h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there! The interim committee for h2g2c2 has been mostly researching our options and preparing publicity materials and so on in the event that they are needed. Here's where we are at so far: Company structure: we are looking at the financial and legal implications of various different structures, and what that might mean for the way h2g2 would be run - how membership would be organised for example. This includes contacting other similar online communities to pick their brains. We will post a summary of that research soon for everybody to comment on. Likewise, we are researching the technical side and making contacts, although we can't do much more on that issue until we hear from the Beeb what the technical requirements are. There have been some great offers of assistance though. We are polishing the press release and continuing to gather possible contacts and other such documents in the event that they need to be used. Please keep the suggestions for contacts coming in the thread �Potential publicity contacts� on the google groups and hootoo page for the consortium. We are writing a business plan, again in the event that that needs to be used. Again, that will be put up for people to comment on when it is closer to being needed. We are brainstorming some merchandising ideas and getting some designs together in the event we need to go into the T shirt printing business. We are trying to keep h2g2 in the online eye by tweeting and so on. So far we have been compiling a list of mentions online and setting up twitter accounts at @h2g2c2 and @h2g2_Guide so that we keep people up to date on progress but also show people what we are about by publicising the guide. Please follow these accounts and use the retweet function and the hash tags #h2g2 and #save h2g2 if you have an account. There are threads in the google groups and on hootoo for your suggestions about guide entries we can tweet, for example. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F20154027?thread=8029297 We are trying to keep up with all the threads and making a note of people�s concerns and suggestions. What you can do: Don�t panic. Keep hootoo active and busy. Keep the suggestions coming if you think we have missed something. Quite apart from practical stuff, there�s also the opportunity to think about what form we want the Guide and the community to be in if we inmates do take over the asylum. Here�s a good thread to brainsotrm ideas: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=8029882&skip=0&show=20 Keep making noise around the internet about hootoo if you see an opportunity. The more blog posts, tweets, retweets, tweets of blob posts, facebook links and so on the better. Post your links to blog posts here so people can pass them on: https://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/b28e8cdb728dfd7c?hl=en

Yay!

Hi there!

Pastey has just got a website for h2g2c2 up and running, you can find it here:

www.h2g2c2.co.uk

The idea of this site is to correlate and consolidate all the stuff
that's been going on at the public facing google group, and on h2g2
itself. It's a summary site, a single point of contact that we can
direct people to when they ask "but what do you plan to do?" or "what
have you done?" without having to say to them "read the backlog"

We're planning to add more to the site soon, so keep visiting!

Sol, when we get the next interim report up and running do you think we could post it here too, just so that we have the info for those who can only access h2g2?

Plus I've just discovered that site doesn't format properly on IE6 (which a lot of businesses are still running) and it's hard to see stuff. But I'll try to remember to report that to Pastey this evening when I can access the google groups again.

Thanks,

I can confirm the IE6 problem.

Also, it's a tiny thing, but on a wider monitor, the little black logo ends up over a grey part of the bigger one, so it doesn't antialias properly. I'll make a png version to prevent that. But that will mean more IE problems.

If only IE weren't so hard to eradicate! But if we don't make it compatible with IE we risk alienating so many people.

I'll try and make a separate page on hootoo for the updates, which are going to be in the form of a blog on the website here:

http://www.h2g2c2.co.uk/?pid=5

At the moment we are basically still doing all of the above still. I think we are close to being ready for people to comment on the legal forms the Consortium might take.

We are writing copy for the website. Any ideas for what should be on it can go here:

https://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/c7e84b332c3068b?hl=en

There's also the beginnings of a project to work out specifications for a noonoohootoo:

https://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/d9b1654fa427b189/e4dda1a9db3bc464?hl=en#e4dda1a9db3bc464

We are also trying to form ourselves into more organised working groups, so we don't start drowning under the mass of backlog. We'll add that to the 'interim committee' page once we've decided.

We are also trying to keep up with reading al the ideas being bandied about by the community.

New website page up:

http://www.h2g2c2.co.uk/?pid=7

And here is the What is h2g2 page on hootoo for your viewing pleasure:

A80734863

That's wonderful, Solnushka.

All fab

Here's the latest blog from the h2g2c2 website:

Blog the Eighth

Thursday 3rd February 2011

Hi there!

So clearly any day now the hootoo community will come to a harmonious consensus about the direction the Edited Guide and the site more generally will take once we have the bit firmly between our own teeth.

F19585?thread=8029882

When that happens, or even if it isn’t quite so clear cut, there will be a need for an exhaustive list of what we want the site to include and be able to do, especially if we plan to give the technical specifications a bit of an overhaul at some point.

Luckily, it turns out there are people on the site who specialise in such things, and such a document is already up and ready to be discussed.

http://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/d9b1654fa427b189?hl=en

Obviously it is in the early stages and in no way set in stone at the moment, so please do go and have a look at it, and add your own comments. We are the ones who use the site, after all, and should the h2g2 Community Consortium acquire h2g2, the opportunity is there to make it what we want.

If not right now, or even next month, then sometime in the future, certainly.

Actually this one is the latest:


Blog the Ninth

Thursday 3rd February 2011

Hi there!

For those of you not endowed with Twitter, good news!

The h2g2 Community Consortium Facebook page is now up and running.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/H2G2-Community-Consortium-h2g2c2/143979835662733

So if you have been getting jealous that you can't join in with all the tweeting, retweeting, hashing , rehashing and trending, you now have an opportunity to press your own button.

The 'like' button. You know you want to.

And if you don't have a Facebook account, what better reason to get one right now?

You may also have noticed the small orange button in the top right hand corner of this blog. That needs clicking on too. It's our RSS feed.

We iz in yr computer, taking over yr brainz.

I clicked on the small orange button, and it took me back to the previous post.

An orange button

I know, Santra!

Well, Paulh, that's what you get for actualy clicking on an orange button. Be pleased it wasn't worse.

Seriously, though, thanks for the heads up.

Paulh- can we ask what browser you're using so that we can test it?

Internet Explorer. Every post except the last one has two orange buttons in the upper righthand corner. One has an arrow (or triangle) pointing down, and the other has one pointing up.