On Wed, Mar 29, 2006 at 05:25:33PM +0100, M.B.Gaved wrote:
Here's my response for the Open Guide to Manchester
A. Your Open Guide
- How would you describe the Open Guide you work on to somebody who
wanted to find out about it?
To quote from http://manchester.openguides.org/ :
This site is part of the OpenGuides network of city guides, and exists to provide a living guide to Manchester, contributed and updated by the people who spend time here. We're independent and non-corporate, and exist to provide a comprehensive guide to the Manchester we know and love.
- Who is the anticipated audience for your Open Guide? Who are your
users right now?
I don't really have an anticipated audience. Content goes on the guide, and people access it, currently mostly through Google searches. Occasionally, people contribute to it. I don't really know who these people are other than traces in my Apache weblogs. I'm hoping over time that more people will subscribe to the ogm-discuss mailing list and we can get more of a coherent community going.
- What do you see as the purpose of the open guides? (feel free to
get philosophical!) e.g. how is it different from other wikis/city guides?
When I'm looking up information and find a city guide, I'm often frustrated by the adverts, the poor navigability, and the content. Entries rarely link to each other, and are rarely organised neatly. The content is often out of date or biased, and there's no way to correct it.
I think my Open Guide is easier to navigate, and easier to contribute to. The lack of adverts and clear (if unpolished) design help with this.
- Are there rules and regulations users must follow? How about your
admin team (e.g. how do you make decisions)?
There aren't many particular rules, other than those governing the licensing of content. Ther's a house style which helps keep things consistent. The only real "admin" work I do is deleting spam.
B. Your role in the Open Guide
- How did you come to be involved in the Open Guide?- can you tell us
what you do?
I was involved with the Open Guide to Oxford through moving in the same social circles as the admins. When I moved to Manchester, I was invited to take over administration of the Open Guide to Manchester by one of the people responsible for its hosting.
As admin, I am responsible for keeping the guide free of spam. As a user, I contribute new content and modify existing and contributed content to keep the guide as smooth and usable as possible.
- What was your goal when your Open Guide (or your involvement in it)
started? What are the current goals?
My goal was and still is to increase people's awareness of my Guide until it becomes a regular source of information for people. This will be done by promotion, content and grass-roots awareness.
- How long do you see yourself being involved in your Guide?
I don't see any finite stopping point. If it were to become too much hassle, it'd presumably be busy enough that I could recruit a replacement or supplemental admin to help me.
- Have people used the Guide in any ways you didn't expect? (and has
'vandalism' been a problem?)
I've had content added about things in Manchester of which I was not previously aware, which is good. There has recently been a minor spate of wikispam on many OpenGuides, which is a minor problem.
C. Publicity and outreach
- Do you publicise your Guide? How?
At the moment, I only publicise my guide by linking to it from my blog, and from the Manchester community on LiveJournal in response to questions.
In future (specifically once OpenGuides supports OpenID) I'll promote the Guide more heavily on LiveJournal and other Manchester-related sites and mailing lists. I have a plan to flyer physical locations, particularly those which are already in the Guide.
D. Future of the Guide
- How successful do you think the project is? Which goals have been
met? Which remain elusive?
I do not feel that my Guide is very successful yet, measured in terms of traffic received. Once it is getting more hits from users than search engine crawlers, I'll be happy. Once I start getting more regular contributors (particularly those who aren't OpenGuides devs), I'll be very happy.
- How long do you see the project going on for?
As long as the Guide is useful, which is a function of how frequently it's kept up to date. I don't see a finite end point, though I can imagine a situation where it fizzles out due to lack of interest.
- If someone told you they were planning to start an Open Guide, what
advice would you give them?
Try to make your site as usable as possible. Get non-geek friends to proofread the meta pages and see if they can make sense of it. Reasonable layout and photos both make a site more inviting.
Dave