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

Hi Rich

Now you've successfully proved the Beeblecast, I've been thinking a bit about the written material you are going to need on an ongoing basis to keep the project going. This is just a bit of a brain dump at this stage - so forgive any misunderstandings on my part.

So far, you have featured creative writing and poetry of the sort submitted to The Post. I imagine that in many cases you've had to adapt it for the new media - maybe choosing a short section of it, or even editing the content if appropriate - and I'm sure that has required a fair amount of effort on the part of The Post volunteers.

The thought is this: Do you want to encourage people to submit material in a 'ready-for-Beeblecast' format? If the thing takes off (and indications are good) then you might find you're inundated with articles for the next issue, and it would help you if they were as ready as they can be.

If so, then I think we need something akin to the Writing Guidelines to help people write such scripts. What do you think?


Another (unrelated) thought: the Beeblecast is being talked about all over h2g2 now, and it's not clear where the editorial is focused. Is it the Aviators page, The Post front page, The Post "Introducing the Beeblecast" article, the Yahoo forum or the external forum? I suggest that you try to channel people to one place. Think about people typing the word "Beeblecast" into the h2g2 or BBC search engine - it should take them to the right page. The Editors may also be able to advise on how to get Google to find the right link.



Icy

This is excellent. It really does help to have the viewpoint from the outside, if you like, because it's not always to see from the centre. I'll start by clarifying a couple of things for you

We have two different threads of our work as Aviators. This only really came to light when we set up the website and decided on the feeds last week, so the last Post article was the first proper codification of it, if you like.

We have the Guidecast. This is content made for Edited Guide Entries, so it's pretty much 'one Entry, one clip'. At the moment. here is a plan to tie together the current FP uni project in one clip. But anyway, that's the theme of it.

We also have the Beeblecast. This is a bit more confusing; at the moment there is *a* Beeblecast, but in reality the Beeblecast will be a succession of clips made for all the other areas of h2g2 - The Post, UG, community groups and so on.

Both of these streams will carry both audio and audio-visual content. The next clips made for the Beeblecast will probably be audio only, because it's quicker to produce and more people can get involved. Many more people have microphones than camcorders, and we already have an audio producer lined up for some of the clips.

Now the more 'ready-to-go' content we can get, the better. If someone were to write a Post article and submit it with an audio narration, we could use it very quickly. But we also have a lot of narrators on the Aviators team, so in future we'll be able to record submissions in their entirety and quite quickly with minimal fuss. Some bigger ideas are also being planned, and we're surprisingly close to being able to 'release' Post audio.

The focus on The Post is probably less significant than you'd think. For a start, the reason most of the Aviating articles appear in The Post is simply because it's the h2g2 newspaper. It's also very easy for us to tie in because EMR, lil, Bel and myself are all Aviators - if we were all UG volunteers, perhaps you'd see more of that being Aviated. The tie-in has been very successful, though, and it's one way we can benefit both The Post and the Aviators.

I have been asked a couple of times if I could write an article about how to make clips. It is high on the priority list, and I think I even promised something for the new Post in a moment of rampant enthusiasm. The thing is that I'm not an expert; I just filmed some stuff and had a play with some software. You're right, though, some kind of help page wouldn't go amiss.

The focus of everything should really be the Aviators page but, with everything going on, I haven't been able to update it for a while. It is out of date. The Post articles are there to stimulate a bit of discussion and spread ideas, and they should be linked to from the Aviators page as a kind of library. I think the problem is, though, that the Beeblecast is only half of what we do. The way the search facility works, you'll find the Post articles before the Aviators page if you search for 'Beeblecast'. I don't really know how to get around that.

Funny, isn't it? I finally finish the Beeblecast, then I have to write two more pages at the end of it

Thanks Rich, that really helps to clarify it for me.

I think there are two things which I know you know are important, but dammit I'm going to say them anyway. This isn't because they're a problem now - they're not. It's because they could cause problems somewhere down the line.

The first is communication. If you find you're being too often dragged into making Benny Hill-style cookery clips (and hilarious they are too), then consider getting someone else to manage the communications, and keep the information pages up to date. Don't become a victim of your own success, as they say on BBC Watchdog.

Second, something that Bill Gates once said: "Content is king". However clever the multimedia tools may be, what comes out at the end is only as good as the raw material you receive. Make sure the original writing is of a high quality, and the successful AV will follow.


Icy

Dammit, say what you like

I take your point on the first. This was a bit of an exception, really, though - we decided to launch the Beeblecast and the new site on the same day I took the helm of The Post, completely by coincidence. If I'd updated the Aviators page before the Post went live, I'd have blown all the secrets. Now that it's done, I need to spend a couple of days winding down and looking at the new ideas that are coming in. It's good that you've mentioned that, though - despite me having very good reasons, it isn't helpful to have a very out-of-date page at the centre of it all.

It's funny that you mentioned the second. But it's a very good point as well

I do appreciate the brain-dump, by the way. It is very useful for me!

That's good. I didn't want you to take them the wrong way.

Icy

Nah, I've had enough compliments. It's good to know what we can do better.

I've just discovered that if you search h2g2 for "Aviators" it throws up one of my Guide Entries first

"h2g2 aviators" gets to the right place, though.

I could Curate the Aviators page over your article, I suppose

Listen, I've been working on something I'd like your opinion on. Can you email me and I'll send it by return? Mt addy is my h2g2 username at googlemail.com.

A13264670 has now been updated - it's all in there. I think!

I've e-mailed you.

The Aviators page looks great. There's a lot of information on it, but you've laid it out very clearly - good job.

Can you get the Editors to add a Front page link to it? Maybe in lieu of the "Researchers Personal Spaces" slot for a week, or something? (They're running out of those anyway - they might be keen to replace the feature)

One random thought: If you add to the page a few more occurrences of the words "Aviators", "beeblecast", "guidecast", etc inside HTML comments, would it promote it within the search list? I'm not sure how the search engine works (it's a black art, I've heard)

Icy