Congratulations Patrick! I wish all the very best with your commercial endeavor. I believe that this is very good news for wiki users.
All the best, - Henrik Patrick R. Michaud wrote: > 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 > > > -- Henrik Bechmann www.bechmann.ca Webmaster, www.dufferinpark.ca _______________________________________________ pmwiki-users mailing list [email protected] http://www.pmichaud.com/mailman/listinfo/pmwiki-users
