WikiSpace:Initial Reactions
From Croquet Consortium
I'd like more bullet point type structure, especially for a home page, but I'm not so convinced that I'd change it right now.
For the home page I think it should focus on the "new visitor" and "what's for them". "Vision", "What is Croquet", and "Our Focus" could all be very prominent links to the very "next page".
Every phrase in the page could really become a link to more detail only hinted at in the phrase.
Contents |
Now for the imagination...
Add just enough java script so that hovering over key works changes the content of the Croquet world image scene (keeping the same waterfall world background):
- Hover over "Collaboration and innovation stand at the center"
-- then 2d photos of people, youths, business suits, academics, appear standing in a semi-circle around a 3d (something, a globe maybe?, a small animated gif of the Coriolis effect from Croquet maybe?).
- Hover over "A new age of networked computing demands a new multi-dimensional online environment"
-- then open portals appear in a semi-circle around (something, a globe? or a person?) with a light/laser beam/ray projecting out of the center of each one converging on the item in the middle.
- Hover over "collaborative work and learning"
-- and the image contains people that appear to be just walking out the three semi-circle portals instead of laser rays, with an unorganized heap of other primitive 3D object models piled on the thing in the middle (an unfinished work).
- Hover over "among large numbers of people"
-- and the laser rays and the people both appear, and inside each portal doorway the rays can be seen branching and going into other open portals (kind of illustrating a network)
- Hover over "The mission of our international consortium is to advance and promote"
-- and an academic is handing a 3D portal to a business person
- Hover over "development, application and widespread use of open-source Croquet technologies in research, industry and education."
-- and you see someone (a youth?) handing a 3D portal through the first of the 3 initial portals in the simi-circle with a researcher in a lab coat on the other side, someone (another youth?) handing a 3D portal through the middle portal to a business person, and a third person (another youth?) handing a 3D portal through the last portal to an instructor in a university classroom.
- Hover over each part of the description of the tool
-- and the primary colored block use to describe a system architecture appear in their appropriate place within the scene.
- Hover over "These resources may be discussed, edited, annotated, and manipulated by all members of the group."
-- and annotations appear over people's heads with some little dialog text and one character holding the bubble part of another person's annotation (as if moving it).
- Hover over "groups of users can work together in real-time to create, manipulate, and annotate 3D objects and dynamic simulations,"
-- and you see two people bending over a 3D portal with one inserting a Croquet spreadsheet and the inserting an atom with electrons moving around in it (animated gif again?) to represent a system.
- Hover over "This multi-dimensional interface serves as a “meta-medium” where groups of users may congregate, visible to one another thanks to the built-in video conferencing capabilities of the platform."
-- and you see a conference table in the middle of the three surrounding portals and a photo of real people sitting at a table on the other side of each of the 3 portals.
etc.
More later.
Thanks to everyone who has worked hard to create this site and who cherish the vision that this site will fulfill.
--Darius 03:38, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
Next Step for everyone to see
Make a promiment section titled "Next Step" on the home page for us as a community to help keep us focused.
--Darius 03:46, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
Who, What, Where, When, How, Why
Always keep these questions and the popular answers to these questions in the forefront:
"Who, What, Where, When, How, Why"
(especially why)
--Darius 03:49, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
Solutions
Have a "this tool is great for these (markets, solutions, industries, disciplines, fields of research, personalities, etc.)" link and associated page.
--Darius 03:52, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
Referrals
Have a little "advice box blurb" on each page on how to ask for, follow up on, and record referrals. Word of mouth is still a powerful communication medium.
--Darius 03:56, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
"Possible use" brainstorming page
where no cirticism is allowed and regular date/time brainstorming sessions can be scheduled
with a separate page for "what's the resistance and how to overcome any resistance
--Darius 09:34, 25 August 2006 (EDT)
"Brainstorm for you" page
A personal page for each visitor where they tell us what they and their industry is into and we, as a community, suggest where Croquet could help them.
plus who to contact to make your vision a reality with Croquet.
--Darius
Is a Brainstorming Central page useful?
How about a Brainstorming Central page/portal where folks can insert any ideas that occur to them, and this page can get segmented to collect categorized similar ideas together draw connections with existing or new working groups to implement those ideas that develop legs.--Edboyce 10:28, 28 August 2006 (EDT)
Why a “Market”?
- A Market is an efficient tool to determine what is of value to a community, even which parts of a toolset and 3rd party additions to a toolset.
- Like creating an online game, 3D Croquet environments take many people with many tools and skills. A market is a way for those investing in the toolset to leverage others who have the additional skills and time to flesh out the more mundane aspects of toolset user's intended goal.
- Most successful open source projects have active markets of additional content and services surrounding them.
- A market suggests to the new potential adopter that the toolset has a productive community, following, and future worth their investing their time to pursue it further.
