wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Future of the World Wide Panorama - Part One
A Y R T O N 2004-Jul-27 00:19:00
First of all, Congratulations
-I'll try to keep participating everytime
-4 times a year sounds perfect to me
-One weekend each time, sounds good too
-All 3 domains are perfect, very good idea
-Just QuickTime is wonderfull. No ipox pls.
-Just remember that your idea about "all summer long" is not VALID all
over the world. Like here in South America now is WINTER !!! And I
agree with Landis that such a wide time-event will weak the "event"
nature of the project.
So Keep on movin ! :- )
Sincerely
Ayrton Camargo
On 26/07/2004, at 20:09, G. Donald Bain wrote:
> This is the first of four planned discussion documents about the future
> of the World Wide Panorama. Please respond (to the YahooGroups wwp
> list) with your thoughts.
>
> Timing and Hosting
>
> There has been a lot of enthusiasm for continuing the WWP with future
> events, and questions about whether this will be possible.
>
> Landis and I are agreed it is worth keeping it going for the
> foreseeable future. I can see at least two more events (September and
> December of this year), and probably continuing into 2005.
>
> How Long?
>
> The biggest factor is whether there will be continuing support from
> participants. If the number of people contributing panoramas drops
> off,
> that may be a sign that it is time to stop. We had 180 the first time,
> 120 the second. If we continue to have over a hundred participants per
> event I will consider it viable.
>
> A second factor is if the world in general continues to be interested.
> I see no problem here -- most people out there still have never seen a
> VR panorama (except maybe a tiny real estate tour). If we continue
> with
> the same high quality and varied subject matter of the first two
> events, we are guaranteed of public interest.
>
> An aspect of this is publicity. So far we have done very well, and
> have
> hardly been trying. I have purposely not publicized this second event
> too vigorously, until I am able to resolve some issues of bandwidth.
>
> The third major factor is whether we will be able to get staffing to
> run future events. Landis and I are committed to at least a couple
> more. And there have been numerous volunteers offering to help.
>
> We deliberately kept this project as simple as possible from the very
> beginning, to minimize the demands on the producers. We will gradually
> add features in future events, but cautiously. A greater degree of
> automation (on-line forms for submission, and automatic generation of
> html pages from that data) will hopefully reduce the amount of labor
> necessary.
>
> Fourth: issues of disk space and bandwidth. Luckily we have major
> institutional support here - the University of California. Despite a
> state budget crisis, I foresee no problems.
>
> I was able to purchase a new server specifically for this project,
> which should be able to handle very heavy traffic. The first event had
> such a peak of popularity that I was obliged to take the site off-line
> for several hours because it was impacting work in my department. But
> this was a local problem only, the amount of bandwidth we use is a
> drop
> in the ocean for this huge campus. In the next few weeks I will be
> working to obtain a more direct connection to the internet backbone,
> so
> external WWP traffic doesn't impact local service.
>
> There have been suggestions that we use a url that is less cumbersome
> than geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp.? As long as we are depending on the
> university for support, we cannot use a commercial url. It's a matter
> of quid pro quo -- Geo-Images supports the WWP, and in return gets
> some
> credit for it.
>
> But to forestall possible problems, I personally registered
> worldwidepanorama.com, wwpano.com, and wwpano.org, all of which point
> to the Geo-Images site. We may want to start using one of these in
> publicizing the site -- it's much easier to remember a short url you
> have heard on the radio or read in a newspaper. Using the domain
> dot-org (for non-profit organization) is more appropriate than
> dot-com,
> which implies a commercial venture. But many people assume every url
> ends in dot-com, and browsers auto-complete urls that way.
>
> For an object lesson in why it might be necessary to register
> wwpano.com when we would prefer wwpano.org, try going to
> http://iqtvra.com -- but be sure nobody is looking over your shoulder
> at the time!
>
> Fifth, and finally, this project needs to remain hassle-free. Keeping
> it non-commercial will help a lot. The way we have all contributors
> maintain sole copyright to their work also avoids complications.?
> Having only a small group in charge (so far just Landis and me) is
> important. Limiting content to one media technology (QuickTime) will
> avoid many problems. To put it bluntly, if it begins to take too much
> of my time, generates controversy, or stops being fun, I will have to
> withdraw my support. As I remember, that was what killed off the
> Wrinkle in Time series.
>
> How Often?
>
> Personally, I think the world NEEDS a periodic reminder of how great
> VR
> photography is. Hans Nyberg provides one great example per week. The
> WWP can't do that, but I think a showcase of a hundred or more images
> every three months is reasonable.
>
> The media always want something new, and you don't get much publicity
> for a new edition of an existing work. So we need to make each event
> unique. I will be giving my ideas about future themes tomorrow (please
> hold discussion on this topic until then).
>
> Though each event is unique, there is great strength in a continuing
> project. Each event generates a large number of links and search
> engine
> entries. Each of these lead back to the overall project, where people
> discover the other events. People will remember "the world wide
> panorama" and go back to it, even if they have not heard of the most
> recent event.
>
> Will the participants find quarterly events to be too often? I hope
> not, but only time will tell. Challenging and intriguing themes will
> be
> important in motivating ourselves. Positive feedback, in the form of
> public and peer recognition, will be another factor.
>
> It is not necessary for everyone to participate every time.? If we
> have, for example, a pool of 200 potential participants, and each
> chooses to participate only twice a year, we still have 100 for each
> event.
>
> When?
>
> When Rabbett invented the "Wrinkle in Time" he chose the date,
> December
> 21, more or less impulsively. I pointed out that it was the Winter
> Solstice, and he subsequently tied the "wrinkles" to the solstices and
> equinoxes. We have followed this plan in the World Wide Panoramas.
>
> I like the idea of following the solar calendar this way. It is
> universal and cross-cultural. Many cultures recognize the significance
> of these dates, but none can claim them as their exclusive own.
>
> A solstice/equinox is not actually a day, it is a moment in time
> (technically, a position in space). This will occur at different times
> and even on different days for different longitudes (time zones)
> around
> the earth.
>
> The first WWP was held on a single day. This caused some problems,
> with
> religious observance, and above all with uncooperative weather. No
> doubt we missed a few potential participants because of business and
> family obligations on that day.
>
> The second WWP was more lenient. The Solstice occurred on a Monday
> (for
> some), but the event included the entire adjacent weekend. This gave
> more flexibility with the weather, and time for many of us to travel
> to
> an official world heritage site.
>
> I think all future WWP events should be for a weekend or more. How
> much
> more is open to discussion. The next Equinox falls in the middle of a
> week (Wednesday, September 22) - should we designate the entire week,
> and one weekend, maybe both weekends?
>
> At one time I proposed to Landis that the September theme be "all
> summer long", and accept panoramas taken anytime since the last event
> (i.e. June 19 to September 21). He pointed out that this would weaken
> the "event" nature of the project, which is important for publicity.
> Your thoughts?
>
> ----------
> These are my thoughts for today. Please post your ideas on timing and
> hosting to the YahooGroups-wwp list.
>
> Tomorrow I will introduce the topic of "themes", which should be a lot
> of fun (hold discussion of themes until then, please).
>
> Don
>
>
>
> ------
> The World-Wide Panorama
>
> For more information:
> -Visit the web site at http://GeoImages.Berkeley.edu/wwp.html
>
>
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