[Pdweb] Proposal wrt. guide new users with silk gloves

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Mar 6, 2007, at 7:57 AM, Steffen wrote:

>
> On 01/03/2007, at 3.48, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>
>>
>> On Feb 28, 2007, at 5:55 PM, Steffen wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On 28/02/2007, at 6.23, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>
>>>> and have a curated exhibition section.
>>>
>>> If someone with sufficient privileges will set up a folder for  
>>> it, where i/we can add wiki pages i'd give it a push. It could  
>>> be /exhibition or /showroom or /gallery or slash-something-else.  
>>> I'm not picky. It could also be in /community/projects, but i  
>>> think thats hiding it away too much.
>>>
>>> In that folder, i'd create
>>> - a wiki page ./about with some general info about what the  
>>> exhibition/showroom/gallery is about.
>>> - a wiki page ./organization or something like wise to use for  
>>> organizing it. Describing the procedure, what information and  
>>> meta information there need be in each "issue"/"volume"/ 
>>> exhibition and organizing who'll curate when.
>>> - a wiki page ./archive with links to the past exhibitions.
>>>
>>> Then all exhibitions, if i can decide, will have a wiki page  
>>> each, named ./vol<number> or ./issue<number>. I think doing it  
>>> this way is better then being monthly or bi-monthly, since then  
>>> it can be sometimes monthly and some times bi-monthly - or what  
>>> ever - without looking silly.
>>>
>>> Apropos duration. I don't think an exhibition should laster less  
>>> then a month. It's not to make it dull, but to give time to  
>>> something serious to emerge. Separating it from the casual blog- 
>>> sphere. In other words to give the curators time to make  
>>> something interesting out of it, to increase quality!
>>>
>>> The, say,  /exhibition will point to the latest exhibition.
>>>
>>> It would be good if a coming curator could be able to plan ahead  
>>> and start making the wiki page before it goes "on air", hence  
>>> some management in that direction would be needed. I don't know  
>>> if one can just manually set the ./exhibition thing to point to a  
>>> given wiki page, that might be the easiest  way to realize both  
>>> the archive, the pointer to the current exhibition and give  
>>> coming curators the possibility to plan ahead. This also mean  
>>> that the dir-listing that happens in the menu should be turned  
>>> off for this folder or at least that future/planed exhibitions  
>>> should be invisible.
>>
>> A curator-to-be could build the wiki pages in their home folder,  
>> then they would be moved into the exhibition when the time comes.
>
> That could be a solution, if it's not hard to move stuff about.
>
> Also, today i tried to make a wiki page in my home folder, but it  
> did not work. Now it just sits there, and i can't even delete it. I  
> tried to make a folder in my home folder, but got much like the  
> same error as when one in general tries to make a new wiki page.  
> Hence there are some problems as is.

Seems like the permissions for the site are a bit askew.  It should  
be possible for people to create wiki pages.


>>> When it's set up and ready for action i could send a few PR  
>>> emails. For example to Create Digital Music, .microsound- 
>>> announce, Pd-announce and what have we. From then it could be  
>>> organized though the wiki and this list.
>>>
>>> What do you all think?
>>> How would curate?
>>> Can write access to a place like that be given?
>>
>> I like this proposal a lot as it is now.  I'd say it's a done deal  
>> in my book.
>
> I'm very happy about that.
>
>> I would just take this email, maybe edit it a bit, and post it to  
>> this list as it's own distinct email with a header that highlights  
>> that it's a proposal to be accepted or rejected.  Then we can wait  
>> several days, if there are no objections, do it.
>
> Ok. I will do that. But first i think it would be good to line out  
> and discuss the details. At first i was thinking that it could have  
> been done in a wiki page, but we can do it here instead. I'll  
> collect everything to be put in a final proposal for the exhibition  
> part. Then the relevant wiki pages and folders could be made by  
> someone with write privileges.


>> I do have some minor additions:
>>
>> - curators cannot post their own work
>> - people add themselves to curator slots (wiki page or whatever)
>> - if curator slots are filled very far in advance, we change the  
>> system then
>
> Good points. The first is really about the form of each exhibition.  
> I think the form should be as free as possible, such that curators  
> can have there own still, even it can seam incoherent to some  
> visitors. But still i think a minimum set of details should be in  
> each exhibition. Here is a sketch:
>
> - Some kind of header and footer. It could be very simple. The  
> header could be just something like "Pd exhibition vol. <number>",  
> and the footer could be simple information about the curator.
>
> - Every thing in between is the exhibition.
>
> - There should be no limit to the number of works in each  
> exhibition. But my guess is that the range one to three would be  
> fitting. Of cause less then one doesn't make sense. The reason i  
> think more then three will be less fitting, is that i fear that the  
> it will be less deep and less serious with too many pieces of  
> work.  Of cause, if it is a exhibition with a theme, like say  
> samplers, it might make sense to the curator to give a serious and  
> detailed presentation of the theme and then present quite a few  
> works. This is just thoughts.
>
> - For each piece the source should be available either at the  
> exhibition site or liked to off site. I don't think it should be a  
> must, but it definitely should be opted for!
>
> - Also, proprietary media formats should not be used.
>
> - formal Info on the artist should be supplied. At least a name and  
> some sort of contact info or relation should be provided. The later  
> could be a website url or organization name or band name or likewise.
>
> - Description/presentation of the artist should be supplied. A  
> roule of thump could be, that the less numbers of diffrent artist  
> (per exhibition) the more detailed presentation of the artist(s)  
> would be fitting.

All good points.

> A few other practical things that would be good to have sorted:
>
> - Can we settle on simply calling it "exhibition" and placing the  
> "public" part in ./exhibition/ ?

Works for me.

> - Can we make certain wiki pages folders only readable for site  
> users? I'm thinking that the organizing bit, the curator plan and  
> the guideline for each exhibition, should not be directly public. I  
> don't think we should do a lot to prevent people from seeing it,  
> just not place it right next to the actual exhibition. So either  
> make that bit only visible for site users, or just place it in ./ 
> community/projects/exhibition/ instead of in ./exhibition/? The  
> organizing bit need only two wiki pages, one for the info/planing  
> stuff and one template wiki.

Should be possible, but I don't see the reason to hide content at  
all.  It does make sense to have things in different places tho.

> - To sum up; in the ./exhibition folder there will then be: An  
> archive wiki with links to vol-<number> wiki's and an about wiki.  
> The root of ./exhibition will still point to the current  
> exhibition, ie. the newest.

Sounds good.

> - But, i'm not sure what to do with files like source- and media  
> files. Should they reside just in the ./exhibition folder or in a  
> dedicated files folder (./exhibition/files/) or should there be one  
> files folder per exhibition? I think the later is too much trouble,  
> and the fist might be a mess. So if a files folder can be made  
> invisible in the menu, that would be best, i think.

Probably one folder per exhibit/curator would work best.

Woo hoo, sounds like a plan!

.hc

>> And just to be clear, there should be one "official" overarching  
>> manager/moderator for the exhibition pages to set up the current  
>> pages, manage other questions, etc.  I'll do this if no one else  
>> wants to, but it sounds like you are on it, Steffen.
>
> Yup. I don't mind doing that. For a start anyways. Maybe in a years  
> time or so, someone else wanna take over. We'll see how it goes.
>
>> This sounds very good, it's about time we did this!
>
> Yeah.
>
> Best, Steffen
>



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