Re: [Design] homepage text

[Stephen Michel]

On January 28, 2016 11:02:18 PM EST, Aaron Wolf  wrote:
>In the midst of all the SCaLE stuff, this thread got lost. Following up
>finally.
>
>On 01/08/2016 08:04 AM, Michael Siepmann wrote:
>
>
>> First, re "Free the Commons" you may well be right that it's the best
>> possible option, and I know I'm missing the context of all the work
>all
>> of you did to come up with it.  I also agree that, when considered in
>> light of additional explanation as you provided above, it makes
>sense. 
>> However, I would still keep the door open for the possibility that
>> feedback or ideas from outsiders may lead to an even better
>> possibility.  Just as ideas that may or may not have come up in
>previous
>> discussions, and /not/ to argue for changing the tagline right now,
>here
>> are a few variations that occur to me:
>> 
>>   * Catalyze the commons.
>>   * The commons catalyst.
>>   * Catalyst for the commons.
>>   * Catalyzing creation of public goods.
>>   * Nourish the commons.
>>   * Grow the commons.
>>   * Nurturing a thriving commons.
>> 
>
>Although I appreciate all these thoughts, I prefer "free the commons"
>as
>far clearer. I understand these are just suggestions for prompting
>discussion. My feeling about "free the commons" is that there are
>things
>that have *fundamental* nature as commons / public and they are *in
>jail* in some sense. The feeling is: there's technology and science and
>knowledge that by nature are public commons and some actors have
>actively restricted them, so we are out to free them.
>
>Yes, we are focused on helping the things that are already free but
>need
>support. However, the mission is to *take away* the funding from Adobe
>Photoshop and give it to GIMP *or* convince Photoshop to become FLO
>commons. We don't *just* want GIMP to be better, we want to see the end
>to the proprietization of the otherwise-commons. And even if we shy
>away
>from being that bold in much of the messaging, that general call in
>that
>direction is good.

I don't think "Free the Commons" is the absolute best slogan we could have, but 
given that we have already had this conversation and could not find a better 
alternative, I think at the least we should not have this conversation again 
until the alpha sprint is over.

>> Second, re changing wording on the home page before getting feedback
>at
>> SCALE, all of your three bullet points above seem good to me.  Here's
>a
>> suggested rewrite of the text below the "How it Works" button,
>> incorporating your three proposals above and also changing "We
>> sustainably fund" which I think gives the wrong impression that
>> Snowdrift.coop actually provides the funding (like a grant-making
>> foundation) and "and we cooperate to help them" which seems a bit
>> unclear to me:
>> 
>> We help people cooperate to sustainably fund projects that create
>> sharable, freely-licensed public goods that benefit everyone.
>> 
>> Join us! 
>> 
>
>I really like your suggestion:
>
>"We help people cooperate to sustainably fund projects that create
>shareable, freely-licensed public goods that benefit everyone."
>
>I almost went ahead and just updated the homepage. However, I kinda
>feel
>this has too many qualifiers still. Instead of an active word
>"cooperate" the main verb is "help" and it's "projects that create"
>instead of just goods themselves. And "shareable, freely-licensed" is a
>bit like extraneous definitions.
>
>But I'm not sure enough about my concerns to conclude much. So I want
>others to weigh in.
>
>The simplest, shortest wording would be:
>
>"We cooperate to sustainably fund public goods. Join us!"
>
>I'm not sure enough about that to propose it as the final solution, but
>if everyone likes it…

This is what's currently on the site:

"Like roads we all share, freely-licensed works are public goods that benefit 
everyone. So, we need to cooperate to sustainably fund them"

I think the first sentence is very good at setting the tone and explaining 
succinctly. The second, not so much. Perhaps just "We cooperate to sustainably 
fund them."
___
Design mailing list
Design@lists.snowdrift.coop
https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/design

Re: [Design] animation ideas for snowdrift dilemma etc

[Stephen Michel]

On January 29, 2016 5:14:14 AM EST, mray  wrote:
>
>
>On 29.01.2016 05:46, Aaron Wolf wrote:
>> FLO *does* have a remarkable amount of volunteers given the
>situation,
>> but we're still struggling greatly.
>> 
>> I'd like to see an animated video that explains the dilemma -snip-

I think this is a really good idea. Further, it would be really cool if we used 
it as an intro video for our home page. Much as you describe, then when the 
video reaches the end, it "rewinds" to where Mimi and Eunice are standing in 
front of the un-cleared road, zooms in and/or changes angle a bit, and boom, 
you've got our current home page.

There's more specific ideas I could write here on how we could modify your 
storyline to make it fit this use, but..

>This is not a priority to spend time on for now.

I have to agree that this is not a priority. The amount of resources a 
well-done animation would take puts it off the table of things I think we 
should attempt before we are launched and self-funded.
___
Design mailing list
Design@lists.snowdrift.coop
https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/design

Re: [Design] animation ideas for snowdrift dilemma etc

[mray]

On 29.01.2016 05:46, Aaron Wolf wrote:
> FLO *does* have a remarkable amount of volunteers given the situation,
> but we're still struggling greatly.
> 
> I'd like to see an animated video that explains the dilemma like this:
> 
> There's a couple roads completely covered in snow.
> 
> At first, the public road has a few people coming to shovel. They have
> small shovels and are not very efficient. They come and go, sometimes
> there are more, sometimes less. The look like they are making some
> progress, but it's slow, lots to do.
> 
> Somewhere in the midst of this, two or three huge snow-plows come up to
> the other road, start clearing it much more effectively, and they
> construct toll booths with cameras and billboard ads.
> 
> Then, we see a status quo like the recent poster we've done.
> 
> Effectively, the status-quo of the public road isn't totally covered in
> snow, it's getting usable, but it's not there yet. Tons of time and
> effort has been put in, but it still doesn't compare at all to the power
> of the snow plows. If only we had either or both (A) more volunteers (B)
> funds to hire our own snow plows but on our terms without the other
> bullshit.
> 
> The point is to acknowledge the work that is done by highlight how
> pathetic it is in *some* ways compared to the resources the proprietary
> stuff has. We're not saying FLO status quo is hopeless, we're just
> saying it's really rough still and struggles to compete despite being
> more honorable.
> 
> The later part of the same video or a second video in a series would
> show the FLO folks making the Snowdrift.coop pledge and gathering
> cooperative support and funding to hire snow-plows for the public road.
> And thus explain in that animation how the Snowdrift.coop pledge works.
> 
> We can clarify that this isn't really for *roads* per se, because we
> have *taxes* to fund public roads already. But we don't have taxes to
> fund FLO software enough or FLO journalism or art or education etc. Our
> pledge is the best way to fill the gap in the absence of taxes, *and*
> it's voluntary, democratic, and flexible in ways that traditional tax
> systems are not.
> 
> We could put this idea on a wiki or track it somewhere, or people who
> feel up for it could start story-boarding or working on it or whatever,
> if there's support for the idea.
> 

A video certainly is a great tool. But I'd propose you provide a rough
description of what you need  first:

* intended message (purpose)
* length
* target audience
* where it will be seen

This would look much more like a constructive conversation starting
point to me. But then again I can't imagine to take care of a video
production right now. I also would like to wait until we have created
other materials first. This is not a priority to spend time on for us now.



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
___
Design mailing list
Design@lists.snowdrift.coop
https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/design