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

Bearing in mind the assets h2g2 has, or may develop in the future - see the ones you suggested at:

F131941?thread=8315112

... who are h2g2's customers or potential customers of these?

At this stage, don't worry about whether they might be paying customers - we can think about commercial stuff another day.

If you can link your suggested customer to one or more assets on the other thread, then that would be great.


As ever, 2 Brainstorm rules:
1. Be bold and creative
2. Don't be judgmental

Those who enjoyed Douglas Adams's books would be at the top of the list. It may or may not help that he died 14 years ago. Tolstein, Lewis Carroll and Jane Austen certainly did no harm to their legacy by dying when they did. Adams might well pick up new fans from time to time. It's just that you get a buzz from every new title that a living author puts out. New readers sample the new offering, and often go back to sample the backlist.

Another focus might be the other comedy/fantasy/Sci-fi writers in the modern British tradition -- Terry Pratchett [many of our researchers have named themselves after Pratchett characters], BBC comedy series [Monty Python], etc. Adams famously worked on some late Python stuff, though he was far from central to it. There are living comedy celebrities who have memories of him, and fans of their work may connect back to Adams and us.

There's an Anglo-centric aspect to Adams's works. Imagine the world ending, and the few human survivors being totally unrepresentative of the human population. Of ten survivors, you'd expect at least two Chinese and two Indians, one American, one or two Europeans, one Russian, one South American, etc. But Adams chose two British characters,* because that's what his radio audience probably expected and would warm to. It's a satire, after all.

Sop, do you want to attract an Anglo-centric researcher base, because they already know the tradition and are comfortable with the assumptions, or do you want a broader slice of the global English-speaking world?




*Anyway, who is to say that random chance would not choose two British characters as the only survivors of the end of the world? Maybe it's lucky if there are any survivors at all!

Which of h2g2's current assets will they visit h2g2 for, do you think? Or do you see them coming here for something we haven't yet created?

I think it's going to depend on what people are doing in whatever age group they find themselves. Students working on papers seem to find some of our guide articles valuable. Creative people who like to find knowledgeable and sympathetic others to critique their work, bounce ideas off of, and learn from will find a good home here. There's also a demographic bulge to consider. A huge cohort was born between 1946 and 1962. Adams was squarely in that group, so he remembered a lot of cultural things that others in that generation take for granted. After a lot of the young adult researchers drifted to greener pastures, people of Adams's generation seemed to account for a greater share of the researcher base. There's also a significant [if shrinking] generation *older* than this, who may feel uncomfortable with the very youngest people, but who are grateful that much of the post-1990 computer revolution was as new to Adams's generation as it was to them.

Maybe some of it is about comfort zones....

Yes, there's definitely a Pratchett fan base here, as the TV Adaptations Entry has done well in social media, attracting many likes.

I think my story may be typical of a group of customers - I was fresh out of uni and keen to keep learning, so h2g2 provided me with the perfect platform to share my History of Maths essay with a wider audience of likeminded people, then I got a buzz from Peer Review and wanted to find other things to write about as well as read about.

I found Hootoo whilst I was a student... internets was kinda newish still I guess, and hootoo was an invaluable distraction from writing my MSc dissertation/thesis Guess it was the community/forum bit that grabbed me at first innit

I'll give this one a bit of a push by summarising some of the assets people have already identified on the other thread:

11,000 edited articles which are readable, peer-reviewed

270,000 unedited and completely random articles

Social messageboards with cool smileys/wise questions and answers/interest groups/fantasy role-playing societies. Millions of posts to these, largely unsearchable.

Writer support, encouragement and expertise / The Post magazine / Alternative guides

Related writing support services including subediting/art/photography

Volunteer structure

a product of the great Douglas Adams.


(I'll leave that thread open for any other assets or potential assets you might think of)


So, are there any customers or potential customers out there for this stuff?

Icy

Yes Icy

And also H2G2 is

A moderated unbiased site allowing no extremes of politics, dogma, or any kind of anti social traffic. All this with a light touch of the guiding hand.

All in all a safe for intelligent sensible conversation and humour with adult (not childish) chat, and exchange of ideas and information. It is/was a perfect site for the intelligent and knowledgeable, and all those who aspire to be.

I demand the right to childish chat - DNA started it

<BB<

OK adult childish chat can be included BB

Traveller in Time hiding in the beard
"We demand to have the right for a childish

(caged, or perhaps vegetarian)"

If giving people a venue for childish chat would lure more people into this site, it might be worth planning for. We have an age requirement, though. No one under 16. Should we consider changing that?

At the other end of the age spectrum, we might want to be a desirable place for to come. We aren't scary. We're nice to people. We entertain the kind of discussion that a mature person might hunger for after ten minutes of the inane that constitutes television programming in so many parts of the world.

We're the intelligent alternative to what's wrong about the world.

Good points and both could would work, the geezers thread is a step in that direction.
We used to have many site threads but we need the people to actively participate.

How can we advertise H2G2 to the wider world, perhaps the BBC connection helped more than was realised.

Is there a way we can establish connections to a wider audience, via other sites.

Is there any way to get HooToo a mention on the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book publishers and readers web sites

Traveller in Time searching in low gear
"Why not putting some effort in a more versatile h2g2 entry on w**i?

Since we left BBC, we are there no longer allowed to use self reference. Hardly any other source says more the that we are 'an encyclopedia'.

-------

'Brainstorm 2 - Who are h2g2's potential customers?'
_customers_, people who pay to make use of a service . . .

Think that would be the advertisers?

Or would that be researchers paying with entries, comments and conversations for reading the site?
(We pay a HooToo society/ review forum/ magazine a visit and pay with a contribution to the conversations . . . ) "

Please see post 27 http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F3555392?thread=8300983&show=20&skip=20#pi28 Bet we can not do it though

If the link will not work
see the BB and Bobstafford thread on my PS

Traveller in Time on his head "Seems to me you would like to make sponsored edited articles . . . For example company sells shoes, promote their product (available online, 24hour delivery, no fit no pay, . . . ) Just the automated addvertisement is from another shoeshop. Could be classified under 'These entries are brought to you by generous gifts from our sponsors' certainly something for the Interview (some kind of big �open forum� Q&A session) < F21546918?thread=8315084 > and < http://h2g2.com/forums/A85834173/conversation/view/F21546918/T8315084 > "

BobStafford said:

"It is just a thought but how about request entries this could be of 2 types

Hoo Tooers could request an entry on a subject they want to know more about.

OR

We could offer to produce entries for use by recognised organisations with the idea that they use them for publicity. Payment a full H2G2 advertisement on their free publicity handouts, and cash paid direct to a nominated H2G2 charity."

<BB<

That sounds like an item for the other thread - a writing service.

So, who would these recognised organisations be that might require such a service?