[Imc-alternatives] Fwd: Where is ZCom going?

[Jay]

At 5/11/2009, you wrote:
>Interesting, thanks.
>
>Sounds like they are trying to make their own 
>version of iGoogle/ Netvibes/ Pakeflakes.
>
>A brief update on similar developments in my 
>world is that after trying plone for a while 
><http://the-hub.net>http://the-hub.net have now 
>opted to implement social network type stuff 
>using 
><http://pinaxproject.com/>http://pinaxproject.com/ 
>and are largely focusing ongiving users the 
>power of feeds (finding and filtering them) a 
>bit like friendfeed/ facebook homepage/ twitter
>
>Josef.

Thanks for the update Josef!

I'm looking around the hub.  I love the fact that 
there are so many smiley pictures of people.  I 
love smiley pictures of people.  :)

Jay



>2009/3/5 Jay <<mailto:jay at fundamentalchange.net>jay at fundamentalchange.net>
>Hi alternatives,
>
>ZCommunications, the online world of Z Magazine, 
>is undergoing some serious updating and just 
>sent out an overview.  They've clearly been 
>having a lot of the same discussions we have 
>about how to create an engaging site that will 
>enable people to connect with one 
>another.  Check out their ideas, which I'll 
>post below.  Specifically look at #9.
>
>I've always found Z online an incredible 
>resource, though I admit the vastness of 
>information on there overwhelms me to the point 
>of my not being able to figure out how to 
>engage.  I see the Alternatives IMC as having 
>more of a focus on our particular kind of 
>information and organizing and therefore serious 
>potential to connect people with very common and 
>specific organizing interests.  Still, I 
>definitely see how the Alternatives IMC could 
>fit with parts of ZCommunications, and how what 
>ZCom is doing could overlap with the Alternatives IMC.Â
>
>Jay
>
>
>
>>Subject: Where is ZCom going?
>>Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:00:27 -0700 (MST)
>>Â Hello,
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Roughly a year ago we did our upgrade of Z's 
>>sites transforming them into what has become ZCommunications.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>At the time, we promised that the improvements 
>>would include not only a new look, improved 
>>navigation, enlarged and enhanced multimedia, 
>>the new ZSpace, etc. - but also a new platform 
>>for future growth and diversification.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The programmers doing all this work, are a team 
>>from Brazil - the main contact is Marcelo 
>>Ribeiro. They and we have largely stabilized 
>>the upgrade to ZCommunications, so it is now 
>>time to begin to together fulfill the broader 
>>promise about further gains based on the new platform.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Here is a glimpse of some of what's coming for 
>>Members, Sustainers, and Writers.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(1) Minor changes throughout.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>There will be modest changes everywhere, including, for example:
>>
>>increased stability and speed
>>new most viewed statistics and preferences
>>PDF exporting
>>enhanced and faster searches
>>diverse design improvements
>>better display of content descriptions
>>better display of author's pictures,Â
>>better audio and video playersÂ
>>playlists, and
>>other modest tweaks throughout.
>>Okay, that's some of the modest stuff. But what about major stuff?
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(2) Personal ZNet Top Page Content Control
>>
>>Â
>>
>>As now, there will continue to be a universal 
>>ZNet Top Page that everyone who comes to the 
>>site initially sees as the default.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>As a Sustainer or Writer, however, you will 
>>have the option to create your own version of 
>>the top page to view instead, whenever you 
>>choose, toggling between visiting your version 
>>or the universal version, as you decide.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Your personal ZNet top page will have whatever 
>>content you choose to give it. You will be in charge!
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You will be able to Quick Edit the content 
>>boxes that you now see in the middle and right 
>>most columns of the universal ZNet Top Page - 
>>not only changing the labels they have, but 
>>also changing the actual automated list of 
>>links controlling how many links appear and the 
>>criteria that defines them to be pretty much anything you want.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You don't want a box with Venezuela/Bolivia 
>>content, like we now have on the top page. Fine. Easily remove it.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want a box that displays recent content 
>>about Spain or perhaps about both South Africa 
>>and Mexico instead. Fine, easily add it. You 
>>name the display area box, you set it up to 
>>display what you want, and you drag it where you want.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want a box that has only your favorite 
>>writers' new content displayed. No problem. You 
>>want a box to display new material from a bunch 
>>of writers you like? Also no problem. You want 
>>everything new on Gender issues to appear in a 
>>box, or perhaps everything new on genders 
>>issues but only if it is by some author or 
>>authors you like, that's also no problem.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want a display box on your personal top 
>>page with web links outside ZCom that you like 
>>to go to and want handy? Fine. Do it, easily. 
>>You can have whatever content you want.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>In other words, you will be able to set up 
>>display boxes for list of links on your 
>>personal top page of ZNet, much as we have on 
>>the universal version, but with automated 
>>display of links to whatever content you want 
>>to highlight - of course also removing whatever 
>>you don't care to have forefront. And you can 
>>then change what you have done, with changing 
>>times, also easily, whenever you like.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(3) Personal ZNet Top Page Tabbed Menu System
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Being able to control the content on the top 
>>page is awfully nice, you might say, I mean 
>>even big commercial sites don't have that 
>>option, but what about the menus? You might 
>>say, after all, Z's universal taste in menu 
>>links and your personal taste don't match?
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Well, that too will be no problem.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>In the tabbed menu at the top of the universal 
>>default ZNet top page that everyone can see the 
>>tabs will continue to be whatever we at Z 
>>decide to make them, and likewise for the 
>>submenus that appear when you roll over a tab 
>>on the universal top page. But on your own 
>>personal ZNet top page, the one where you set 
>>what content displays, the one that is yours 
>>and that only you see, you will be able to 
>>easily remove or add top menu tabs of your 
>>choosing, as well as remove or add sub links 
>>under those tabs, again of your own choosing.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want fewer tabs, no problem. Remove what you don't like.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want more tabs, okay, you can add what you want.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want different labels on the tabs, change them, easily.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You want existing or new tabs that point to 
>>different destinations - even outside the site - no problem, you choose.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You will determine where your menu entries 
>>point - anywhere at all, whether on site or 
>>off. And the same will hold for entries in the 
>>submenus that you see when you roll over a tab 
>>on your top page - you will be able to adapt 
>>and add and delete them, too, all via easy quick edit.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You might want to have a friends tab, say, with 
>>the submenu displaying links to your friends 
>>pages. Maybe you want a SiteLinks tab for off 
>>site links that you like. Perhaps you want a 
>>MyContent tab with links to different types of 
>>your own content. Maybe you want some countries 
>>to front and center under a places tab, but 
>>different countries than we have on the 
>>universal page - or you might want some topics 
>>under a topics tab, but again different ones 
>>than we have. Maybe you want some favorite 
>>writers, under a writers tab, or under a blog 
>>tab, or whatever. You can have tabs for 
>>whatever you want to have easiest access too, 
>>with whatever sub menu links you want.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(4) Personal ZNet Top Page Left Menu System
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Okay, you might say, that's wonderful, and 
>>unexpected, but as long as we are innovating, what about the left menu?
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You like the fact that from the top page you 
>>can click an arrow on the left menu and 
>>instantly set whole sets of recent content by 
>>various designations. But the content you would 
>>like to instantly access that way is different 
>>from our universal entries. Well, you guessed 
>>it, the same logic and approach will hold for 
>>the left menu as will hold for the tab menu.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>On the universal znet top page, the left menu 
>>will be rather like it is now with the links 
>>and sections that we pick visible to everyone who accesses it.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>On your own personal version of the top page, 
>>however, the one where you determine the 
>>content and you determine the tabbed menu 
>>entries, the one that you can access whenever 
>>you want, on the left menu too you can put 
>>whatever links you want. The names listed will 
>>be those you choose, or no names if you don't 
>>want any. you might choose to have some 
>>writers, friends, whatever. And ditto for the 
>>rest. You can pick different categories of 
>>content to quick access, countries, or topics, 
>>or combinations. The arrows will work like now, 
>>but the names of the links and what actually displays will be up to you.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The upshot of all this is that your personal 
>>ZNet Top Page will have broadly the same 
>>structure as the current universal ZNet top 
>>page, but it will have whatever content and 
>>menu links suit your content preferences and 
>>navigational inclinations. We will provide a 
>>few typical sample options for personal top 
>>pages and you can choose one that is close to 
>>what you might like, and then you can tweak it, 
>>or massively alter it, as you choose.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>One thing to note, however, again, is that only 
>>you will see your presonal ZNet top page. It is 
>>what will appear going to ZNet when you are 
>>logged in and you opt to toggle it on.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(5) Personal ZSpace Top Page
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The logic of the overall ZSpace top page will 
>>be the same as above. There will be a universal 
>>one, like now, though much improved in ways 
>>that will be intimated below. But then you as a 
>>Sustainer will be able to edit what appears on 
>>a personal compendium ZSpace top page that you 
>>can see instead of or in addition to our 
>>version, if you opt for having a personal one, and if you toggle it on.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>For your personal ZSpace top page, you will 
>>choose the content and its arrangement, whether 
>>you want comments or blogs or preferences or 
>>pictures or your friends contents, etc. etc., 
>>and the menu links, and their arrangement, all 
>>technically just as described above for the 
>>ZNet Top Page. There will however, be, more 
>>things to display and highlight than now, due to other innovations.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>In other words, you will have not only our idea 
>>of a universal window on all accumulating 
>>ZSpace content - but also your version of what 
>>that should look like and include, as you 
>>decide, and alter, at your discretion.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(6) Personal ZSpace Page
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Of course you will still have your own ZSpace 
>>page, which you set up but everyone sees when 
>>they click on your name, like now, but now it 
>>will be virtually entirely adaptable however 
>>you choose, with content that you want, links that you want, etc.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>What's more, there will be a massively improved 
>>ties to your online friends, providing ease of 
>>use and speed of response on the order of 
>>FaceBook's, with message boards and records, 
>>etc. etc., and overall with far more substance, of course.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(7) New Forums / Chat / Messaging
>>
>>Â
>>
>>We are redoing the forums, chat, and messaging 
>>so that they will be entirely integrated in the 
>>overall system - rather than standing off to 
>>the side - and so that they will also have 
>>options to receive content by email, for you to 
>>reply by email, and for you to display your or 
>>your friends or any other posts and threads on 
>>your personal pages as you choose, among other innovations.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Links to related forums will appear in 
>>appropriate places all over the site, not just 
>>when you go to a sequestered forums area, as 
>>will access to forum content. Comments will be 
>>commenting on any content and forums will be 
>>for extended discussions, debates, etc.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Sustainers will also be able to create their 
>>own forums for display on your pages - as will 
>>groups - the last being a very important feature.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Similarly we will have live chat and also 
>>instant message facilities, far more developed 
>>than we employed earlier, with easy use from 
>>anywhere... perhaps sound and vision, and with 
>>rooms for multiple people, with reminders, 
>>tracking visibility of online friends, etc.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(8) Preferences
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The books, films, and sites preferences 
>>facilities are being redone and will generate 
>>lists of people's preferred content by the last 
>>day, week, month, and for all time.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>There will also be easy reviewing of content, 
>>easy access to comments and reviews, easy 
>>access to see who has tastes like yours, etc.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(9) Groups / Projects / Networks / Organizations / Movements
>>
>>Â
>>
>>There will be lots more innovation, but this 
>>last one that I can summarize now is the one I 
>>have to admit, that I are most excited about.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The idea is pretty simple - but the potential is enormous.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Say you and a group of other people decide to 
>>form a collective page - just for a group of 
>>like minded folks, or perhaps for folks who 
>>wish to work together on some shared project, 
>>or maybe for folks who wish to join together 
>>into a network, or perhaps for members of an 
>>organization, or even for members of a movement.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>You create a group page, or you might call it a 
>>network page, for your collective of people.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>All the members of the group and only those 
>>members can post in the group blog. All the 
>>members of the group and only members of the 
>>group can operate in the group's forums. The 
>>groups can decide to allow people outside the 
>>group to see its blogs or forums, or not.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>There is easy email to and from everyone in the 
>>group to everyone else in the group, likewise for chat and messaging.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>The group can have its own top page for the 
>>group (using options technically just like the 
>>group's personal control of the znet top page 
>>to create this) - not just a self determined 
>>group ZSpace page, as now, but a page like the 
>>ZNet top page, but for the group, that everyone 
>>can see or not, as the group decides.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>In other words the group, project, team, 
>>organization - or whatever it is - gets the 
>>ability to very easily set up a web site with a 
>>tabbed menu system, a fancy left menu facility, 
>>and with easy quick edit control of all content 
>>and features - including colors, graphics, 
>>etc., and with chat, messaging, forums, and blog.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>In short, we will be providing any group that 
>>wants it, a site that if warranted can be as 
>>rich as ZCommunications to do with what they 
>>will. More, the content will not only stand 
>>alone, as it would if you built such a thing 
>>from scratch - but it will also appear within 
>>the Z system, thus getting major added visibility, etc.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Your team/group/organization or whatever will 
>>have chat and instant messenger to facilitate 
>>intercommunication internally, but, as well, to 
>>aid collective creativity we will even have 
>>ways for you to collectively work on shared 
>>documents and projects. Communication among 
>>folks in your team/group/organization will be 
>>easy. Adding folks will be easy. Embedding 
>>content into your sites will be easy, and being 
>>embedded in others systems or creating amalgam systems, will be easy.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>We hope you can see the potential.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Just as an example, suppose UFPJ decided to use 
>>this, or perhaps some left publisher, or maybe 
>>a consortium of publishers on the left, or 
>>perhaps a new organization, or maybe a group 
>>just wanting to create a new site, or a 
>>translated site, say - or whatever. They could 
>>have a site for each chapter plus a parent site 
>>for all chapters, or one for each of many 
>>organizations and a shared consortium site for 
>>all together, among many other possibilities, 
>>virtually overnight. Each would have a rich and 
>>flexible menuing system, easy maintenance, and 
>>would feature content of its members, blogs for 
>>its members, forums for its members - all 
>>visible more broadly or not, as preferred, etc. 
>>Each would facilitate discussion, exploration, 
>>debate, and even mutual work among the members, 
>>if desired, and would of course allow content 
>>display more widely and particularly to the 
>>larger Z community, if desired. We hope we can 
>>all together bring this type mutual aid and 
>>benefit to fruition. We hope movement groups 
>>and organizations, publishers, projects, teams 
>>of like minded folks, etc., will use the 
>>resources. It is an ambitious undertaking, but 
>>hopefully will come to pass just a little after 
>>all the rest that is mentioned above.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>So when will all this be in place?
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Well, we don't know precise timing and we have 
>>learned that programming is very very hard and 
>>unpredictable. You do it. you discover 
>>problems. You fix them, but then there are new 
>>ones to fix. You keep at it - and finally you 
>>have something viable that you can unveil, only 
>>to find more - though less debilitating problems to fix.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>We hope to have these innovations ready to 
>>unveil in early to mid summer. We hope to have 
>>what is described above all finished, by late 
>>summer or early fall - and to be off and 
>>running on adding much more innovation, as well.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Â
>>
>>If you want to help us in all this - well, there are three big things to do.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(1) Use the current facilities - which is to 
>>say please upload your picture and bio to 
>>ZSpace, please enter some preferences, and 
>>especially please begin using the blogs and 
>>commenting facilities if you haven't already. 
>>They have gotten quite busy, which is quite 
>>inspiring, but there is room for much more! In 
>>this way you can not only grow participation 
>>now, preparatory to a big jump when the new 
>>features are in place, but, truth be told, you 
>>can provide us the inspiration we need to keep on pushing forward.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(2) We know economic times are very tough, or 
>>at the very least, very scary. But, 
>>nonetheless, if, but only if, you can possibly 
>>manage it, please consider upping your 
>>Sustainer Donation by one payment level, or by 
>>whatever amount you can manage. Even just $1 a 
>>month, say, will make a very big difference!
>>
>>Â
>>
>>(3) But most important, if and when you decide 
>>to begin tightening up your budget - please 
>>don't do it at the expense of your support for 
>>ZCom, or at the expense of your support for 
>>other progressive and left endeavors, for that 
>>matter. It would be an incredible irony and 
>>catch-22 - if, precisely when the corporate 
>>system implodes the anti corporate alternative 
>>should suffer also, rather than growing, as we need to.
>>
>>Â
>>
>>We hope you agree that the above is an exciting set of prospects...
>>
>>Â
>>
>>We thank you for your continuing support,
>>
>>Â
>>
>>Michael Albert
>>
>>For ZCom
>>
>><http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/removeMailing/?account=NTgzNjQyczBubjR5>Temporarily 
>>toggle off commentary and other Sustainer mailings.
>>
>>(You can turn them back on from your account 
>>page at any time. You will not lose permissions 
>>or other Sustainer benefits nor will this interrupt your donations.)
>>
>><http://www.zcommunications.org/admin/account/terminate/583642>Terminate 
>>your Sustainer Account
>>
>>(You will have to enter your password in the 
>>form that appears. Doing this will terminate 
>>your donations and permissions. To get new 
>>permissions and other features, you would have to rejoin later.)
>>
>><http://www.zcommunications.org/admin/account/view/583642>Visit 
>>your account page and make changes of any sort you may desire.
>>
>>(You will have to enter your password in the field that appears.)
>
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>
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>Josef Davies-Coates
>07974 88 88 95
><http://uniteddiversity.com>http://uniteddiversity.com
>Together We Have Everything
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