wwp@yahoogroups.com:
discussion of the future of the WWP
Don Bain 2013-Feb-09 19:32:00
In response to a comment on "Panoramic Photographers on Facebook" I posted a statement (below). Bostjan and I also Skyped for a while, kicking around more ideas.
Mailing lists (such as this) still have some utility, but I find that most meaningful communication these days is happening via Facebook. I urge everyone involved with the WWP to "like" the group page "Panoramic Photographers on Facebook", which has 1600 members. Go to:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/panoramicphotographers
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About the Future of the World Wide Panorama.
We have discussed a makeover for the WWP website a number of times over the last few years. Markus, creator of the underlying CMA and all site graphics except the masthead, has been pre-occupied with a demanding new job. Landis is now a full-time airline pilot. My excuse is too many other projects involving my own website and the IVRPA. Bostjan, Pat, Keith and others have made useful suggestions, but we never got past the talking stage.
The project continues mostly for the benefit of the loyal core of continuing participants, plus a small steady stream of new ones. More and more the value of the WWP is the amazing legacy of panoramas from past events, which motivates me to pay the bill every month and keep the events going.
The main objectives of an overhaul would be to update the appearance to a more contemporary look (wider, lighter), and to make a clear separation between the two main functions - participation in ongoing events (aimed at panoramic photographers) and access to the archive (for the general public). There is also a great deal of textual content that needs to be updated.
We have started a new feature of full-year and multi-year events (Bostjan's idea) as a supplement to the themed and time-limited events. In total, 1090 participants have submitted 7449 panoramas to the project over the last nine years.
The late Pat Swovelin brought great energy and commitment to the job of event coordinator and he will be hard to replace. Bostjan has been playing a larger role in announcing and promoting events. We know there are people out there that could bring new energy and skills to the effort.
The underlying structure of the WWP is sound - it is based on KRPano and Markus' PHP/MySQL prep server. We remain committed to being non-commercial, non-competitive, and insisting on full and accurate meta-data. We even have a legal identity as a non-profit corporation.
It would be nice to increase participation, and visibility. A project to use the archive of equirectangular images to deliver multi-resolution and iOS versions is clearly a priority. A regular schedule of announcements and a forum for discussion within the community is also needed.