues the great work of Brian Iannone (the RED name lists) and allows all RED users to register their cameras themselves.

The concept would be as follows:

• A portal either under redristry.org or red-registry.org.
• Completely free of charge, without any ads or commercial aspects.
• It shows the list of all contained RED cameras, which can be filtered and sorted by various aspects.
• Stolen cameras are listed at a prominent place, and can be searched for.
• Each user can register using just an email adress:
  • No password is needed. At every login, a one-time-token is sent to the given email address.
• Each user can provide the following information:
  • Email (required, but never shown to anyone, just used for login)
  • Name (optional)
  • Company Name (optional)
  • Location (optional)
  • Description (optional)
  • Link to REDUser profile (optional)
  • Link (optional, i.e. website)
• Furthermore, each user can add his own RED cameras with the following information:
  • Camera Type (required)
  • Serial Number (required)
  • Camera name (optional)
  • Stolen (required, yes or no)
  • Available for rent (optional)
  • Available for sale (optional)
• A user can only edit or remove cameras that have been added by the user himself.
• Comments can be added to each camera (forum-style, but very simple).
• There is a detailed log for each camera (i.e. "User A added EPIC-X XYZ.", or "User A reported EPIC-X XYZ as stolen."). This should help prevent misuse.
• Everything is backed up to a public place (i.e. a free file hoster, DropBox, ...) regularly and automatically.

I see the following key advantages:

• Every user can update his personal camera list himself. So there is no need for moderation for most of the cases. This way, the list should stay quite current.
• Stolen cameras can be "flagged" and identified easily. If it grows popular, a google search for "EPIC-X XYZ" or "Stolen RED" should pop up the REDistry.
• Easy way to find cameras available for rent and for sale (although this is *not* intended to be a sales platform...REDUser does a phantastic job on that).

So, the questions are:

• Does anybody see some use in this project and would register his / her camera(s)?
• Am I stepping on anybody's toes (REDUser, camera owners, Brian) with this? Then I'd call it off for sure.
• Do you think it would be ok to migrate the current data (lists by Brian) if he agrees? I think this might be problematic because we're transferring data to another portal without asking the individual users.
• Might RED have a problem with this?
• Any other thoughts on the project?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Hi Remo

Always a good idea to avoid using RED in any product / company name.

 

[Dominik Muench]

I had a similar though a few years back, sort of like a red camera owner database, which could also help people who need extra gear last minute or emergency replacements around the world. there were quite a few concerns in terms of privacy.

 

[David Kuhn]

Yea I guess I'd not want that sort of information logged online... it's a great idea if only it could be protected from illicit use. Reduser is already a good place for folks to go and ask for support from the rest of the community, and the details (Addresses, phone numbers, equipment, etc...) are more easily kept confidential when it's a 1 to 1 connection.

 

[Remo Fritzsche]

Personally, I don't see any privacy issues. Every user can choose whether his RED is listed, and which information (camera name, holder name, address) is listed or not. In terms of privacy, I don't see any difference to the current camera name list here in the forum.

 

[Troy Bakewell]

I love the idea! I'd name it more generically so that it applies to all gear and not just RED cameras.

 

[Phil Holland]

Considering that Red has the "best" list of currently active and non-active bodies as well as a large list of stolen cameras I don't see much of a reason outside of what's currently being done.

As mentioned be wary of using the "Red" brand name for anything Red related as that's a no no.

In terms of making a network of Red cameras around the globe, I'm sure that's a perspective, but if you can't find a Red camera somewhere these days I'd be more concerned as they are pretty much global and everywhere.

 

[John Marchant]

Being negative is not my character, but I have to say that IMHO this can't easily meet expectations - a partial list is not a terribly helpful resource, and a complete list opens up data protection and privacy issues...

There are many many paths for those seeking and offering gear. As a platform to offer gear for rental you'd just be preaching to the choir... When seeking a camera it'd be very hard to distinguish the casual from the serious operation.

 

[Remo Fritzsche]

@Phil: Yes, RED has the best list of course. But they don't give out information on whether a RED camera is stolen or not (which I can't understand).

@John: Yes, the list wouldn't be complete. But if it is known to the RED community, you'll make sure that it's listed there as soon as it got stolen. And if you're buying a RED, I think you'll make sure that it's not reported as stolen on this list. So I think this would still be helpful.

It is not intended as a platform to offer gear, which is why these features are kept so simple. But I think it would just add a little extra use.

And another big reason for this project would be that apparently people seem to like having their cameras registered. After all, they're paying a lot of money for them, giving them neat names and do like to tell others about it. I think this is the main reason that Brian's list contains so many cameras.

 

[Remo Fritzsche]

@Troy: You are completely right. I'm thrilled to announce that I've just got hands on the domain gearindex.org, which will be the home of this new platform. For RED cameras, but also for other equipment.

 

[dino g]

well I have locate.red so if you want to help make it happen let me know

dino