Many people come to the mailing list asking for help with PmWiki... now it's my turn. :-)
As some of you know, I've started a corporation called "Pm Informatics, Inc." that will, among other things, be providing business-level support for PmWiki and other related projects. I know that there are some businesses and organizations that are interested in using PmWiki, but cannot commit because they're uncomfortable using software that doesn't have some sort of formal business organization behind it. That's where Pm Informatics comes in -- it can provide a business-oriented entity for providing PmWiki support and licensing options to organizations that need them (and want to pay for them). However, PmII needs a web site, and we don't have a good graphic designer available. Of course, we can hire a professional web designer for the site... and we may still end up doing that... but it occurs to me that there are quite a few people in the PmWiki community that might be willing to prototype a web design for the corporation, perhaps as a way of "giving back" to PmWiki and supporting it further. Ideally we'd take the design as a donation, but we may also be able to work some other deals to provide some benefit to designers. (For example, perhaps some links from the pmwiki.org home page, which is currently getting 17,000+ visits per month?) Before I go too much further, I do need to repeat some things I've said previously[1] about having a company associated with PmWiki. The fact that there's a corporation providing PmWiki support doesn't mean there are going be alternate versions of the software, nor that the level of support on the mailing lists will decline. Having a company is just another method of expanding the PmWiki base, as well as bringing in some additional income. So, if this message is setting off warning bells in your head, please read the previous thread at [1] and then see if things make more sense. 1. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.wiki.pmwiki.user/30630 Back to the site design: As far as what is needed for a site design for Pm Informatics... first note that we don't need a fully-developed HTML template, skin, or any of the software implementation. The company already has plenty of HTML, PmWiki, and web programming expertise available. We just need a good look for the site, and we can work from a JPEG image, a Photoshop document, a single prototype page, etc. Once we have the basic look, we can take the rest from there. The plans for the Pm Informatics site are roughly: - be a storefront for the various products and services, including shopping carts - demonstrate that PmWiki has real support behind it, beyond what is available from volunteers - help build the PmWiki community and marketplace - market various add-on products for PmWiki - provide information about PmWiki support options available beyond the mailing lists, including possibly partnered vendors, site designers, etc. - potentially act as a portal for value-added services such as site hosting, long-term maintenance and support contracts, etc. As far as the look and feel the site should have... well, that's a bit tricky. It doesn't have to look anything like the pmwiki.org or pmichaud.com sites (although it doesn't hurt if it does). Pm Informatics' central theme is making technology accessible and enjoyable. Like PmWiki, PmII seeks to give people "Wow!" and "Aha!" empowering experiences -- the kind of experiences that make people really appreciate a product or service. So, there's an interesting dynamic in that the site needs to be something that a business can find comforting, yet still retain a sense of "Wow... that's easy." As far as what I like in site designs -- I tend towards liking simple and clean designs. One of the best examples is Google's site -- both the search engine interface and the various other supporting pages behind Google's products. I also like the clean design of Amazon, but not the huge animated dropdowns and pulldowns they use from time to time, nor the oversized tab strip at the top. Another design I like the the one for oswd.org -- i.e., the design of its home page (as opposed to any particular templates within the site). Just to give a few more insights into my preferences... a few oswd templates that I find somewhat appealing (but not appealing enough to use) include, in no particular order: http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2739 (Nautica01) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2885 (goFlexible2) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2933 (GoFlexiblePro) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3010 (redRevenge) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3293 (Invention) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/3328 (122) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/1192 (Gila) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/1996 (dittoditto) http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2221 (Ezekiel) As far as colors go, I'm flexible. I tend towards wanting lighter background colors, and some part of me would like to avoid blue as the dominant color because I think there are too many 'blue' sites already. Beyond that, I think I'll just leave things here and wait for others to ask questions or make suggestions that I can respond to. Feel free to write to me either via the mailing list or off-list at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, with any questions, suggestions, or proposals you may have if you're interested. Thanks in advance, Pm _______________________________________________ pmwiki-users mailing list [email protected] http://www.pmichaud.com/mailman/listinfo/pmwiki-users
