Brainstorm a video

[Jacob.Roecker]

I'm not sure how much of a lead to take on a particular subject such as PR.  If I were writing an article I'd feel a lot more comfortable about moving forward without too much oversight.  Let's see if the group can't help me figure out the ground rules on this one.

One idea for the PR machine of CZ that's been tossed around is creating a "what we're all about" sort of video.  There's too much work in producing such a thing for one person.  So how do we go about creating it?

1.  We need a script.  It should be a collaborative write-up involving several authors. 
 a.  Should we create a page for this script and use the "talk" page to discuss how we're going to say what should be said?
 b.  If we use the article/talk page how do we categorize it?  Can we really make a "Category:PR" section and start generating content?

2.  Brainstorming of ideas for inclusion:
 a.  The topics or areas the video should cover can easily be discussed in this forum--say--as a reply to this post.
 b.  Brainstorming can involve broad topical ideas. 

3.  Identifying the committee
 a.  I don't know of a PR review board, nor do I feel qualified to lead one, but someone will need to approve the script, editing, etc during the production process.
 b.  There needs to be a way for volunteers to join such a committee with relative ease.

End of rules and here's my idea:

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I'd like to generate a library of webcam testimonials from CZ contributors and use excerpts in the final video.  The webcammed testimonials may be useful in their entirety elsewhere, and be a good way to help get the word out.
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Let's throw some ideas out there and see where this goes.  Someone with a bit more CZ experience under their belt may know how to do this within the CZ guidelines.  This seems to be the right way to expand the current operational boundaries.  I'm a bit concerned that if I try something solo I'll end up going to far.  :-)

[Larry Sanger]

There is a PR group that currently consists of me, Ian Johnson (a PR professional who has advised and written some for us) and Mike Johnson (who has helped out a lot on a regular basis with PR issues).  We've worked on the last two press releases.  I'd like to keep it small and inclusive only of people doing significant PR work for us, but if you would like to continue your work on this stuff for us, Jacob, you'd be welcome to join us.  Just let me know.

Obviously, you don't need to be in that group to comment usefully on PR stuff; this board is open to all Citizens.

Right now, the only wiki page (that I can think of or find) that concerns PR issues is CZ:Press, but that is as much for external consumption as internal use.

So I think [[CZ:PR]] would be good for us to create for internal use.  The page should not include any sensitive materials such as press releases that are being drafted, but obviously it could link (maybe as subpages) a script for a "what we're about" video.  Please dive in, I'd just like a chance to review & edit the result before "shooting" begins.

[Denis Cavanagh]

If you need help publicising ourselves on Youtube, let me know. I've been an avid user of that place pretty much since it began. I think for a start, a Youtube video doesn't need to be complex. Perhaps all we need is a short interview with some of our editors (Such as Richard, Matt and Chris) with Larry doing a narration of what Citizendium is, what it hopes to be and what it was in the beginning. A good youtube video can expect somewhere in the region of 500,000 hits. We could expect at least 30 new members from that. Whether we would want the average youtuber contributing here is another matter altogether however.

[Robert_W_King]

If you need help publicising ourselves on Youtube, let me know. I've been an avid user of that place pretty much since it began. I think for a start, a Youtube video doesn't need to be complex. Perhaps all we need is a short interview with some of our editors (Such as Richard, Matt and Chris) with Larry doing a narration of what Citizendium is, what it hopes to be and what it was in the beginning. A good youtube video can expect somewhere in the region of 500,000 hits. We could expect at least 30 new members from that. Whether we would want the average youtuber contributing here is another matter altogether however.

Just as long as we include hand-rubbing, and shots of sympathetic eyes!

But seriously, I think this is a fantastic idea.

[Stephen Ewen]

Go!  Go!  Go!

By coincidence, I was reading a blog last night and found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY which I felt was very clever, very fun, and really did capture the point of a wiki.

[Jacob.Roecker]

Larry, I'd love to work on the PR team.

ALL:  I've created the [[CZ:PR]] page (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:PR), but at the moment it's best to discuss ideas in this forum.

My plan for production is as follows:
1.  Brainstorm (current)
2.  Create a skeleton using ideas from "brainstorming" and [[CZ:About]] for the script.
3.  Create an initial draft for review by the PR board
4.  Encourage extension for video to be played locally on the CZ.
5.  Create final draft using Larry narrating sections
6.  Publish on youtube and encourage others to do the same (Basically flood it anyway possible)
7.  Take a nap.
8.  Work on next project

We're still on brainstorming so let's get some script ideas out there:  How much of  http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:About should we use?

I loved the video from the previous post.  How much of "basic wikiing" should we include in the video?

Let's get some more ideas out there and I can start piecing together the skeleton.

-Jacob

[Jacob.Roecker]

If you need help publicising ourselves on Youtube, let me know. I've been an avid user of that place pretty much since it began. I think for a start, a Youtube video doesn't need to be complex. Perhaps all we need is a short interview with some of our editors (Such as Richard, Matt and Chris) with Larry doing a narration of what Citizendium is, what it hopes to be and what it was in the beginning. A good youtube video can expect somewhere in the region of 500,000 hits. We could expect at least 30 new members from that. Whether we would want the average youtuber contributing here is another matter altogether however.

Denis:  Can you generate a list of videos in the genre?  We should look at the "norm" and be able to decide where conformity is significant, and where it is unhelpful.  We can't do that unless we know what's there, and what's popular.

[Tom Kelly]

We NEED a YouTube Channel.

for examples see:
http://youtube.com/user/hillaryclintondotcom

or

http://youtube.com/user/RudyGiulianiHQ

It should be free and it is great press.  That way when people see our video on YouTube, they'll know it is official by the username of the channel.  Otherwise people will just copy the video and post it and it will be unofficial - they could edit it etc. 

I would recommend getting a user name / channel on YouTube asap.

We actually should reserve multiple usernames on youtube.

[Stephen Ewen]

I created http://youtube.com/user/citizendium with a Citizendium domain account.  Thought I better before some cuckoo did!

When the time is right, ask!  I also forwarded the info to Larry.

[Martin Baldwin-Edwards]

Yes, cuckoos arrive in the spring, so a timely act 

[Anthony.Sebastian]

We have fifteen (15) volunteers standing by to convert to MediaWiki mark-up articles submitted by authors who cannot or prefer not to learn the mark-up code.  When we do PR for CZ we should mention that, as it may help in recruiting.  

Authors would submit their word-processor-formatted articles as email attachments sent to a special mailing list they don't have to subscribe to.  The volunteers will pick up requests and note which ones they picked up on a tracking page, at:

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Wiki-converting

See also: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/User_talk:Anthony.Sebastian#Volunteer_.22wikiconverters.22 Anthony.Sebastian Talk Page Section on Wiki-Converting

[Derek Harkness]

I had previously replied to a citizendium-L post about making an intro video for CZ. I have all the tools and experience making videos for a variety of web sites and schools. I'm quite happy to do the produce and edit together the video, but I need help to do so.

There is loads of CC-by- images on flikr and the likes, but for open content video, the sources are smaller. So send me anything you think is useful. I need sound clips, still images, video clips and such like.

Ideas, we need to make a script and storyboard so we know what screenshots we need to make and what recordings we need to tape. A good thing to start may be to make a new wikipage to write the script and storyboard. So whoever is interested in the scriptwriting, go ahead and start that page and we can then all join in.

[Stephen Ewen]

Derek, see http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:PR which is trying to become the collaboration hub.