User talk:Laurascudder

You'll get a faster response on my Wikipedia talk.

Recipes
Hi! I saw your change to Template:Recipe (changing Category:Recipe to Category:Recipes). At some point I was encouraged to use a new category (Recipe) to index everything, which is why that was the listed Category in the template. You seem to have a lot of wikipedia experience; what's the standard over there? Kellen 22:03, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

p.s. Thanks for doing so much indexing & categorization.


 * I forgot to mention the supposed distinction between Category:Recipe and Category:Recipes. Category:Recipes was seen as a supercategory for other category types (Recipes by diet, Recipes by origin, etc). Category:Recipe was a new category to make a usable recipe index. You should read the Talk:Cookbook page if you have time, I'd like as many views as possible on the potential structuring of recipes. Thanks! Kellen 22:25, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In case you're still here
I don't know how much good trying to find info about the Beck Foundation will get you. I have tried a few times since my start here at WB, but to no avail. Some have even said there is no money left, and that the Beck Foundation has become defunct, so we have no money for this project. I agree that the Solar System book is probably more publishable right now. I guess we just wait to hear back from Danny. BTW... thank you so much for your work on these books. You are a valuable asset to Wikibooks. See you around. -- LV (Dark Mark) 21:30, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Beck Foundation, Deadline for Wikijunior, and more
It figures that it was Zanimum that was doing this. I've already publicly gone after him for trying to ram-rod a new Wikimedia project (in the form of Wikijunior) with supposed community concensus when in fact there is none (or very little, with no public discussion). Anthere was quite... well... upset that this didn't have public concensus to create a whole new Wikimedia project just for Wikijunior. There is a forum for doing that if he really wants it done, but he has chosen deliberately not to go that route, and the Foundation board is very cool to the idea of any new Wikimedia projects at the moment (they even turned down Wikiversity, dispite an absolutely huge turnout to get it going).

The concern that I have is that there is no infrastructure right now to actually wherehouse and distribute any physical books that are produced for this project. I've done it on a very limited basis myself (by physically publishing the Wikijunior Solar System with a local printer) but I also did that on my own dime and have not asked for anything else from anybody. I'm almost afraid that Zanimum wants to get the Beck Foundation to help pay for this but he can pocket the money... or at least there are no controls to insure that what is promised will happen. He may be doing this completely on the up and up with the most noble motives in mind, but we need to get more stuff put together.

There is a page for Wikibook Press that I've thought about really pushing hard on. What we really need is a semi-commercial site for actually selling products. There was an active URL some time ago at http://store.wikimedia.org/ but it has been discontinued. Basically what we need to have is some way that we can publish content that is created on Wikibooks. The best way I can see that started for now is to simply provide a bunch of PDFs for now (they aren't too hard to create in Open Office) that could be the basis for a Wikibook Press and eventually physical books as well.

I think that once we get a few books in the pipeline, we can keep this whole thing self-sustaining at least for gathering together the basic resources. Publishing isn't cheap, however, and even the $10,000 from the Beck Foundation is only going to print up a few thousand books. The other issue is trying to distribute the content and wherehouse the books immediately after printing but before distribution. No printer will do direct distribution but will expect you to take them off their hands right away. (Well, Lulu press will, but they are also a distributor). If we are going to give these books away (with a strong appearance of being a vanity press) that may be useful, but it should have a budget and be coordinated with the Wikimedia Foundation. I don't see any of that happening right now.

In short, I think we have something cool with the current collection of Wikijunior books, but we are still at version 0.5 to 0.8 for all of current books, not the 1.0 that we need to do the job correctly. I think it is also prudent to not rush this effort as going too quickly is going to backfire on us before we are ready. If there is somebody from the Beck Foundation that wants to see specific results, I would like to see their commentary or at least somebody with formal ties to the Beck Foundation and showing their connection. As it is right now, all we got are a bunch of people who are guessing in the dark about what is going to be expected. In addition, we don't need the Beck Foundation to get any of this accomplished, but we need the Wikimedia Foundation in order to keep these servers running and we do need the Wikibooks community to keep fresh blood of new people coming into Wikijunior.

If we want to set a realistic deadline and a specific order of accomplishment that can be met with volunteers on Wikijunior, I don't mind trying to set up those deadlines, with specific requests that certain modules will get done by a certain date, for example. I just don't like seeing very unrealistic deadlines like three or four days away to perform proofreading and publishing that I would expect to be paid serious professional wages to accomplish, assuming that I even have the skills. I've done projects on a professional basis with unrealistic deadlines like this, and the result was just raw garbage, not anything to be proud of. It simply takes time to write a book, and progress is being made. --Rob Horning 04:53, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Hopefully this answers your questions. I am not sure anyone has been in contact with the Beck Foundation. Who really knows? This whole situation is a mess. -- LV (Dark Mark) 16:53, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Big Cats Maps
And thanks for the maps for the various Big Cats modules. They significantly and immediately improve each book. -- LV (Dark Mark) 18:45, 9 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks again. -- LV (Dark Mark) 19:43, 9 December 2005 (UTC)