2008: Lessons learned

[Kirok of L'Stok]

What worked and what didn't? What changes should be made to the way
that we do the 2009 event that will make it less likely that the same
problems will happen again?

1. I'm finding it hard getting across to people that this is NOT the
Kirok of L'Stok "Twelve Days Of Christmas", or the TrekUnited 12 Days
or anybody else's. I'd like to propose that we move towards a
"convention" model with an organising committee where the
responsibility - and the credit - is shared between different people
and organisations across Star Trek fandom. Organisations don't get
things done, *people* get things done, so I'm not saying that SFI or
IFT should take a seat, rather that if, perhaps, Fleet Captain George
Washington of the USS Poughkeepsie, a proud member of the
Intergalactic Third Fleet of Trek Fans wants to take responsibility
for some aspect of the event, it would not be unreasonable to expect
that his example would encourage others within his organisation to
contribute.

2. The last two events have suggested to me certain trends that i
think are worth following. Focussing on specific media like
podcasting, fiction, music videos, audio drama, gaming and fan films.
I also like the idea of "The Three Wise Men" as a commentary and I
would like to see us organise something major, something that will
really make people sit up and take notice! I will start a seperate
thread for suggestions.

3. On schedule posting was not achieved again and for this I take full
responsibility, one reason why i want to move towards a committee
model. Specific observations and suggestions ...

3.1 I spent way too much time futilely sending out personal emails to
chapters of SFI trying to get their involvement. Never again. I will
have a mailing list of known contributors and interested parties that
I will personally contact backed up with a second list of people noted
during the year as fan producers/writers etc. that we specifically
want to invite. Other than that there will be posting on open forums
and mailing lists (eg TU, Starfleet-L, ASC, forums etc) to spread the
word generally.

3.2 This gave me not enough time to create the second-string Presents.
These need to be *completed* before the start of December. Involve
others in the creation of second strings?

3.3 Partial releases worked when things weren't ready - this tactic
can be used as a third string response to get *something* out on the
day so that the release team can move on to the next day and we don't
have a domino effect of lateness.

4. The website worked well, both in its design and its management but
I think we should consider moving towards a CSS or Blogging type
website.

4.1 If the event were hosted on one of the free blogging networks we
could expect them to publicise the event in the more "general" media
plus I won't have to go looking for hosting.

4.2 CSS pages can designed to look like ...
... a media website <http://www.templatepanic.com/article/world-of-
warcraft-wordpress-theme>
... a magazine <http://www.wp-themes.der-prinz.com/magazine/>
The graphics would be sourced independantly from the design of the
page itself and given a long enough lead time we could get some LCARs
type functionality into it!

4.3 A Blogsite can be maintained by a team rather than an individual
and commenting is integral

4.4 Another option is one of the Content management platforms like
Joomla ...
... Media style <http://demotemplates.joomlashack.com/worldofwarcraft-
theme/content/view/15/30/>
... magazine style <http://www.rockettheme.com/joomla-templates/
terrantribune>
However I don't want to have a forum since the idea is to move users
towards the forums of the contributors.

Got to go out now but feel free to comment on anything here or make
any observations of your own.

Cheers

K

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Further points ...

5. I want to start now to keep the momentum rolling from last year

6. Word of mouth seems to be our best weapon. Bear this project in
mind during the year in your disussions with friends about possible
projects.

7. Feel free to keep us in the loop about your personal projects here
even if they have no bearing on next year's 12 Days. Networking pays!

8. I especially want to build on the start we've made here with the
Fanzine, HFO, and the eBooks at TrekUnited Publishing

9. I'll be putting together "how-to" manuals on The House of L'Stok on
how I put together the fanzine and the eBooks so that any other
organisations or individuals can build on our experience here. Of
course if they could time their output for next Christmas that would
be a nice way of saying thankyou (^V^)

Cheers

K

[SLWatson]

I think I can probably take over on the eBook project, entirely. So
long as I've got a good start and plenty of time to work -- I've got
several irons in the fire, but since it's only March...

May even be able to pull off a fanzine, but not sure there yet.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

Thanks for that, Steph, you were exactly the person I was thinking of
for the Fan Fiction stream.

The thing to watch out for is that I have literally dozens of ideas,
all of which have a reasonable probability of success. We have to
pick and choose what we do: trying to do too much will spread our
resources too thin and increase the chance of making a poor show it.
Much as I would like to do everything, it might be better to choose
only a few “feature events” that we can focus on.

I'm going to put forward a suggestion, or set of suggestions, for each
media stream and I'm not holding back! They might sound grandious but
there's no reason they couldn't be done as long as we have the
resources and there's the rub! For a project to go ahead we need to
have a dedicated project manager who will manage the leg-work.
Otherwise its best not to start it but save it for a future year when
we might be able to attract more involvement.

Gotta go

K

[SLWatson]

I've got a pretty incredible pool of authors on Ad Astra that might be
willing to get in on this and make a good show of the fiction
department. It's not really fair to put all of it on you, especially
in the eBook/fanzine department, and by taking over that, it'll free
you up for some other things.

Already calling on some folks who might be interested (and at least
one who is) in getting involved.

[Kirok of L'Stok]

On a general note, Terilynn's latest blog ...
<http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?
autocom=blog&blogid=65&showentry=603#comment666>
... got me thinking that we get more response from smaller groups and
individuals than larger groups, with TrekUnited and Twerps as the
exceptions. I think its simply that the larger groups don't need us,
most of them are happy with the fanbase and promotion that they have
of their own and so don't need something like us.

I suppose we represent a lot of smaller projects banding together to
make an event that is bigger than whatever a single group could do.
Not just because of the "strength in numbers" but because of the
opportunities for cross-fertilisation - an artist could do work for a
fan fic, an author could write a flash fic about a game, a game could
provide the machinima to turn a fanfic into a graphic novel or an
audio drama into an animation.

I wonder how we could play on this strength? I'm certainly not going
to exclude the larger groups but I'm not going to sit around waiting
for them either. I'll feature them as citizen reporting because they
are what people want to hear about but I'm seeing more enthusiasm from
smaller groups. The problem might lie in making contact - I've said
how my attempt at personal contact with SFI cost me months but it is
personal contact that you need, even if its just to back up the
general posts. I'll just have to be more selective in my contacts.

Off to bed!

Cheers

K