Lojban In General

Posted by timonator on Sun 24 of Feb, 2008 12:54 GMT posts: 85851

Should further discussion happen on the lojban-list or on the beginners-list?
- Timo

Posted by totus on Tue 26 of Feb, 2008 17:19 GMT posts: 65

Hi Timo!

I'm writing to you privately as I have already addressed this issue
publically (one year ago on the beginners mail list)to no avail.
Then the subject met with indifference, even some hostility. The
impression I got was that the core group of lojbanists has
an "excusive club" and does not welcome opinions of "outsiders" or
beginners. First you have to be accepted as a part of this special
core group, and that can only happen if your are proficient at
lojban.

The irony is that what you addressed (and what I addressed earlier)is
essentially a marketing issue, not a linguistic one! I may not be
good at lojban, but I have a background of many years in marketing
communications - isn't that worth something?

The issue, as I see it, is that there are two distinct target
audiences we need to think about. One is the current group of
lojbanists and the second is potential lojbanists. They need to be
communicated to in very different ways.

My interest is in the second group because I fear that unless the
community grows, it will die - the critical mass just isn't there.

What makes this group different from current lojbanists is that:
(1)They are not yet sold on lojban. In fact, their interest may be
very thin.
(2)Most are probably not very technical, either with regard to
linguistics or with regard to IT.

This means that all the three components of effective communications
have to be different for them: content, communications effectiveness,
visual attractiveness.

The bottom line is that there need to be a separate website targeting
them with pointers to the wiki (as Matt has suggested - possibly
remembering my communication to him a year ago!).

Obviously, at this stage, it doesn't make sense for me to go into the
detail of what I think needs to be done. However, bearing in mind
that a potential lojbanist's first exposure is usually the home page
(depending on his reaction to it, he may navigate onwards - or just
drop it there!), here are a few commments (which, I think, support
what you already wrote):

In order of importance:

CONTENT:
(1) News - something new at least once a week.
(2) What is lojban - it's there, but does not communicate well.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS:
(1) Assume the reader knows nothing. Respect him for his interest.
Use language he can understand. Make it easy to read.
(2) Make it easy to navigate to what he needs.

VISUAL ATTRACTIVENESS:
(1) Lots of competition out there to get and keep the readers
attention. Use colour, effective fonts, graphics and photos,

Actually, building the website is the easiest part. Some great
websites have been created, only to decay after the initial burst of
enthusiasm and work. For the website to continue to be fresh,
dynamic and effective, there needs to be an "infrastructure". Even
before the first page is designed, certain issues need to be
addressed that relate to what happens after the site is implemented:

(1) Who is responsible for what? Who will provide the support and
the content?
(2) How will success be evaluated?
(3) Internal marketing: without the enthusiastic ongoing support of
the whole lojban community, the best designed website will decay. How
will the support be created and maintained?

I'm afraid all this sounds "preachy" and and maybe even familiar. If
so, I apologise. I'm enthusiastic about lojban and would hate to see
it disappear like loglan.

I would love to help, even though my fingers have been burned once
already. I'm not a programmer or designer, but I have managed both
in my time. My last related experience was organizing a website for
a Swiss IT services company and then providing corporate content.

If you have got this far, thanks for your patience, Timo!

Andrew Piekarski