If this is done as a volunteer effort, I'd be happy to help, esp. with extracting the old data. Contact me using my Slashdot user name + att dot net. (I hope THAT fools the spambots!)
The description suggests that this is the Model RR magazine DB. Checking Kalmbach (the company that hosted it), shows that, indeed, it is off line. (http://index.mrmag.com/) The DB was a very simple (by today's standards) index of articles.
As many posters have said, it should be easy (for a programmer) to pull the data from the DB -- if you can get the original data files from Kalmbach. The data was not complex, and 80's DBs tended to have simple file formats. As many suggested, a C++, Java, Python or other script can pull the data out and dump it to XML, MySQL, CSV files, etc. From there, it is easy to rehost it wherever needed.
My suggestion is to simply replicate the old (very dated, but simple) UI: both for searching and for data entry. That can be done very easily in PHP & MySQL. These tools are readily available on any web host making the task fairly simple (for someone familiar with these tools.) It also means that the site's webmaster should know what needs to be done to secure the app.
Getting a straight replacement up validates the whole process, and restores the existing functionality. Only at that point should you consider extending the system, perhaps using many of the good ideas noted above. Obvious extensions are to license the full text of articles to provide a full-text index (rather than just hand-entered keywords as in the current system.) Perhaps provide links to publishers sell them online. Lots of ways to go.
Good luck. As a user of the DB, I'd love to see it back online & better than ever!
MediaWiki is great for a one-person shop. I have pages for each little project which includes tasks, web links with reference info, hints about what I grabbed or configured for that project, etc. I've got pages for hardware bits, little software projects, etc. If something is in the brain-storming phase, links to alternatives, to Wikipedia background pages, etc. all are gathered.
If there were more than one person on the team, I'd add a formal tracking system as others have suggested. But, for just me, keeping tasks on each project's wiki pages works well enough.
Slashdot Mirror
If this is done as a volunteer effort, I'd be happy to help, esp. with extracting the old data. Contact me using my Slashdot user name + att dot net. (I hope THAT fools the spambots!)
As many posters have said, it should be easy (for a programmer) to pull the data from the DB -- if you can get the original data files from Kalmbach. The data was not complex, and 80's DBs tended to have simple file formats. As many suggested, a C++, Java, Python or other script can pull the data out and dump it to XML, MySQL, CSV files, etc. From there, it is easy to rehost it wherever needed.
My suggestion is to simply replicate the old (very dated, but simple) UI: both for searching and for data entry. That can be done very easily in PHP & MySQL. These tools are readily available on any web host making the task fairly simple (for someone familiar with these tools.) It also means that the site's webmaster should know what needs to be done to secure the app.
Getting a straight replacement up validates the whole process, and restores the existing functionality. Only at that point should you consider extending the system, perhaps using many of the good ideas noted above. Obvious extensions are to license the full text of articles to provide a full-text index (rather than just hand-entered keywords as in the current system.) Perhaps provide links to publishers sell them online. Lots of ways to go.
Good luck. As a user of the DB, I'd love to see it back online & better than ever!
MediaWiki is great for a one-person shop. I have pages for each little project which includes tasks, web links with reference info, hints about what I grabbed or configured for that project, etc. I've got pages for hardware bits, little software projects, etc. If something is in the brain-storming phase, links to alternatives, to Wikipedia background pages, etc. all are gathered. If there were more than one person on the team, I'd add a formal tracking system as others have suggested. But, for just me, keeping tasks on each project's wiki pages works well enough.