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Do you think documentation could be a driving motivator behind both marketing's and develpment's efforts?
| Yes, that seems feasible. |
| [ 6 ] 75% |
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| Perhaps. But the social aspect does seem to be driven by 'Lovers' more than by 'Haters.' |
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| No - the marketing and coding must be in place first. |
| [ 2 ] 25% |
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| There's too much to document! |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
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Total Votes : 8 |
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| tbritton |
 Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:04 am |
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Registered User
Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 43
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By way of introduction:
This post on Kurzweil.net hits many important points. I commented on the article and mentioned Alexander's Open Company project blog and some of the points I'd already read here. Read it. You'll enjoy it, I think.
James Jaeger on Group Dynamics
My comments are a ways down - search for tbritton in the page if you would like to see them.
Since I am a Content Management System coder only (ExpressionEngine), I naturally tend to think that the best marketing system is social in nature -- by word of mouth. Consequently, it would seem to me that the more HAPPY HAPPY users we have, the more the word would spread, and IMHO, the key to HAPPY HAPPY customers is a good user experience. Experiencing ease in learning a feature-rich program is key to that, I think. (That approach sure worked for Photoshop!)
Sure, bugs can damage the user experience and reputation - but MY user experience has been primarily of the POSITIVES. And that leads me to think that stellar documentation of all of these positive aspects about e-texteditor would create many, many HAPPY HAPPY users very quickly.
So, I propose a documentation team be started, and I am personally going to focus upon enrolling and recruiting members of such a team to work together on such an effort using modern collaborative tools. (...like the WIKI we already have? Google Docs? Other Web 2.0 tools?)
Would you be interested in joining with a documentation team -- focused upon the great things e-texteditor does, with how-to's and tutorials, screencasts and videos acting as demos (In the way Alexander broke-through my resistance to Regular Expressions in his video tutorial?!!)
Please reply to this post or send me a PM or private mail if you are interested and can see how this would support the growth of this company. I'm committing to making this Open Company idea work, as I believe this effort goes beyond our own simple Open Company project, and rather speaks to the needs of the entire world trying to break free of the old definitions of work and remuneration for labor -- towards a new definition of individual freedoms, independence and responsibilities within a mutually supportive, growth-oriented arrangement. Agreed?
As Jaeger responded to my comments:
Quote: It sounds like the experimental company is headed in the right direction. To the degree innovative people such yourself and colleagues pilot new systems based on training and rewarding the individual, I am willing to bet such companies will soon out perform the old-style collective companies. I am optimistic enough to believe that good ideas will always rise to the top and put the old ones out of business, especially if honest profits can be generated by people working on a volunteer, reward-based system.
Please respond to this right away -- while you feel the emotions bubbling inside that this could, indeed, lead to something important. I've also attached a poll to this first post. Thanks! |
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Terry Leigh Britton
Twitter at TerryBritton
I'm also using Facebook. |
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| charlesroper |
| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:22 am |
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Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 1204
Location: UK
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Yeah, I would say that good documentation is a driving factor, but I don't think it is the driving factor. Plenty of screencasts certainly help. I remember when I first saw the Rails screencast and was as amazed by the sleek editor (Textmate, as it turned out) as much as by Rails itself. I'd never seen screencasts of someone coding like that before and I remember it being quite an intoxicating viewing experience for a geek like me. I spent several years (from 2005 to 2007 I think) searching for "textmate on windows", which is how I eventually found E.
If some of that wow-factor (sorry, 'wow-factor' is a really cringeworthy term, I know) could be captured in a series of E screencasts, that would help a great deal I think. One that demonstrated the use of Windows native commands and the removal of Cygwin might be good to start with, especially if they're done with a nice theme. 
Regarding HAPPY users and gurilla marketing, I completely agree with you. Textmate has no end of happy users evangelising it. This actually reminds me of a post by Chris Eppstein regarding his experiences marketing Compass. See the section titled "Guerrilla Marketing via Social Media."
It seems the core gripe people have with E right now is simply a lack of visibility, communication and updates from Alexander particularly in light of certain bugs. Silence from devs makes people nervous and unhappy. Lots of activity by way of communication and/or actual product updates makes people happy.
Regarding a documentation team, I think it can only help, but recruiting a team is one thing, actually writing documentation is another. Good strong leadership is required to make it work. |
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Charles Roper
twitter.com/charlesroper |
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| tbritton |
| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:35 am |
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Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 43
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Well, Charles, one thing I've definitely learned from Photoshop's many tutorials, articles, screencasts, and videos is that redundancy is OK! Many people can write about the same thing. Today, folks trend towards a more non-linear learning experience, and even the same content coming from a different source has a kind of freshness to it.
The thing to do is get folks inspired about what it is about e-texteditor that turns them on so much that they want to tell everyone else how they did it!
(...and even if not the driving factor, it sure is nice if you are doing marketing or coding to hear a lot of nice things being said about what you are working on!) |
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Terry Leigh Britton
Twitter at TerryBritton
I'm also using Facebook. |
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| charlesroper |
| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:47 am |
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Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 1204
Location: UK
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Quote: The thing to do is get folks inspired about what it is about e-texteditor that turns them on so much that they want to tell everyone else how they did it!
Yes, and what's that old maxim? "Don't tell, show." Screencasts do that beautifully.
And good documentation that is regularly updated contributes to the activity levels of a project and thus reflect well. I know from watching the Radiant CMS repo that contributions in the form of docs really do add to a sense of forward motion.
Which is to say, I am with you on the documentation thing. Hell, I can't really contribute in any other way, given that I am a particularly bad coder and that the bundles I do use regaularly all seem to work OK for me. |
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Charles Roper
twitter.com/charlesroper |
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| tbritton |
| Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:49 am |
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Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 43
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I'm collecting together a few screencasting tools. Are there any others people like?
Jing by TechSmith
Jing Pro by TechSmith $14.95/year (adds MPEG-4, instant YouTube, no branding, smaller files, webcam use also. Jing Pro vs Free
Both Jing's use Screencast.com as distribution networks and are time-limited to 5 minute presentations. Screencast.com has a pro version as well, $14.95/month or $99.95/year. Pro version brings 25 GB storage and 200 GB bandwidth/month.
Snag-it also by TechSmith. $49.95 Screen-captures only - no animation or real-time
Camtasia Studio ALSO by TechSmith - edit Jings, videos, etc. and more. $299.00
ScreenToaster Free browser-based screen-capture tool.
ScreenJelly "Screenjelly records your screen activity with your voice so you can spread it via Twitter or email. "
Screenr Another screencast-to-twitter tool
ScreenCastle Online capture tool (screencast le)
ScreenFlow $99 pro studio
Screencast-O-Matic "Original browser-based screen recorder"
Debut Video Capture Software Free and Pro version $34.20
GoView Beta by Citrix
Try them and give us all a review! |
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Terry Leigh Britton
Twitter at TerryBritton
I'm also using Facebook. |
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| tbritton |
| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:39 am |
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Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 43
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http://camstudio.org/index.php
This is totally free and works very nicely. Lots of features (including auto-follow of the cursor). I'm going to make a demo this weekend - watch for it announced here and in the tech-support area, most likely.
Watch this tutorial (made using CamStudio) that shows the best setup for YouTube videos using screen captures with sound. Some settings can be enlarged (like going to 640X480 rather than the YouTube default half that size), but for starters I'm sticking with Jimmyr's suggestions.
http://youtube.jimmyr.com/tutorials/Kiug3H3c4gk.php
Terry Leigh Britton |
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Terry Leigh Britton
Twitter at TerryBritton
I'm also using Facebook. |
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