Folks,

Now that we have OpenGuides sprouting up across the globe, it would be nice to have a list of all the sites. This will become increasingly important in several scenarios:

1. I want to set up a new guide to Fooville. Is anyone already doing it?

2. I'm a roving traveller with friends in thousands of places, all hooked up to the net. I've just stumbled on OpenGuides and I want to entice my friends to be contributors.

3. I'm running a global business with franchises across the globe. I have read favourable reports on london.openguides.org of my outlets there. I want to see if other guides exist for the other cities working franchises.

etc. etc.

What I have in mind is something on the lines of PAUSE/CPAN. Filling in a web form with details of a new proposed site will post to a mailing list. If the site is accepted, it is added to the OpenGuides global directory,

The list of guides (by approval status) is available to all in a picklist by country (and state if appropriate).

Clearly, registering your guide and getting it approved is optional, due to the open source nature of the software. But, launching a new guide might possibly be a multi-stage process.

1. Search the list to see if a guide already exists (approved or unapproved) 2. Work out your hosting arrangements. Some people already hosting guides are willing to host additional guides for new cities. 3. Set up an empty shell of a guide (install the software first if you are hosting it yourself). 4. Register the guide. 5. Publicise it and recruit some core contributors. 6. Write up lots of pages! Get your friends to do the same. 7. When you are happy that the site is big enough to launch, log on to the directory and update its status to launched.

Also hanging off this guide entry (once approved) is a directory which someone with the guide's password can ftp or upload to, containing customisations: stylesheets, templates, etc. that are in use at the site, allowing people maintaining other guides to benefit from any neat graphical design, gismos, styles, etc.

Ivor.