Notes from my monthly meeting with Lizzie Jackson.
Community timescale:
1) PLANNING AND SET-UP (3 months)
Define use cases
Define online application functionality (in terms of OSS and existing software)
Define navigation (map between community applications)
Social architecture ("how to lay out city", draw buildings, put software in rooms)
Pretty up the skeleton, wallpaper the community
2) LAUNCH PERIOD (3 months)
Evidence that it takes approx. three months for community to form.
3) ACTIVITY PERIOD
Activities, assets available.
COMMUNITY ROLES
Host role
Party organiser, Curator, Workshop leader, Membership secretary, Historian
(see Clff Figallo book 'The Role of the Host')
Moderator role
Greeter role
Host not needed for initial phase (3 months) but important to keep movement going on planning so Workshop/Curating function could be given to Alex.
Suggestions for Alex tasks as of July:
Act as workshop leader for Community plan. Keep in touch with me to coax me to deliver the materials. research background in terms of related communities and info to guide me.
Talk to the open source film-makers. What went wrong in their community attempts? Get gory grimy details. Don't make the same mistakes.
Review House Rules on existing sites (e.g. BBC, HP, Disney). We need
House Rules (i.e. who owns content, right to showcase your content)
Terms/Conditions (i.e. legal protection)
Registration system (i.e. trust network)
Introduce people to idea, website, mailing lists
PROXIMITY
Organise Q/As with name contributors to allow community to feel part of something special.
Remember the community make-up will be
1) Newbies - just visible
2) Movers and Shakers - very visible
3) Lurkers - not visibile
80% of the community will be Lurkers and the success of the community will depend on them!
It's all good people!! Have a great trip .M.
Posted by: alex at July 9, 2004 10:01 AMAlex's July Task List (thus far)
1) Junk MSN messenger and check out Trillian
- There's no Mac OsX version available yet, so I'll stick with MSN & Yahoo for now!
2) Check out: http://www.opensourcecinema.com and http://fourthwall.creativecommons.org
- Done! Will interact with film-makers & VJ's in these communities shortly..
3) Check out BBC, HP, Disney sites and look at their 'house rules'
- I made a copy of the BBC's 'definitions' which may come in useful, it's very thorough!!
- I made several attempts to join Disney's online community but couldn't get past the registration stage. I conclude that they either have some serious bug with their 'recognition system' or, since they're powered by HP, that they TOO hate Macs!!
4) Define who it is the community is for, ahead of any specific functionality. The KEY thing is to help get a better sense of who these 15 users are. That means brainstorming, relating to the stuff you see happening online, cruising around the communities I've referred to in modfilms.net
- Looking into it.. will probably get something up by mid-week!!
5) Go over the application (skim bits that aren't relevent) so that you're absolutely clear about my CINEMA/CONSOLE/COMMUNITY vision
- I'm not clear on the 'Semantic Web' description - perhaps you need to go into MORE detail about this important new online development if you are to garner more interest..
6) Copy/paste new stuff we talked about as a comment here http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/001628.html then send ALL to ken@thequality.com
- Done!
It's been a month since I began working as a HOST in this community, and while regularly keeping an eye on the Headbin, I've been dedicating much of my time to joining dozens of film 'micro' film, video and animation communities in a host of well-established Social Network Communities such as: MSN, Yahoo, MySpace, Tribe, Orkut etc. to get a 'feel' for what interest may be out there for a project such as ours.
Consequently I mocked up an EDITED DOWN version of the original MOD Films letter, intended as an 'e-mail out' (or bulletin) for these communities, in order to direct interested parties to the MOD Films mailing list. Before posting this e-mail out I wanted to run it by you Michela for your approval..
Dear All,
MOD Films is producing a new kind of film – a re-mixable film. By re-mixable we mean a film made to be screened in a cinema but which on DVD can also act as a creative tool, In a practical sense this is a MOD’able (or modifiable) library of film assets. Our audience is able to mess with the film technically without breaking the law.
We invite you be a part of this new evolutionary step in film & video production by subscribing to one or both of our mailing lists so as you can keep in touch with our current project and its subsequent developments.
modfilms-announce -- Low-traffic announcement list for MOD Films
HYPERLINK "http://lists.modfilms.com/mm/listinfo/modfilms-announce" http://lists.modfilms.com/mm/listinfo/modfilms-announce
modfilms-general -- Discussion list for people who want to meddle with films.
HYPERLINK "http://lists.modfilms.com/mm/listinfo/modfilms-general" http://lists.modfilms.com/mm/listinfo/modfilms-general
Best regards,
Alex Zinzi.
MOD Films Community Host
Re: the '15 Users' list, I've come up with 7 or 8 CORE user groups which I'd like to brainstorm with you at some stage... 15 is a bit of a stretch though!!
Posted by: alex zinzi at August 9, 2004 01:45 PMAlrighty .M. I've got 11 USER GROUPS now, which with your 4 should give us.. (you guessed it) a total of 15 WOO-HOO!!! Ok, mine are as follows:
MARK THE TRADITIONAL FILM-MAKER - Mark has been making films the traditional way for many years now. Recently he's been coaxed into working more with the digital medium, and mixing up his media sources a bit by his techie brother. He thinks that MOD films might be the future but he's just not sure yet.
JILL THE ART STUDENT - Jill wants to embrace the future, be hip and up to date in everything and has an innate (albeit NAIVE) love for animation. She remembers seeing 'Horses for Courses' somewhere?!? and became rather interested in the idea of making her BIG BREAK through remixing films quite recently.
YUKO THE WIZ KID - Yuko doesn't speak very good English but has been desperately lurking around all the new and burgeoning Social Networks like 'Mixi' and 'Multiply' in the hopes of hooking up with like-minded individuals to help with his current digital film project. When he read about 'remixable films' on Tribe.net he decided this might be another interesting 'angle' to consider.
MAY THE NEW MEDIA WHORE - May is into absolutely E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G to do with New Media and its many infinite implications. She's doing her doctorate on 'Interactive Media for the Home' and wishes to interview Michela on her current project. She's a good person to know for 'spreading the word' because, like any good journalist, she's determined to be in on the FRONT DOOR of these developments.
ALEX THE CULTURE VULTURE - Alex is a graphic designer, writer, musician and film-maker who loves to be 'in the know' of any NEW develoment in any area and any part of the globe. Admittedly he doesn't know his Java script from his Java Tea, but he regularly attends film festivals, computer shows and art gallery openings on the off-chance he might catch a WHIFF of something exciting and radically new.
DAVO THE GAMER - Davo is a video game developer, designer and user who spends most of his online time conducting forums, discussions and reviewing new PC and Mac games as well as console games by leading retailers like Sony and Nintendo. Basically.. what Davo doesn't know about video games, simply isn't worth knowing. He would love to use the application software licensed by MOD films on some of his own games.
MACK THE HACKER - Mick's been hacking into computers since he learned how to say "Help me Obi-Wan you're my only hope!" He vehemently RESISTS any idea of making remixable film software available through open source because it might take the lime-light away from the pirates and hackers who he fancifully believes are the only true HEROES in the information technology game. This however doesn't mean that he hasn't already hacked himself a copy of this software or that he won't continue to keep an inquistive eye on MOD Films.
LANCE THE LURKER - Lance is a lazy bastard, otherwise he would have got something going a long long time ago. Instead he chooses to surf the net as a spectator, tuning into peoples' forums, checking out their blogs and occasionally stealing an idea as well as an image or two. He came across MOD Films a few months back and makes repeated visits to the site, claiming (mainly to himself) that one day, he too will put his 'creative' skills to some use in this area. Yeah.. dream on Lance!!
PAM THE LEGAL EAGLE - Pamela is a Copyright Lawyer for a major European film distributor. Her interest in MOD Films is purely ACADEMIC, having more to do with keeping abreast of film rights and the general handlings (and mishandlings) of film content through the various trafficking of content and images brought about by the 'sharing' thereof. etc. etc. etc.
MAX THE FILM BUFF - Max is the ultimate film aficionado and critic, and although something of a PURIST, is extremely keen to keep up to date with any new developments in film technology, partly in the hopes of being able to discover some new cutting-edge film maker who will be the NEXT BIG THING he writes about for one of the many publications he freelances for. Max is a really good person to know because Max knows EVERYBODY!!
BILLY THE KID - Billy is in his early teens and doesn't quite know what he's going to do with his life. All he knows is that he loves Manga and all forms of Computer Animation, and that when he recently saw 'Animatrix' he became totally obsessed with the idea that a film could have multiple-themes and narratives which could be handled by a number of different film-makers in a variety of different styles. He doesn't know about MOD Films yet but when he eventually discovers the site, it might just become a 'turning point' for him.
Posted by: Alex Zinzi at August 17, 2004 02:49 PM