  We study codes on graphs combined with an iterative message passing algorithm
for quantization. Specifically, we consider the binary erasure quantization
(BEQ) problem which is the dual of the binary erasure channel (BEC) coding
problem. We show that duals of capacity achieving codes for the BEC yield codes
which approach the minimum possible rate for the BEQ. In contrast, low density
parity check codes cannot achieve the minimum rate unless their density grows
at least logarithmically with block length. Furthermore, we show that duals of
efficient iterative decoding algorithms for the BEC yield efficient encoding
algorithms for the BEQ. Hence our results suggest that graphical models may
yield near optimal codes in source coding as well as in channel coding and that
duality plays a key role in such constructions.
