078 - Create a tri-fold brochure entitled "Joomla! for Libraries"

[222320]

Hey,

I have chosen to make a tri-fold brochure about Joomla! and its use in libraries. I would love any suggestions and I am excited about getting to work.

--Andreas

[timothy.stiffler]

I will be glad to assist you in any way I can if you need it. I will personally enjoy seeing this project completed!

[222320]

I just finished my first draft. I wanted to attach it as a PDF, but it turned out to be over the attachment size limit. It is by no means great, but hey, at least it's a start. Let me know what you think!

--Andreas

[drmmr763]

You can host on the Google Site. I don't believe there is a limit there.

[222320]

Thanks Chad.

PDF of draft one:
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure1.pdf

--Andreas

[trombonechamp]

You can leave out the "TM" after Joomla!.

  Joomla!  is  released  under
  the  GNU  General  Public
  License,  meaning  it  is  open
  source and free.

-Make sure you include free as in freedom as well as free as in cost.

  Joomla!  can  easily  manage
  every  aspect  of  any  website,

-Wow!  That is a big claim!  Joomla! can't manage every aspect of any site. (yet...)
-I think it is missing a bit of pizazz..  You might want to look at some of the other brochures to see how they did the layout. 
-Another thing you should consider doing is focusing in on one library.  Get a screenshot of the site.  Email the webmaster and do an interview on why he/she chose Joomla!, why he/she still uses it, favorite features, etc.
-The alignment that you used looks unnatural.  Bullet points should usually be left-aligned.

This is a good start!

[drmmr763]

-Wow!  That is a big claim!  Joomla! can't manage every aspect of any site. (yet...)

I have to agree with you, Max. Joomla! is great for A LOT of projects, but to say that it is a good solution for every site is unrealistic. There's things it can't do. Also, not everything is easy! Sugarcoating is nice, but be realistic folks.

[timothy.stiffler]

Something that I always tell my clients when they ask me to design them a site, and wonder why Joomla! would be better for them, is that it is a COntent Managment System. Many times, they wonder if Joomla can really handle all of the pages they want, and I reply with a definition of what a COntent Managment System is.

If you put that in there somewhere, it could also be an answer to trombonechamp's post above. Joomla! may not be the best for every site, but it is darn good with the sites it can work with. And, there are plenty of other COntent Managment System's out there!

Cheers!
Tim

[222320]

From http://www.joomla.org/content/view/12/26/:

Joomla! can be used to easily manage every aspect of your website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalog or taking online reservations.

  Joomla!  can  easily  manage every  aspect  of  any  website,

-Wow!  That is a big claim!  Joomla! can't manage every aspect of any site. (yet...)

I'm getting some mixed messages, so I'm not quite sure what I should say in my description of Joomla!. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

-I think it is missing a bit of pizazz..  You might want to look at some of the other brochures to see how they did the layout.

Do you think background images, different fonts, or more images in general would add pizazz?

-Another thing you should consider doing is focusing in on one library.  Get a screenshot of the site.  Email the webmaster and do an interview on why he/she chose Joomla!, why he/she still uses it, favorite features, etc.

I tried emailing a few different webmasters, but I haven't gotten any responses yet; however, I'll keep trying.

Thanks for the feedback and I'll try to my best to iron out the kinks,
Andreas

[drmmr763]

I'm getting some mixed messages, so I'm not quite sure what I should say in my description of Joomla!. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Something to the effect of:

Joomla! is a Two Time Award Winning World Renowned Content Management System that will allow you to easily build and manage many different types of web services, including, but not limited to corporate and personal websites, blogs, and e-commerce store applications. Joomla! also supports an API that allows developers to freely develop extensions to make Joomla!'s expandability incredibly unique.

--

check this out:

http://www.joomla.org/content/view/12/26/

[trombonechamp]

-Another thing you should consider doing is focusing in on one library.  Get a screenshot of the site.  Email the webmaster and do an interview on why he/she chose Joomla!, why he/she still uses it, favorite features, etc.

I tried emailing a few different webmasters, but I haven't gotten any responses yet; however, I'll keep trying.

Make sure you tell them you are on the Joomla! team and making a brochure about Joomla!.  This will up the priority of your email!!!

Do you think background images, different fonts, or more images in general would add pizazz?

Keep the font on Halvetica.  This is the standard for Joomla! documentation.  You could use a background image, but they are expensive to print.  Pictures/images are a fast and easy way to make a brochure more appealing. 

I'm getting some mixed messages, so I'm not quite sure what I should say in my description of Joomla!. Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Look at Chad's post.  I couldn't have said it better! 

[222320]

I finished my second draft. I tried to address the issues pointed out in the first draft. I still have gotten no response from any of the webmasters I emailed. The original task description, however, only says interviewing a webmaster is extra credit, so hopefully its absence will not be too bad. Anyways, I hope you find it satisfactory, but if not, let me know what I can do to improve my brochure.

http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure2.pdf
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure2.odt

--Andreas

[trombonechamp]

You have probably already seen this page, but there are some more libraries at:
http://www.joomlainlibrary.com/showcase.html.  See if you can get an interview with a webmaster from one of those libraries.

  Joomla! is released under the
GNU General Public License,
meaning it is open
source and free (as in
beer and speech).

Do you really want to mention beer on an brochure aimed at a public library?  Free as in cost should do just fine.

  Joomla! is simple enough for
personal homepages, yet
powerful enough for corporate
websites, such as
Porsche Brazil.

You could go on and on, listing all of the companies that use Joomla!, but it isn't necessary.  This brochure is aimed at libraries, not car dealerships.    If you can get an interview with a webmaster, that will be better than talking about any number of companies. 

With Joomla!, a library's
website could easily include
forums, RSS feeds, tags,
blogs, photo
galleries, a
calendar, profiles, event
registration, and book reviews.

Add an "and more" to the end, showing that Joomla! is designed to be extensible.


Also, make sure you drop the "http://" from the urls.

[222320]

Well, I finally got one response from a library, only to find out that they are switching to Drupal. Unfortunately, tomorrow is the deadline, so I'll submit what I have now. Hopefully it satisfies your needs, but if not, I'll keep trying to get an interview with an extended deadline.

http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure3.pdf
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure3.odt

--Andreas

[tj.ferrell]

WOW  i like your layout a lot! I Like what you have done and i have a few suggestions. Your color choice in your font for your brochure is a little hard to read, i would suggests sticking with blue, black, or red. You have a lot of grate info but it is all in bullet form. Bullets are great but, IMO, you are using them a little too much. Try to expand a little more on what some of the things are for example,

Joomla! can handle both static and active content.

if i were a librarian reading this i would have no clue what it meant, i would have to go find a book on web development to help me find out. The goal is to persuade them to switch over by proving Joomla! to be a superior piece of software. Under "What is Joomla!?" I don't think that you really need to mention what else Joomla! is used for either because there is already a target audience, Library's! I love what you are doing and keep up the great work!

[AmyStephen]

Consider what tj has said - and look at some of the other tri-folds entered to see if there might be ideas to make this more relevant to librarians.

Thanks for including several library sites. We are not including URLs on these sites to avoid looking like advertising (or using their bandwidth to advertise Joomla!)

I think minor changes will bring this around quickly.

Thanks!
Amy

[222320]

Finally, feedback from a library! I hope you like draft four:
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure4.pdf
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure4.odt

--Andreas

[AmyStephen]

I'm loving it!

Some comments:

Not sure where you got this number: because over 40,000 people use it, ? There are already over 150,000 forum ids - also people who use Joomla! who don't have ids. Truthfully, we have no idea how many use it. I would change to many all over the globe, or some such thing.

Love this paragraph written for librarians in simple terms - good stuff - the entire next page is good, too.

Joomla! can handle both static and
active content. Static content is
things that do not change, like
directions to the library, contact
information, or instructions for getting
a library card. Active content is pages
that do change, like recent news, or
new books.

I appreciate this comment, but would remove "from Drupal". Otherwise, love it. We are not competing against other OS projects and would like to stay away from that perception in print. (That takes nothing away from Randy's opinion, which I value.)

“Joomla!'s usability, learning curve,
and component/theme community of
developers far surpasses anything
that I have seen from Drupal. [. . .]

We are strongly encouraging at least two pictures of library sites to prevent it from looking like ads for one library. So, if you could get a picture of another site, that would be appreciated.

We are also not allowing URLs outside of J!, so removing all by joomla.org on the back page is important.

One other thing, and this is just me. I prefer black text, unless it is a bit of colored text here and there. The red headings are great. But, I would change the body text to black. Your call - just my opinion.

Really nice piece. Next submission, I am confident this will close.

Thanks!
Amy

[trombonechamp]

-I don't know if I would title the page "Feedback"; try something like "What do others say" or "How is Joomla! being used"
-The clip art is Public Domain, right?

Why should my library use Joomla!?:

-First, remove the colon.
-Second, you have to say "your library" because you use the pronoun "you" later in the brochure, and because it says "I" refers to the Joomla! documentation team or the author in the style guide.

-On the cover, you might want to move "for Libraries" down a couple pixels; it looks crammed against the Joomla! logo

Looking great!

[222320]

Yeah, the clip art is okay. The website I got it from says:

You may use the Image
    * In printed promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.

I got "40,000" from http://www.joomla.org/content/view/12/26/

We have a growing, active community of more than 40,000 friendly users and developers on our forums eager to help.

but I changed it.

I changed "Feedback" to "What do libraries think?". I hope it's okay that I said "libraries" even though there is only feedback from one library. "What does a library think?" sounds sort of awkward.

Here are the links:
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure5.pdf
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... chure5.odt

--Andreas

[AmyStephen]

Andreas -

This is really nice work. I posted a note in the Foundation area asking that that 40,000 number be removed. Clearly, that is outdated. Plus - it's just impossible to guess.  :P

Thank you very much for this contribution to our community. This can be shared in many different ways. It was so simply put and yet addressed the real benefits. You have a natural gift in this area.

I closed the Google task. You are free to select another task if you choose.

Kind regards,
Amy