Community Skills
That's a great idea! And of course I'm always in favor of anything that involves forum-wide collaboration. Will you start a thread to discuss it, and maybe we can all figure out something that makes sense?The great idea Bry speaks of here is to gather a list of the skills and talents of the various community members so we have a place to look when we make various JoCo-related projects... because it broke my heart (yes, really) to hear how that the live DVD was costing a fortune (in one of the interviews by Bry & jinx)-- and taking a log time to boot.
And example (and first request, kind of):
I recorded the show in Cleveland on July 11, now I'm looking over the footage and it is clear that I didn't loosen up the tripod enough to not have pans and tilts get a little jumpy. I plan on making this into a kick-ass DVD to mail to Dr Coulton himself, and to use for my own JoCo Recruitment campaign... and yes, as a supplement to my portfolio.
What I would like to do is to cover up some of the jumpy movement is to collect various fan-made music videos and art to fade to during the songs they were created for... (i.e. when he walks of camera during Mr Fancy Pants, I'd like to show a fan related music video for that short part).
There should be a place where people can list what they can do and in turn, people can then contact you with, maybe a request for a certain original file (not web-compressed or in a funky format), maybe an idea for a grand-scheme (and probably long-distance) project... all with the understanding that credit be given where it is due in accordance with the creative commons and other copyrights (because that's the only cool and JoCo-appropriate way).
Do we think that this is a good idea as a community? Comment here if you have an idea for how this could be implemented, what kind of skills should be listed, and whether it's a good idea (though I have the admin on my side so I automatically get +80 million Rightness).
DIscuss!
Comments
... hmm... maybe I could try to find some "extras" like a clip from the Olympics in that John Tesh story, or (If P&S were to be included in the video, which I know you didn't get their stuff) some information on the fighting nuns. I don't know if it woud fit in, but it's about all that I think I would be able to do.
As Mark indicates, my primary ability, I feel, is in light verse; also, apparently, in doling out Rightness. I can write things that rhyme and sometimes have a decent meter to them, and there are two or three things out there of which I'm not completely ashamed. You can probably find samples on the forums if you know where to look, and if you don't but need to I'll gladly direct you to them.
(Actually, "doling out Rightness" isn't completely a joke -- I am a passionate advocate of collaborative forum projects, and where possible I am willing to push for them with all my influence, which is slight, and all my spare time, which was considerable but is growing less so. For the Mandelbrot Set cover band, I list myself as an "instigator and gadfly." So if there's a project for which something like that is needed, I'll try and make myself available.)
Also, like several other forum members (Mark is one, of course), I'm to some extent willing to help with meticulous research and compilation (when I feel the ultimate goal is worthwhile, at least). In fact, the only reason I was given admin powers was that as a newbie, I volunteered to organize and categorize the tab threads -- and now what do you see me doing? Adding unnecessary and messy stickies and neglecting entirely the thread categories (I promise I'll get around to that when I've got the time!). Lesson: Power corrupts.
ETA: This is what I should've said in the first place:
I do think it's a good idea, and I'm not entirely sure what the best way is to implement it. This may already be the best way -- just to have people list what they're good at -- but for it to be useful, it needs some kind of compilation, along the lines of what I did in the Mandelbrot Set threads, with a list of what people can do that I kept continually updated.
So two questions that need answering: How can we best serve the purposes of people who want content, and how can we best serve the purposes of people who create content?
Possible pitfalls:
* The mere knowledge that someone else has volunteered to do something may discourage others from volunteering for the same thing.
* If a bunch of people volunteer for the same general thing, the content-requester may want some way to determine which ones they want to contact -- samples, or something.
* The way we're talking about now is a fairly static list, updating when new people sign up. But for a variety of reasons, the people on the list may no longer be available -- they've left the forums, or they're too busy in real life, or they don't have access to the equipment or software or instruments that they'd need. I can't tell you how many people have said, "Oh, sure, I'll record something for the Mandelbrot Set," then disappeared (or politely begged off) by the time the actual recording started.
* (Generally, in fact, it's easier to volunteer in the abstract than to actually do anything.)
* It'd also be nice if we had a sense of how much time people can offer / how much time a request will take. I mean, if someone said, "Oh, Bry, you write light verse, can you spit out a limerick for me?" I could turn that around decently quickly, ceteris paribus. But if they said, "Can you write me a couple of sonnets?" that might be weeks before they see anything. And also, y'know, it depends what you're using. Spiff's machinimas obviously take a lot of time and effort, but the one with still images for "Flickr" took a lot less time, he's said, than his fully animated videos, and it'd take someone else even longer if he or she were creating all the models from scratch.
In general, I have found that two things help to turn volunteers into participants: 1) Specific tasks and 2) time lines. "I'm looking for some poetry for this project" will probably not be as effective as, "Please submit a limerick in the next two weeks." This is what finally got the Mandelbrot Set cover project off the ground. (Thanks, Bry.)
As for organizing this thing, maybe a "Fan Skill Sets" page on the wiki? I'm picturing a two-column table of "Skills" and "Time Available" for each person, or something like that. Maybe also a "Last Updated" column or notation for each person, to keep track of how fresh the info is.
Going to sleep now. [yawn]
(I'm up trying to record my M-Set vocals right now. I've decided that we really don't need another lead vocalist, mostly on the grounds that the lead vocal isn't actually in a comfortable range for me... depending which octave, it's either just too high or just too low for me. But harmonies? I've got thirty seconds I'm happy with.)
sounds like a nice idea
tho it might have some problems = lack of time from most
Another thing we could use this for is so people have avenues to getting content that's already been created by the members of the community...
Like... I'd like to use one of Spiff's videos (that he's already made) but I don't have anything more than I can save off of YouTube, compressed and in a funky FLV format... So I could then contact him (on forum or email...) and ask, "hey do you still have some original video files from... Re: Your Brains?" and "what pixel dimensions are the files?" because my DVD would require at least 640x480 (to look good)... I can also get the information I need to enclose for the Creative Commons (in case, he would like (c) 200? FIRSTNAME "Spiff" LASTNAME)
So maybe a column in the table could comment on "Saved Archives?" Yes/No/Kind of... there was a crash way back, better check with me.
Don't know how that can help anyone else, though.~
I'm ok around a wiki but my current to-do list there is pretty stagnant, mostly because at the moment I can't focus on anything other than our impending baby.
I'm also fairly handy with graphic design but I can't really draw to save myself, mainly through being out of practice, I was ok back in my design school days.
Not really all that useful at all!
I can also MacGyver pretty much anything using duct tap and a swiss army knife.
Aside from the idea of having a table on a Wiki page?
Make sense?
We could keep the individuals info on the wiki and maybe make a set of basic 'specialty' tags to help categorize skills. Like "Audio", "video", "web" and "general tomfoolery/chaos". clicking on one would bring up a list of all folks w/ that tag associated w/ them and then people could click on member names to get a little more info (like the paragraphs posted in this thread). ie: "I need a guitar person for x. *click* Here are the guitar people avail to help." Much like Colleenky has said. I should learn to READ threads. Wow, this is starting to get needlessly complicated, isn't it?
Or we could could make a sticky thread titled something like "Community Skills-Requests" and have a rough list of our names/skills as the 1st post, and people could post "I need a web person and an audio person to help me with putting my video on YouTube/my website b/c I'm having issues. I want to have this up by next week." Main requests in bold, response in plain txt. Or have that post link to the wiki skills page idea if we go that route.
sorry for the rambling...
{| = start table
| = new cell
|- = new row
|} = end table
So for example:
{| | '''Person''' | '''Skills''' | '''Availability''' |- | Jon Who | General tomfoolery | Evenings and weekends, UK time |}
Would give...
I like your idea, Ann, of having the ability to click on a skill and see the people who have it.
I don't know coding well enough to make more than a simple table, but maybe I can start it up... and my old computer's HD is failing and won't boot up, so I have to use the 8 year old laptop with 128 ram >.<...
P.S. See what I mean about the rambling? ;-)
P.P.S. For the record, I am not an albino. It's just a farmer's tan.
ETA: Thanks, Lex. Now I have no excuse not to do it. ;-) So here's the wiki page, such as it is. (FYI, it's linked from the Fan Projects page.) The format will probably need revising as it expands. Maybe things like categories, or sorting in some logical order.
YAY!!
I edited to add me and change pacifiic to pacific...
I'll (try to) fix it
When I first started making videos, I was just goofing around, so I don't have high-quality originals for my early stuff, including "Brains". However, my originals are high-ER quality than what you can get on YouTube. Starting with "I Feel Fantastic", I started saving original clips and higher-quality vids, so I can get you better stuff for those.
Email me at [email protected] and we can arrange a transfer.
Me links for you!
Diary of a Caveman
New thing called wheel make move mud less hard
Me laugh til cold white moo juice come out me nose.
*grin*
/ducks and runs
If you notice, I haven't even bothered to figure out the tables for myself. ;-)
You know what, I only just realised the irony of having a grinning squid icon here. And it was already ironic in the original context!
Squid original:
Grin original: