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

Archangel Kes:

I have a major-ish project in the works on H2G2, and in talking to St Dragonfly, it came up that you might be interested in it. If you'd like to check it out, it used to be one of my guide entries, and can still be found there (A447040), but has recently been moved to its own user space - http://www.h2g2.com/A473898

What the Embassy is is an attempt to help users (especially new users) of the guide with finding things, and with any language problems (ie, not knowing enough english, editing...)

So far, it's development in the tourism area is progressing nicely, and we have a couple helpers on-line who will also work in the linguistic side of things, but I am hoping to get lots of people working on this.

Please let me know (my link's on the embassy page, or you can email me at [email protected]) what you think!

Thanks,

Lady K
~8~

Lady K,

I took a look at that page. I can see that it will establish links to more than "just" the Towers team (ACEs, Guru's etc., and the GAs , so it can be useful to Guide users.

What do you see as the Embassy's main "value add" to h2g2?

Have you had any feedback on your project from either the Powers in the Towers or the GAs?

I ask these questions because, if I thinkg (or try to think) like a "newbie" ... I would fear becoming confused because there are so many organisations offering me help. Myself, I'm probably looking for something impossible - I'm looking for a way where we can have, within h2g2, great diversity of views and methods, and yet somehow avoid volunteers wasting their energies in duplicating services that already exist within another group ... I'd like to understand what role you see the Embassy playing within h2g2.

Hope that makes sense to you!

Yes - let's talk further. I will e-mail you tomorrow from my work.

I sent you an email to answer some of those questions as best I could (in reply to your own email) but I see a couple i didn't address. No, I have not yet had any feedback from the Powers in the Towers. The only people I KNOW know about the project are: The Alabaster House, Archangel Big 'Evil' Dan,Kasia (muse), Ottox (muse), St Dragonfly (muse), ShazzPRME, and yourself. THere have been a couple adds and links. The ones I know of are the ad in the Post, the ad on the ad page (can't remember where that is), and St Dragonfly said there's a link on the Archangel page.

Oh - but Peta did stop by a conversation between Archangel Dan, where she agreed that it would be fine to put the editors' links on the page. I did ask her to stop by the page. But I'm not sure whether she ended up viewing it.

As for your wish for the organization and non-wastage of efforts, that is a good priority to have, and I would certainly like to adopt it as a precept for the Embassy, if such a thing can be accomplished - and I think with a little cooperation, it certainly can be.



Lady K

Thanks for the answers - they cover the points I raised, and they gave me a few ideas on what it could be like. I'll discuss further with you by e-mail, and then talk about your ideas with the Archangels when we've got a bit more detail.

Could I ask for an email (or forum-post) with the answers to Kes too? It's good points, and some of them I haven't thought about.

Eh... visiting Kes for the first time, I should say

Hello!!!

Hi Ottox! Welcome!

OK - change of plan (good idea, Ottox). I'll post all my replies here, so everyone can read them - we should get good feedback that way.

This is Lady K (in the guise of AMbassador) just let me nip over to my altavista out-box, and I'll post the email dialogue here.

BTW, Ottox, did you get the User info I sent you?

Here, as promised, is the email discussion between Kes and Lady K! Most recent response at top, original mail at bottom.
~8~

Thanks for the replies Kes!

I did read them both, but I didn't get a chance to reply to the posting last night
cuz... well cuz it was dinner time and I had to get offline. I will try to answer
your (very valid) questions here, but if I miss any, I'll put them in a response
to the thread. btw, Lady K is my preferred label (it's easier than 'Kumetanzuka',
more identifying than 'K')

I have indeed visited the many sites that are sort of like the Embassy's main idea,
and in fact, got most of my links from them. When I visited them, I decided that
the Embassy, of course, must provide a different service than just a tour guide for
the Guide, or it would remain redunant. So far, that is basically what it is, because
I am just trying to get it up and running, and my GuideML skills... well they leave
a little to be desired.

which you may have gleaned from the rather sketchy 'blueprints', remains the ideal.
I want to create a communication center. Somewhat akin to an Earth embassy/consulate,
visitors can come to the Embassy, feel at home in an environment that's a little
akin to their own home (aka Earth).

Linguistic support is one of my main objectives. I've noticed that the Guide is primarily
English (as is most of the web) and that most of its inhabitants come from the UK.
I myself am from Canada, and I know a lot of folks who are from outside of England.
I would like to make it easier, especially for people who speak other than English,
to find a niche in the Guide.

There are lots of German-speakers, and many other European languages are spoken,
as well, I think, as some non-euro languages. Also, I find that a lot of events,
especially the IRL ones where people meet with other guide members in person, take
place in Europe.

Now, I myself am not _particularly_ interested in meeting people I meet online in
person. However, I am well aware that for many people, that is the sole objective
of 'surfing', so I'd like to try and have a forum for that for folks who live west
of the Atlantic, or south of the mediterranean, or whatever.

As well, all we have so far is a starting point. I have, besides yourself, 3 people
actively helping me to realize this project, and I have been securing their input
as well. They may have their own ideas, which in time will be implemented.

I hope I've given you the answers you need, but if not, feel free to reply with more,
or post them in the forum again.

Thanks so much for your interest and help,

Lady K
~8~


On Sun, 19 November 2000, Kes Smith wrote:

>
> Salutations, Lady K,
>
> (Please indicate if you would prefer a different "label" )
>
> Thank you for making contact and pointing me to the information about
> your project. As you'll see, I replied briefly to your note - mainly by
> asking a few questions, and I promised you a more detailed response by
> e-mail.
>
> I hope you don't mind me firing off the questions - they were things
> that immediately ocurred to me, and I'm still trying to understand the
> scope of the Embassy and its proposed activities. You can reply to them
> when you have time.
>
> I'm happy to work with you to move things along. I am happy to act (for
> the time being) as your first point of contact with the GAs (and the
> Archangels). I can pass information to them, also any questions you
> have, and I can provide answers and feedback.
>
> Do please tell me more about your idea, and what you see it providing
> for the users of h2g2. I look forward to hearing from you.
>
> BCNU
> Kes

Thank you, Ambassador.

The thing that appealed to me most from that was the concept of providing some multi-lingual support. We should be able to appeal for people with an assortment of languages - then offer either translation, or just plain the chance to post in your own language and get a reply .... It's something I noticed with the Angels - when someone wanted anything non-English we had to run round to try to find someone to help ...

I'm glad you approve! The linguistic aspect of it was, and is, actually the original and founding concept for the whole project. I am studying to be a communications... specialist... or something like that, and I hope to work heavily in linguistics. I love linguistics and language, and if you've seen my front page, you'll note that I have taken a liking to the whole "Tower Of Babel" concept, upon which the embassy is based.

~8~

I did get your mail, thanks! (sorry not to have replied...) We will have to find a way to avoid the problems discussed in these conversations: http://www.h2g2.com/F47997?thread=75606 http://www.h2g2.com/F55683?thread=88615 (well, I haven't logged in as TA yet. If I continue that way, I won't have a problem... ) I think the researchers with "userrights" must be mentioned somewhere. ...Not that I want to promote myself (well, *of course* I want to! ;-)), but so that people will have at least a hint of my identity if I "by accident" post as TA.

Yes - I see what you mean. Need to think about how to achieve it ...

Yes, I had thought of that problem, and now that it's come to the general attention, it does certainly need to be addressed. It also applies to the joint email account ([email protected]) , into which, likely, only one user will be allowed to log at once. That sort of eliminates that problem. However, it might get annoying never knowing whether you've somehow got the password wrong, or there's just another person in there!

One idea I thought of for the account on H2G2 was a schedule - which might be agreeable since so far, the users with rights seem to be in different time zones. If we can make up a 'this is the hours/days i'll be able to work on it' schedule, and MAKE SURE to stick to it, it'll work.

Another idea is keeping a log, perhaps in a forum or something, so that we post (as our single-user selves, ie. Lady K and Ottox) immediately before we log on, and immediatly after we log off. Could get tedious, but it would minimize the risk of more than one person being on at once. It would also allow us, over time, to get a feel for one-another's habitual hours. Checking the "Who's Online" roster would also help us to know whether the user is free...

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

Yes - those are valid ways to make the system work. I would also suggest that you have two "outside h2g2" channels for communication. Allow me to explain:

Where you need to exchange non-real-time information, you could use e-mail, but for the GAs, we found it better to set up a group (within eGroups), as we can also share files and hold polls.

Where you're sorting out use of an id, it's very handy to have real-time comms enabled (using the few hours of ovrlap between timezones). There is ICQ for this, but some users (behind firewalls) like myself can't get ICQ. There's also Yahoo Messenger.

I think that with those channels you can "manage" the h2g2 accounts and ids. Hope that helps.

This post has been removed.

Wow... yeah, so I just took a gander at eGroups, and disregard the suggestions on the previous post, cuz sixdegrees and delphi really don't compare. They are, really, a bit more like h2g2 - online communities. File space isn't an option, unless one saves it in posts llike these.

I change my vote to eGroups

The other two might be useful for recruiting people to help and to join the h2g2 community though

We'll see. But yeah... so Kes, I am guessing you already know how to use eGroups right? It's affiliated with Yahoo, no? Cuz there's also a lot that Yahoo offers that would be useful.
~8~

I surely like eGroups too, even if I have some problems with it, making my browser crash quite often (and surely if I try using the chatroom).
(Same reason I can't use ICQ, MSN and Yahoo!Messenger
My computer is just very old, not memory enough I believe...)

This post has been removed.

What is a sign-on for Messenger? My only problem with messenger is this (actually it's several problems that all basically come to one conclusion)...

My computer has lots of space, but not a lot of memory, so I don't want to download another messaging program.

The second thing is that my Dad (yes, that's what I said) has a problem with me putting a bunch of non-school-related stuff on here and then complaining when it's too slow. I get a lot of flack from him everytime he has to fix or configure things on my computer. Honestly, I know it's a stupid reason to hold back, but... well there you go. *blushes* (how embarassing!)

Shall I start an eGroup then, or would you like the pleasure, Ottox, since you know how the site functions, and have access to all the info?

~8~