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jspector
Posts:38
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| 09/01/2006 8:22 AM |
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I have a number of suggestions on the home page - here is the first one - the text of the last paragraph should be revised, I think, to the following (changes in CAPS):
A few books have recently been written on this topic, but they all fail to confront one central paradox: while they extol the power of communities, they were each written by one person. We're going to put this paradox to the test by inviting hundreds or thousands of authors to contribute. Each one will share equally in the ALLOCATION OF THE book royalties (WHICH WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TO CHARITY) and be listed ON THE BOOK as an author.
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mjeleven11
Posts:17
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| 09/01/2006 8:31 AM |
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| Good - I like the phrasing of this. We should also decide on a specific charity/non-profit. The more detail we give authors, the more trust and interest they will have in the project. |
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jspector
Posts:38
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| 09/01/2006 9:10 AM |
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| I thought that we were going to let the community decide where to allocate the royalties (rather than decide for them). Personally, I'm not certain about this whole process - it will create some work for us and I'm not certain too many people will care. And we may need some funds to offset potential costs of recruiting faculty members. However, I don't feel that strongly about it. |
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jspector
Posts:38
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| 09/01/2006 9:33 AM |
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Here are some additional thoughts regarding the home page, and the overall structure of the site:
1. The 'project overview' and the 'about us' links should be combined into one 'project overview' link. It should have the following components: (a) introductory letter, (b) FAQs (which is the text we have now under 'project overview'), and (c) media coverage.
2. Under the 'contributors' link I would add (a) Founders and (b) Partners and Sponsors
3. I would have a 'Contact Us' link at the top level of the navigation
4. On the home page itself we currently have boxes for 'contributors', 'guided tour' and 'founders'. I would change 'contributors' to "start writing" or "become an author", with text underneath that says "Have you ever wanted to author a book? You can contribute your experiences and insights - or simply watch and learn from the knowledge of others. Discover the different ways you can participate in this project." followed by a "Learn more" link.
When the person clicks on the 'Learn more' link, they should go to the community page, with the five options for participating. I'll add some comments later for how to refine (slightly) this page.
5. Should we change 'guided tour' to 'project overview'? Whether we do or not, this box should say "Read an introductory letter from the project leaders; review the FAQs; and see a demo of the various software tools we're using to write the book." The 'Learn more' link should connect to the "project overview" page.
6. I think we may want to have slightly different terminology for the various contributors. I suggest the following, not in any hierarchical order: (a) founders - Barry and me; (b) sponsors - MIT, WSP, Pearson and Shared Insights; (c) Advisory Board - Tom Malone as Chairman, and others as members. The box should be called 'sponsors', not 'founders', and the icons need to link to the various websites.
I may have some further thoughts ... |
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barry
Posts:72
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| 09/01/2006 4:30 PM |
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| jon - i would also like you to think about the general navigation, look and feel and messaging. |
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