[Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Hi all, This was mailed to the bf-docboard list as well, but it's a good topic to get feedback on here as well. Here's an idea I have to get public funding via our community to increase the quantity and quality of documentation projects. "Blender Proceedings" - Magazine style and size, full color - 80 pages, quality paper, 200 grs cover - Regular issues, like 4 x per year - Contents available in wiki.blender.org compatible formatting and license - Printed versions being sold online, pdf (ebook?) freely downloadable Topics for a Proceedings issue can depend on anything we consider worth investing time in. Especially it can become a means for our active documenters (and new writers) to spend considerable time on a documentation project while getting a fee paid for it. I also consider to invite developers to participate in this, to get good technical (but readable for users!) docs. In many cases a Proceedings can be filled by multiple authors, they then just share the fees. An editor (and reviewer) should be found as well, who can get a mentoring fee. The name "Proceedings" has been picked to not present this as manual or tutorials, but to always strive for reflecting current development, or important missing docs for Blender. Issues can also be a report on activities such as the Sintel Open Movie project, or the full report on all presentations at the Blender Conference. To make issues somewhat attractive, artwork or galleries can be included as well. Bizzplan: - printing costs 4000 euro (1000 copies) - writer fixed fee: 3000 euro - mentor fixed fee: 500 euro - DTP design: 2400 euro With a sales price of 19 euro, it will need to sell a little over 500 to get return of costs. My estimate is we can sell maybe a 1000, provided it's well designed and attractive. Profits then goes to financing the next issue. The better it works, the more docs! After doing a first issue, we can also evaluate it, and offer a subscription model to pre-finance it all (4 issues for 60 euro or so). Start shooting crits! :) Thanks, -Ton- Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation t...@blender.orgwww.blender.org Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
I think its a great idea. However, I'm quite curious how this fits within the overall universe that is Blender 3D I.e. what is currently being funding, what community needs are being met (or not), and what community needs are most unmet. I certainly think it has a very high value but is it the best bang for buck at this point in time? What is the goal of the magazine? - To create more funding for the BF? - To encourage new users to use Blender? - To encourage more cooperation and a sense of community? - To provide professional documentation? *BF Met Needs* - Open Movie projects - Pushing the software for advanced users and production, Aiming at the studio market. - Developer funding - Pushing the software from the technical side in order to have new and innovative features that expand the possibilities. - Training DVD's and Documents - Push education of the software. *Community Met needs* - The BlenderArt Magazine is already filling this role from an art and tutorial perspective somewhat - Blender Nation is already filling this role from a development news perspective - Blender Cookie is already providing high quality commercial tutorial content, and providing new feature tips for free *BF Somewhat Met Needs* - Usability funding - has currently been done with the hiring of Matt a while ago. but has so far focused on meeting existing user needs, rather than challenging some of the fundamental interface workflows. Certainly a great effort with great results, but also somewhat limited in the scope of development. *BF Unmet Needs* - Repository / Thorough Documentation funding (which is where this magazine may half fit in) is certainly largely unmet since some of the earlier training manuals for Blender 2.3/2.4. - Usability Funding specifically targeted at "New Inexperienced Users". Good usability will remove the need for certain amounts of documentation, and will thus allow documentation funding to be more effective in the future. It will also increase the user base of Blender by welcoming and encouraging users to give it a shot. So yes, great idea. but from my perspective it may not solve what 'I'(subjective) consider to be Blenders current largest challenge. And that is inspiring new users to keep working with Blender rather than giving up to early on. Perhaps funding can be organised for both? *Usability Research* I was recently asked to be involved in a Blender usability study by a student at the University of Waikato, So there are certainly supported/free efforts that could feed valuable information into the growth of the Blender user base. The challenge will be implementing design changes within Blender based on the results of these studies. These studies need to focus on usability from 3 aspects in order to be holistic in their approach. - New users, Have the best and most honest questions that will challenge the most fundamental interface decisions - Existing users, Will be able to describe, and talk about the aspects they find easy, and those they find difficult. they will be able to look at the challenge from a task based. or outcome based perspective and provide ways to speed up getting from A to B. They will be able to question more complex interface design decisions - Expert Users, Will be able to push the development of Blender from a pipeline/integration perspective, but are often more accepting of workarounds. (this is already largely met with the open projects, so I feel is the least useful from an independent study perspective) Cheers, Doug Ollivier Industrial Interface Designer / Blender Trainer and Educator P.s. I will be honest up front that this email somewhat pushes my own agenda from my unique perspective. But the big question that I ask is about "what projects/ideas could the BF be spending its time on" and "what ideas will meet the BF goals the best" i cannot answer that, but the questions do need to be answered. P.s.2 If funding is available for usability research, I am willing to put in a proposal to do/organise the work, and to chuck in my day job to work on it full time for 6 months. On 25/10/2010 3:35 a.m., Ton Roosendaal wrote: > Hi all, > > This was mailed to the bf-docboard list as well, but it's a good > topic to get feedback on here as well. > > Here's an idea I have to get public funding via our community to > increase the quantity and quality of documentation projects. > > "Blender Proceedings" > > - Magazine style and size, full color > - 80 pages, quality paper, 200 grs cover > - Regular issues, like 4 x per year > - Contents available in wiki.blender.org compatible formatting and > license > - Printed versions being sold online, pdf (ebook?) freely downloadable > > Topics for a Proceedings issue can depend on anything we consider > worth investing time in. Especially it can become a means for our > active documenters (and new writers) to spend considerable time on a > documentation project while getting a
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Am 24.10.2010 16:35, schrieb Ton Roosendaal: > Hi all, ... > "Blender Proceedings" > > - Magazine style and size, full color > - 80 pages, quality paper, 200 grs cover Blender Tutorials Guides are back ;-) I am in if anyhow possible. Good idea. Carsten -- Carsten Wartmann: Autor - Dozent - 3D - Grafik Homepage: http://blenderbuch.de/ Das Blender-Buch: http://blenderbuch.de/redirect.html ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
2010/10/25 Carsten Wartmann c...@blenderbuch.de > Blender Tutorials Guides are back ;-) > > I am in if anyhow possible. Good idea. > +1 ;-) -- Olivier SARAJA ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Olivier Saraja wrote: > 2010/10/25 Carsten Wartmann c...@blenderbuch.de > > >> Blender Tutorials Guides are back ;-) >> >> I am in if anyhow possible. Good idea. >> >> > > +1 ;-) > > Excellent proposal ! ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Having a (former) magazine editor as a bro-in-law y'all might want to tack on a few euros for 'editing' to fulfill the quality part. Speaking of which, he was the editor-in-chief of a couple magazines for years and now does freelance editing... Dan ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
> - Magazine style and size, full color > - 80 pages, quality paper, 200 grs cover > - Regular issues, like 4 x per year > - Contents available in wiki.blender.org compatible formatting and > license > - Printed versions being sold online, pdf (ebook?) freely downloadable > Bizzplan: > > - printing costs 4000 euro (1000 copies) > - writer fixed fee: 3000 euro > - mentor fixed fee: 500 euro > - DTP design: 2400 euro How about getting an ISBN? Reason: This makes it a citable reference, something which make PhD students very happy :-) Honestly, it benefits both sides: students get a chance to publish in a "journal-like" publication and we get documentation. The following fields of study might applicable: computer art/graphics, media design, user interaction research, game design. Any professors/students around who like this? One problem could be that some Universities require a number of publications, some require publication points based on journal credibility and number of citations. This puts new journals to a disadvantage. Current prices: 10 ISBNs: $275.00 + $230 for 10 bar codes. http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbn-fees.asp -- Dr. Lars Krueger GRATIS! Movie-FLAT mit über 300 Videos. Jetzt freischalten unter http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/maxdome ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Hi, lars_e_krue...@gmx.de (2010-10-26 at 1938.49 +0200): > How about getting an ISBN? Reason: This makes it a citable Are you sure you do not mean ISSN? GSR ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Hi Ton. I think that the idea of a "Blender Magazine" is great. Blender has reached, IMHO, critical mass and the public at large is constantly clamoring for more content and information. Especially of the "accessible" kind I think that the idea of providing a periodical with high polish is a good one. Having said so, I have to say that I disagree with a few key points in the plan: - 19 Euro for a magazine is a high price. I'm not sure it will be easy to find buyers. I myself hesitate to buy any magazine that costs $6.00 (USD) or more. This is for established, general-purpose 3D publications. I buy a few book every now and then, and they have to be really worth the money. The asking price for a Blender manazine, should be, IMHO, quite a bit lower than E.19 - The title "Procedings" is a bit obscure. To myself and other people I asked it gave the idea of a report about the meeting minutes, or summaries of public events. It can definitely work against the goal of the publication. Selecting something with a bit more "sex appeal" would help the sales. - Printed format is a risk and it limits the distribution worldwide. If I were in charge of deciding the future of a magazine/publication starting today I would not think of printing it at all. Especially for a technical publication. PDF/ePub with publishing on Apple BookStore and Amazon/Nook would be the only means that I would consider. Selling the printed version and delivering the electronic format for free would be economically akin to suicide. On top of that I find that if I have a choice between printed and ebook, I buy the ebook all the time. I can search it, a feature fundamental for any technical paper, I can have the publication with me all the time, together with all the other books/magazine, and it doesn't require additional physical space. Putting an emphasis on the eBook can also help in providing a format that is more pertinent to Blender, by adding embedded movies that can integrate the explanation of articles centered around the topics of animation and post-processing/compositing. On the plus side, I agree that a magazine which is professionally formatted, with high-quality content and published by the Blender Foundation/Institute would definitely be well received. All said in the spirit of helping and providing what I hope is seen as constructive criticism. All the best. Paolo Ciccone www.preta3d.com www.paolociccone.com On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 7:35 AM, Ton Roosendaal wrote: > Hi all, > > This was mailed to the bf-docboard list as well, but it's a good > topic to get feedback on here as well. > > Here's an idea I have to get public funding via our community to > increase the quantity and quality of documentation projects. > > "Blender Proceedings" > > - Magazine style and size, full color > - 80 pages, quality paper, 200 grs cover > - Regular issues, like 4 x per year > - Contents available in wiki.blender.org compatible formatting and > license > - Printed versions being sold online, pdf (ebook?) freely downloadable > > Topics for a Proceedings issue can depend on anything we consider > worth investing time in. Especially it can become a means for our > active documenters (and new writers) to spend considerable time on a > documentation project while getting a fee paid for it. I also consider > to invite developers to participate in this, to get good technical > (but readable for users!) docs. > > In many cases a Proceedings can be filled by multiple authors, they > then just share the fees. An editor (and reviewer) should be found as > well, who can get a mentoring fee. > > The name "Proceedings" has been picked to not present this as manual > or tutorials, but to always strive for reflecting current development, > or important missing docs for Blender. Issues can also be a report on > activities such as the Sintel Open Movie project, or the full report > on all presentations at the Blender Conference. > To make issues somewhat attractive, artwork or galleries can be > included as well. > > Bizzplan: > > - printing costs 4000 euro (1000 copies) > - writer fixed fee: 3000 euro > - mentor fixed fee: 500 euro > - DTP design: 2400 euro > > With a sales price of 19 euro, it will need to sell a little over 500 > to get return of costs. My estimate is we can sell maybe a 1000, > provided it's well designed and attractive. > > Profits then goes to financing the next issue. The better it works, > the more docs! > > After doing a first issue, we can also evaluate it, and offer a > subscription model to pre-finance it all (4 issues for 60 euro or so). > > Start shooting crits! :) > > Thanks, > > -Ton- > > > Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation t...@blender.orgwww.blender.org > Blender Institute Entrepotdok 57A 1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands > > ___ > Bf-committers mailing list > Bf-committers@blender.o
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
Hi all, Maybe a series of article about how to get hands dirty with blender code would be very useful. No need of pages and pages of codes but for example, take a small goal and show people how to implement it. I am sure people would try and Blender dev community would benefit from such articles. Corsairr ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Re: [Bf-committers] Blender Proceedings, proposal
On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 11:16 AM, wrote: > Hi all, > > > Maybe a series of article about how to get hands dirty with blender code > would be very useful. > No need of pages and pages of codes but for example, take a small goal and > show people how to implement it. I am sure people would try and Blender dev > community would benefit from such articles. > > Corsairr One possible project. I would love to see a setting added to the background images that would allow them to be on top of the model and not under it. There are many times when this would be useful in my experience. I would bet, but don't know, that it would be easy to do. Other ad-ons would be to be able to flip, rotate and mirror image the background image. All should be very easy to do unless there are things about Blender that I just don't know. -- Douglas E Knapp Creative Commons Film Group, Helping people make open source movies with open source software! http://douglas.bespin.org/CommonsFilmGroup/phpBB3/index.php Massage in Gelsenkirchen-Buer: http://douglas.bespin.org/tcm/ztab1.htm Please link to me and trade links with me! Open Source Sci-Fi mmoRPG Game project. http://sf-journey-creations.wikispot.org/Front_Page http://code.google.com/p/perspectiveproject/ ___ Bf-committers mailing list Bf-committers@blender.org http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
