Over at http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.FluwikieNewsletterTemplate (which is on the wiki side of things, we’re on the conversation side of things now) we’re developing a template for a newsletter which would allow us, with some work, to create a biweekly newsletter that would be downloaded and printed.
This thread is for discussing the template and also to create the one or two first issues.
Ours for the making!
volunteering for proofreading duty!
Glad to see you started a Fluwikie newsletter thread. Since I posted earlier on the strategies thread, I’ll bring my post over to this thread. Here it is:
I like the idea of coming up with a weekly or bi-weekly “newsletter” from all of us at fluwiki. Perhaps someone can “assemble” the template, which should include a brief ABC of the bird flu (primarily so that someone who is totally new to this topic and doesn’t know squat can have a chance to get a quick overview). Also included should be the world map (updated weekly highlighting any new locations) to give a one-two punch visual for the newbies. Next, include 2–3 impactful quotes from in-the-know fluwikians that have relevant titles (mix between a vet, a scientist and administrator). Next include an abreviated version of the top three news stories of the week, followed by the links to any publication who carried that story, especially the main-stream ones (i.e. ABC News, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, etc.).
Could include a “Did you Know” box…like the 21 mutations between the boy and his father in Jakarta. Another box - Prep Tip of the Week, followed by links to discussion threads on fluwiki regarding prep recommendations that might help.
Make sure this newsletter can either be printed, or emailed as a pdf. I used to publish a magazine and coming up with the monthly template was half the battle. As for ad space…not sure it would be worth chasing the advertisers. Instead, provide ONE advertisers box…i.e. This newsletter Sponsored By: and then the sponsor drops in their information - XYZ Insurance Agency, and their address, phone, websites, etc., PLUS room for 1–2 promotional sentences. Then “market” the newsletter as a free way for sponsors to keep in touch with their customers. They can either print it with their sponsor box filled in (and then mail or put them on the front desk), OR they can email it to their customer base as often as they so chose to.
Be sure to include the websites of pandemicflu.gov, who, etc. for credibility. And wrap up with an invitation for them to join us at fluwikie.com.
If the folks in the know could assemble such a newsletter every few weeks, and all of us could download it and distribute it to local businesses, we could really make an impact!
Oops - should have gone to the link above before my new post…info is already there!
I used to produce similar templates for PGA Professionals to utilize for marketing purposes, but I also gave them a Word document that had ONE text box that perfectly matched up to the “open space” on the promotional flyer. They could open that word document, and type in their info…and as long as they didn’t move the text box, they could then print onto the pre-printed flyers and it would fit perfectly. This works very well for people who are familiar with Word but not graphics programs. Keeping it mainstream is critical.
How can I post a sample on here?
I would be delighted to see a newsletter. We have an update on our work intranet, which I am responsible for compiling, and I am running out of material to use to ‘keep people interested’.
If the Fluwiki Newsletter is going to be produced regularly, and wide distribution is encouraged, I would certainly look to use it here at work.
You people are beautiful.
I think it should be available as an on-line newsletter that people can sign up for as well as a PDF that can be downloaded and distributed. I wonder if Pogge has any idea on how hard it would be to setup a sign up form on this site that we could use to get and email newsletters…no we will not sell your address nor allow spammers…etc. I know sing has list management, but I am not sure of what it takes to do an online newsletter. I know an on-line sign up form is easy to get in a MySQL data base, but I don’t know the details of the list management from there. There must be existing programs.
We could have the series: Educational Foundation - Issues 1 to 7 (?) These would be available as a series of building on information about the subject. You don’t have space to do it all in an issue. I see these as the foundation of the knowledge that won’t change that much.
We might want to have some guidelines for new article submissions - length at least. I don’t like a lot of structure. Please don’t have strict limits. And we should not do heavy edits either, edit just facts, not opinions. And if we know a fact to be false (we correct it like this) and leave the original document in tact. It is after all people to people communication. We should respect that. I also like the general site guidelines that exist, so we keep it in good taste. It should also have a copy write so that we can prove that what left here was altered (if that happens). A simple page 1 of 7 printed at various places. Just some very simple controls so that our free speech is kept as our words. I don’t have a problem of various people not using their real name, but the handle that we have come to know…some folk have to play this close to the chest for lots of reasons. Just some input.
Be sure to keep it light reading with plenty of links if they want to learn and/or read more. Busy people won’t slow down if it’s not a quick read. Sprinkle a little bit of humor here and there, too.
So…how do I post or email someone a very rough sample?
Ranchgirl - please write to dude (now’s when you insert the “small a with a circle around it”) singtomeohmuse (now’s the dot) com. If you send a copy to lugon at the same place I’d be delighted, thank you.
We need ways to make it easy to create text cooperative. Possibly just a wikipage and the final draft editor picks up from there? So the template is really a template, and text comes from such a wikipage. (I’m starting to believe it might work.)
I think issues should be numbered and dated, not sure how. The first issues may come out more (or less!) frequently than the next ones.
If we don’t rush it, then I think we can have the first one out there pretty quickly.
lugon bounces around the Comment box
Of course, if the text is in a wikipage, then it can (and will) be translated, if there are “satellite teams”, in time. And members of the satellite teams can also bring original content, of course - just imagine a Moon growing to be larger than Earth - sounds kind of fun, no?
So the outline goes like this (if I’ve understood correctly):
This would work in a pandemic too, no?
observers knew it all along: these people don’t want to complement the press, but rather to replace it!
I think issues should be numbered and dated, not sure how
How’s about, ferinstance: 001–07282006, with the 001 representing the issue number, followed by the date? Fairly simple to follow…
BB – Logic, common sense and a straight forward numbering schema which is easy to understand and follow – what a concept…
Ahem - then it would be 20060728, or 28jul2006, or else people who put month and day the wrong way will be puzzled or worse.
;-)
euronumbers and eurodating are equally valid. in fact, I’d suggest the euroway… yanks understand it, and so does everyone else.
Ranchgirl – at 23:28
any of the above addresses will work, or send it to demfromct at earthlink.net and I can post it on the weiki.
FYI no template in my e-mail box…
Can I just throw out a few questions just because I am curious? Please don’t flame me as I am genuinely interested in how others are approaching this.
Why does fluwikie want a newsletter? Is it redundant to have a website AND a newsletter? It just seems like it might add extra reading work for information we have already been reading?
If the Bronco Bills fess up to not painting last weekend or Melanie has wound up in the FluJuice Rehab Joint or Dem has gone Repub (horrors) and pogge has been turned inside out and is now ‘eggop’, we would want to know the inside scoop. So, I could definitely see the need for a newsletter ;-)
So, just want to know what’s the thinking behind it . . .
Ange D, I think there would be two different kinds of newsletter, with different purposes:
We can think of the first as a stetoscope for outsiders, and the second as a mirror for ourselves. Both might be one and the same.
FANTASTIC IDEA! Keep it short and simple (decide if you want to add the “stupid” yourself - he he) so when I leave it for my family to read they will actually look at it. I keep trying but have yet to get them to do any prepping - they aren’t even really prepared for a hurricane and we keep hearing that it is our turn.
Short articles on popular threads pulling out some of the main themes would be handy. The “if you only had 24 hours to prep list”…I know we can’t imagine it but there are people I know that don’t actually have a home computer let alone the internet. Which leaves them access through the work computer - they can get to the government site but not the wikie. Going to the govt site will only prepare them for 2 weeks (at least last time I looked at it) which as we all know is just a start.
Hi everyone - just got back in town and first chance to get on line. I just emailed my VERY rough concept template to Lugon and Dude…check your email to see if it came through okay. This was the quick-read version for newbies…not intended for existing fluwikians but rather to enlighten those customers of “sponsors” who don’t have ANY relevant information yet. For that audience, I think it will be important not to overwhelm them at first…the rule of “advertising” is a 3-step deal. 1. Get them to notice it. 2. Get them to read it. 3. Get them to respond. The response we are looking for is for them to visit fluwiki or one of the other primary websites (WHO, CDC, etc.)
The OTHER kind of newsletter could be an executive summary of what’s been happening on fluwiki during the week (for those who don’t have time to scroll through all the great threads and info). I agree we need both.
Anyone out there good at graphics?
Hi, The first sample template is in the FTP site for download for those who wish to see it. You can go here ftp://ftp.singtomeohmuse.com/ username: wikimember Pass: wiki123 to download the file to your computer. Thank you Ranch girl. I changed the owership of the document to Seniormoment…grin so it can’t be traced to you.
The link I copied from the wiki projects page does not work. The Username is ok. The pass is ok as in dude-00:12 but try this link instead: ftp://www.singtomeohmuse.com
Sorry, the links are not working and it is late EST. I will fix in the morning. Good night all.
(The link works for me.)
RanchGirl, I think it looks great!
The logo might be just the name “fluwikie.com” rather than the birds. It’s not birdflu we’re worried about, but panflu. In Sandman’s terms (see http://www.psandman.com for much more) we need to worry less about birdflu and more about panflu - we want to *communicate* that!
The map might be followed, in #2, #3 etc, by other charts (see the links here). Also, the “questions-overview.jpg” might be used instead of the map, maybe at a later date.
We need to work out the operational details:
Great work, RanchGirl!
All the news, with none of the eggop !
;-)
links fixed files available.
http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Opinion.FluwikieNewsletterTemplate now has a third chapter with the content suggested by RanchGirl. So if anyone wants to edit it we can all do it there - we’re all Editors.
Only one or a few people would be Publishers: take the final text from the wikipage, insert it in the .DOC file and “save as PDF” etc.
Please act as Editors providing real content - so we can give it a try in a couple of days. What would some content be? If it’s not all there it doesn’t matter: others will jump in later.
Ange D – at 16:00 --- If the Bronco Bills fess up to not painting last weekend…
HA! I’ll NEVAH confess. Name, rank and serial number are you’ll ever get outta ME!!
LOL! Trust me…I was painting for the whole week! :-)
…and I don’t ever see Dem going Repub!!!
lugon – at 18:56 --- I’ll sit down tonight and try to cull some of those threads to see how many of each there are. I think it could be very eye-opening as well as informative…
I’ll try to write something up and get it out…
Just a minor tech problem that never had any effect on the general user end…I could not tell that because I am the admin. Never mind about details..just a distraction. So, we need an editor I think. And we need reporters who gather up information from a particular thread/topic and summarize it in an “article” on the subject. The articles should be of different length. We store them as text and PDF on the wiki or on sing. They then can be downloaded along with the template and put into a final newsletter that gets sent to the “editor” and then stored as “The Wicked Wiki News” (grin) 29July2006 vol 1 #1 and anyone can come and download it and print the copies.
People who are interested in a topic might want to summarise it or write a short “lead”. We need to break all activities into small chunks that can easily get done. Ants, not heroes.
It can be as easy as writing a short summary every now and then, in the very thread where a given discussion is going on, perhaps with the word “SUMMARY FOR THE NEWSLETTER” in capital letters (this will spread by example). Then someone picks it up and takes it to the wikipage, etc.
We could give it a try with the very subjects suggested by RanchGirl. We’ll go for perfection next week. :)
Great idea lugon - at 12:41. Does this wiki allow us to search for this summary? Can we all use the same keyword that will only pull up those hits? Would it make sense to have a thread that is just a summary thread for the newsletter? It would also be a great help to new people. That might also let us summarize closed threads. Does this make sense?
We can write and then search for something that’s “uncommon”. An example: I don’t think the word “abracadabra” appears more than once. A combined string such as “newslettersummary” would be searchable too. Either using pmwiki’s search engine or, as is suggested, google - I think google needs time to compile indexes, so it might not catch recent entries.
Now we only need to get it done. And I’ll be away from the keyboard in August.
lugon looks for an insect that’s on the ceiling, and whistles
Lugon - If you guys can get the contant narrowed down, I can make it fit into the template. I can also expand it to include more “boxes” by making it two sided. Once finalized, we can convert to PDF and shoot it back to you. We should probably establish a timeline for publication so that the news included is as fresh as possible, rather than getting stale because it took us so long to publish. For example, if Friday at 5 pm EST is the deadline for “submissions”, then we can edit and clean it up over the weekend and have it ready for distribution on Monday morning. All fluwikians can begin looking for it on Monday mornings and they can then forward it to family, friends and business colleagues.
As for the numbering…would suggest sticking with dates…perhaps Week of…rather than volume, etc. If this works out, perhaps we include a new bar on the left menu entitled Weekly Newsletters, and then list them for downloading using the date of each newsletter. (This is where we could also show the two different versions …one for those interested in learning more about the topic, and the other for those who are more intensely analyzing the topic.
Lugon - If you guys can get the content narrowed down, I can make it fit into the template. I can also expand it to include more “boxes” by making it two sided. Once finalized, we can convert to PDF and shoot it back to you. We should probably establish a timeline for publication so that the news included is as fresh as possible, rather than getting stale because it took us so long to publish. For example, if Friday at 5 pm EST is the deadline for “submissions”, then we can edit and clean it up over the weekend and have it ready for distribution on Monday morning. All fluwikians can begin looking for it on Monday mornings and they can then forward it to family, friends and business colleagues.
As for the numbering…would suggest sticking with dates…perhaps Week of…rather than volume, etc. If this works out, perhaps we include a new bar on the left menu entitled Weekly Newsletters, and then list them for downloading using the date of each newsletter. (This is where we could also show the two different versions …one for those interested in learning more about the topic, and the other for those who are more intensely analyzing the topic.
Ok, let’s nail down the first issue of our NewsLetter. Place some real content here. If it doesn’t work we’ll know, but let’s try it.
Wasn’t one of the orginal proposals to have a “box” on the template for fluwkians to use to insert local advertising? If that is still part of the plan, remember that few people have the ability to edit or write into a pdf document. I have a verson of Adobe that allows writing, but most people only have Adobe Reader.
If the advert option has been dropped, then … never mind …
Advertising can be as simple as physical cut-and-paste and then photocopies (sponsor pays for them). I don’t think we should drop this option - it’s just that we’ll learn along the way (I think).
So we want PDF and DOC, then? Is that doable without giving away all the private information that goes with every DOC we send out?
yes it just takes some caution.
Ok, someone updates the content, someone else does the caution trick?
I think we should provide a box for the sponsor, but am concerned about sending it out as a Word document. People may be quoted…and anyone can change their quote (not good). We can send them the PDF as well as a separate Word document that has a blank box where they can type in their info/logo, etc. - that box will be located EXACTLY on the page where it needs to be in order for it to “drop into” the empty box on the PDF. They first print out a few dozen (or more) of the PDF, and then run it back through their printer printing THEIR promo box. Very easy to do.
As for the version that they email, their intro email can serve as their promo.
I think the challenge for this newsletter project is going to be this: The first one will be geared to a newbie…the second geared to a newbie+, the third geared to a newbie++ and so on. What if the first issue I get is really the fourth issue…and its written as though I have already read the first three. I think that’s where we’re going to need to carefully edit the content “down” to include the newbies each issue. Just a thought.
lugon – at 07:51 I just tried to click into the HERE link above…took me to a static page. I couldn’t edit or add anything. Can someone adjust or tell me what to do? Thanks!
Word docs can be made to be “read only”, thereby not allowing anyone but the author to change it. All personal info can be removed via the Tools | Options tab settings. And if someone (Dennis in Colorado, I think) is like me and has Adobe Distiller, Word docs can be created and then converted to .pdf inside of MS Word when they’re finished.
and then list them for downloading using the date of each newsletter Y’all may want to check with pogge about downloading from the server that hosts FluWiki. PMWiki may not allow file xfers…however, if the newsletter is set up as a non-trasnferrable, read-only document, then the reader can simply print it out locally when it launches their local copy of the needed software.
ranchgirl – at 23:17 --- In the upper or lower right corner, click on “Edit”. That will take you to the page editor. Don’t forget to save…there is no auto-save feature here :-(
Just took a look at the first proposed newsletter and it looks really good - simple and easy to follow. Just one point, for those countries that have gone metric (which is the majority (hee hee)), can we give recommended water supplies in litres as well as gallons?
Ranchgirl @23:13 - I think TRay is the man for graphics, but I haven’t seen him posting for a little while. He’s very active on the large-file communications project thread. I will watch for him, and point him this way.
Closed to maintain Forum speed.