Thanks for your interest, Florence
This is the index page of one environment's forums. Please (try and ignore)
all the ads.
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/index.php
If you note the navigation bar at the top, it could be used to point to
Wikizine, Signpost and Wikipedia Weekly (as examples), or it could have a
"drop down' as an intro to individual projects. We'd need one for each
language.
If you scroll to the bottom you normally find around 3,000 on line 24/7,
many of who use skype or suchlike, so this is how many people find out if
their friends are 'hanging out'. I prefer forums that tell yo how many
people are reading on each thread as it makes it more like a library.
I could point to dozens of others. sitepoint is about 250 on Alexa's top
500, so it's pretty attractive to web designers and programmers. Not
surprisingly, the navigation is well designed (or they'd never live it
down).
I find any online environments pretty daunting the first time in, so to get
a feel I start with the people who are supporting the community as they, and
where they are positioned globally, are far more important. As an example,
click on 'Forum support' (down the bottom left) and note the second
"sticky". (in case you don’t know, a sticky is at the top of a thread and,
as the name suggests, doesn’t move). They have a good community team.
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228223
Possibly, if you look at this web stuff as an evolution, forums are just a
way to bring a bunch of (google-type) groups together or open a bunch of
WMF-type elists up.
Regards, simon
Topics:
1. Re: more (wikizine) participation (Florence Devouard)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:00:21 +0100
From: Florence Devouard <fdevouard(a)wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [ComProj] more (wikizine) participation
To: Discussion list for the Communication Projects Group
<comproj(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Message-ID: <478CAE65.1010200(a)wikimedia.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1250; format=flowed
I have not read all emails in that list, so my apology if my question
was already answered in the past (if so, please point out the right
mail), but could you clarify what you mean by "forum" below ?
Thanks
Ant
simonpedia wrote:
Cary, casey,
My Apologies to yu both.
My eyes were bleeding from the huge number of emails I got in my
Simonpedia inbox
from the WMF elists I?m trying to stay across, particularly
the Foundation?s. I?m reading Florence?s wish list, which is very nice,
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/10_wishes_for_2008 So tell me Casey,
cause you?re the one who seems to be across many of the WMF domains, is any
of what I?m suggesting useful?
The big picture here, which the WMF has in common with all other
globalizing non
profits, is trying to reorganise their communications,
particularly their real time stuff, around groups or committees.
Florence?s wish list led me directly to the Council.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicouncil where the first thing that you?re
struck by is this comment; ?The power of information exchange between
Projects (examples of info exchanged, what is currently missing,
inconsistencies between policies of different languages, which ones would
benefit from being harmonized?. - info exchange is one thing but just
reading through the Talk:Wikicouncil page, it?s already overloaded
BTW. If you wanted another non profit which resembles WMF?s communities,
this one
seems mirrors WMF?s mission, so I?ve pointed to their approach for
a ?member?s? council.
http://www.oclc.org/memberscouncil/default.htm
We might improve WMF?s comms by getting a few editors to contribute to a
wikizine
or a wikipedia weekly. But the main thing which is needed is a way,
after a person has read something, to be directed to a forum and/or virtual
room where they can gain/share an understanding and then perhaps vote for a
proposal, etc. The obstacle is, if the WMF take this approach, the forum
would no doubt become one of the ?most hit? very quickly, and so expensive.
Either a sponsor is needed or advertising is required.
Now we know the response to advertising.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Perennial_proposals#Advertising
We also knows it goes on all the time E.g
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Microsystems
which amazes me when I consider how happy companies would probably be to
pay/donate
around $1000/year for a (shall we call it) ?corporate listing?,
or sponsor the forum.
Now I?d better stop as my eyes are bleeding again, regards simon
>> You're confusing Cary and I. :-)
* I am [[m:User:Cborwn1023]]
* Cary is [[m:User:Bastique]] and [[m:User:Cary Bass]].
I understand the confusion, Cary and Casey are very similar names and
both of our last names start with B. :-)
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