YWP 3.0

What is the commitment level?

My questions/thoughts/flow of consciousness/nonsense...

Would it be a print expansion, like our own newspaper? Could it be? Maybe we could have people write articles for it, include pictures, actual entries, opinion pieces (Like the Religion Discussion from before) updates to YWP, etc. (Advertisements?) Or something like that, but still on the website... an online newspaper with individual articles you could comment on, add media to, record commentary, etc. Or an ongoing list of writing tips that anyone could add to
(***EPIPHANY!*** That could be the next subject in the widget up top!!!)

www.stumbleupon.com. This is an excellent site--randomly sends you places tailored to what your interests are. Like a non-musical Pandora. We could implement some kind of randomizer like this on here to get people excited about certain topics or to discover a new blog.

Something that could really be emphasized is the amount of stuff that's already on here. Forums, book pages, image libraries etc... most people don't use these! Perhaps enhancing them so that they're as common as the rest of the features.

Wouldn't is be SO COOL if we could have an application, like Paint or Graffiti from Facebook, where people could create pictures RIGHT HERE. This makes me think of Qwerty's and Novelty's drawings-- combinations of color, art, words, etc. Maybe others could add? Animation with sound? Ahhh that would be cool.

Whatever happened to that hamster, GG?

That's my spout of words for now. More to come, guaranteed.

I am so so so very interested in this. But I feel like after Peaches' really interesting questions and comments, I'm not sure what to add. May I ask what exactly this project would be working on? Would it just be adding to the site, or creating other publications and events? How often would we have to be able to meet in person, because as you know, this is usually a difficult thing for me.

Also, you say our parts would be divided. Would we have appointed positions, or would we swap around?

This sounds so exciting and interesting a fun. Consider my name put forth.

What if there were different sections to the site? Almost like a bunch of little YWPs, but not really. You could have one account and have access to all the parts of the site. One could focus on music/audio presentations of writing, one could focus on artwork/visual presentations, one on prose, one on poetry. I feel like right now everything is glommed together and it's difficult to look at everything separately.

More actual workshops in the YWP space. Put the shiny Macs to use! Everything is happening online and I feel like we haven't had a get-together in the longest of times. I would say trying to make workshops at least monthly, maybe more than that. Maybe having series of workshops? Things that span over lots of time? This would give us more polished final projects, as opposed to something we felt like we had to finish in an hour or two.
This would, y'know, not be cheap I'm assuming. It must cost something to have a bunch of youths invade HQ and do the whole youth thing. Maybe have a fee? Not something ridiculous, but I would pay like, 10$. For a series- have one fee, not for each one (25$?). Or maybe, have there be an individual fee for each workshop OR give people the option of buying a sort of membership. Maybe, 100$ a year? (that sounds like a lot in my head, but 100/12=8.33. That's less than 8$ a month) If you pay that fee, than you could either get all the workshops at no cost, or get them at a discounted rate.
(All this said- access to the main site should remain free.)
(Does any of that make any sense? It all works out in my head, it really does.)

Making YWP more accessible on mobile devices. I happen to know that trying to look though/create posts on my iPod is extremely annoying. It might be worth it to have someone code an app or mobile site. I don't know how big of a problem this is, maybe I'm an isolated case, but it would make things easier.

Giving people an easier way to connect with people they meet on the site.
You discourage us from chatting and giving our emails away in comments, but you also took away the contact form. This makes it really difficult to contact anyone from the site, outside the site. Unless you're an extremely talented stalker (like myself), finding people is near impossible.

More customizable personal blogs?
This isn't a major issue- but I don't think I'm the only one that would enjoy being able to make my blog look unique and pretty. I have nothing against the lovely layout you guys have, but every blog looks the same. You guys use the Drupal platform, right? I don't know how easy/difficult that would be to do... but it would be cool.

...I think that's all for now. I'll think of more later.

Keep those ideas coming. Fact is there are no answers now... This is blue sky time, then comes a meeting, then comes research... We'll meet in a couple of weeks....

Peaches. Sorry. Hamster was at the hospital. He's back. http://www.youngwritersproject.org/node/33844

gg

..Be careful about admission fees, There are alot of kids on this site and if there was a cover charge to get more involved people might feel ostracized if they don't have the resources (money, and means of travel) to become more active members. I realize things need to get financed, just sayin'.

Focusing more on the onlince aspect of YWP, I'm pondering the idea of Chats.. Not for casual talking, but chat rooms set up around certain pieces of work or prompts, where kids could shoot around ideas on a topic to get their minds warmed up for writing. Ones dedicated to writers block, layout strategies, college essays. More immediate than blogs and comments..?

That would have to be monitored closely.. So we wouldn't turn into an instant messaging site..
hey.
hey.
sup.
nmu?
same.
cool.
yeah.

Ohh the consquences of being able to communicate constantly, faster than we can think of things to say..

Anyway I love the idea of more personalized blogs.

And I would love to meet about this in the weeks to come.

So I'm not at all suggesting that we do something like this, but this fellow (Roger Fidler) is someone I know who is interested in what we are doing... To give you some idea of his visionary powers, this was what he was thinking about and doing in 1994:

I like Qwerty's idea of having sections to the site, but my suggestion would be to have them focus on connecting ideas or different genres... sort of like what she already suggested. For instance, having a section that focuses on outreach -- student activism and current issues. The writing and students who use that site could then connect with students who were interested solely in media journalism or reporting and they could combine interests for projects sponsored by the main YWP.

The major idea would be to go outside of just writing and have it connect to the real world, to real issues, to real applicable projects. Make the focus not just writing and getting published in the newspaper, but using student work and influence and passions to accomplish bigger goals.

Also going off of Qwerty's idea for more customizable blogs -- having each user be able to turn their blog into what they want, and have the look of it reflect that. If you want it to be written solely in chord progressions, then do that. If you want to have it focus on artwork in combination with writing... Being able to have the design and format of each blog reflect the interests and projects of that particular individual.

There are many thoughts to ponder with this site. It is still growing, and it could be so much better, even though it is amazing already! A few things:

I agree with Greenie/Qwerty about the personalization of blogs; it could be a new way for people to be creative on this site that is different than anything we have ever done before.

Another suggestion: I know we have a lot of amazingly talented musicians on YWP...is there any way we could have some sort of benefit concert? I think it would be a lot of fun, and we could play both original songs and covers. I know a lot of people could have fun with that....(including myself.)

Another fun idea could be to have a story going around, somewhat like the book pages project that many people participated in a few months ago, except it all being on the same wiki and only adding a few sentences at a time, and seeing where the story goes.

I also agree with Qwerty that an easier way to contact others on the site would be nice...even though I can just ask her when I want to find some ones e-mail address...hehe.

Another suggestion I have is to make some sort of "alliance" with another writing group either in another part of the country or even another part of the world. We could see how their writing differs from ours, and how it is alike. I would be personally interested in researching this further, because finding someone else to connect to besides in our wonderful but small state would be really cool!

When I first came to YWP a year ago...I remember it so differently then. It was definitely smaller, that's for sure! But, it has grown into so much, and I believe that it could grow into something even bigger, and not just in size.

I would love to be involved with this, because being one of the younger people on this site, I would be able to work on this for years to come, and help YWP to grow into something that is bigger than any other writing program ever has become in Vermont.

I watched the whole video. That is AWESOME. It's like a more interesting version of the iPhone, minus the phone.

I typed some notes quickly and I'll try to explain them. Just some concepts I tried to get out of it and connect to us. Again, perhaps just a jumble that only I will understand. I just wanted to put it out there.

"No instruction manual"-- make our changes really easy
New forms take on old forms' characteristics
More useful, VALUABLE!!!
Bridge of familiarity
--Excerpts of stories, click for full (we sort of already to this with the Read More)
Physical size not limited, we could have entire books on here. Our very own Kindle.
Pictures "come alive"
Videos attached to stories/blogs?
--More animated podcasts
Animated text?
~~(Wouldn't they lose the stylus? I definitely would)~~
Special interests, personal profile with subjects-- just like Stumble!!!
Sharing discoveries, articles-- inter-blog communication
Specific, regular identity --> loyalty to certain publications
Advertising?
Personal contacts like on email, AIM
**Accessibility very very very important. Otherwise no one will use it.
"Read story!" HAH! (The girl commanding the tablet to read it out loud. It made me laugh)
"Delivery" of stories -- could we do regular, personal updates? emails? Could you "follow" a certain blog, like on Twitter?
Newspapers are NOT dinosaurs! At least, I hope not :(
^^^ let's prevent this from happening

P.S. This is also an awesome site: http://ukyouthonline.ning.com. I signed up and my account is pending. It would be a good place to go ask questions and see what people are thinking of. They're sort of trying to accomplish the same thing as us.

This is so great!
I really like the idea of a benefit concert. I think that we could even expand on that and make it open to slams and skits and artists and anything else anyone would want to show off. That would be a good way to make money.
I'm not a fan of the workshops & events not being free. I love YWP, but I, like prolly most on this site, do not have a steady job and fees would be a deterrent. Maybe we could just not be fed? I know it's nice, but I can't imagine much of a cost beyond that for hosting a workshop.
I'm also not so hot about dividing YWP into sections & personalizing blogs. I know we all love to be creative. But the current format of YWP focuses on the writing. Everyones blog is the same except for the content, I worry that personalizing blogs would push YWP a little too close to Facebook. Now, there's nothing wrong with Facebook (well, that's for another day, another argument) but YWP just isn't Facebook. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Now to be positive. :) I already typed this comment, but my Internet hiccupped and it was lost. Frustrating. It be so great to have some way to save while we're writing something out so we don't lose it. Like wordpress has an autosave function which has saved me some heartache many a'time.

And another idea. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that my school doesn't have very good creative writing programs and clubs. I bet there's a poetry club with one member buried somewhere in the library, but really. I'm very impressed by actual ywpers who've gone out of their way to bring writing to a forefront and get others involved. Specifically Usa-chan and her amazing forensics squad (love that word). Wouldn't it be great if Bee, and ultimately, Ywp, could help other students start forensics teams in other schools. And not only that, but poetry clubs, writing groups- prose workshops. I bet Bee can testify, it's no easy task to start a club like forensics, but if we helped eachother out! ^.^

T-shirts. Still. <3

I love greenies idea of putting our writing to work. Why do we write? To be heard? To change the world, be it the whole global society or our small little state, or just our own personal world. I think that the next step after just writing is writing for a purpose and a cause. ^.^
I also love Nems idea of connecting with a group from another program or school and comparing writing. I think this would Aldo really help us all improve as people and writers.

More to come- my fingers be tired. (also, qwertz is on. Mobile site. And some way to get podcasts on our iPods)

~Spauce

Also!!! I love the newspaper idea! At the firstnight thing we talked about how VT does not need an alternative paper (7 days) cuz we don't really have enough news ^.^ but I think that a paper with articles by young writers and art and creative pieces would be amazing! Like EHS's WAM without the terrible promo posters and with actual articles.

I am so interested in helping out with this.
I've read the previous comments and some of these ideas are so cool!
-I really like yellowrose's idea of the pen pal, writing alliance kind of thing. That would be really cool.
-I also love the YWP newspaper thing. Maybe it could come out once a month? And we could print articles--I'm thinking it would be more of editorials than straight-up journalism--and the best of YWP for the month, as judged by GG, Lee, Eva, and possibly a few senior YWPers...I'm talking about the blogs, not the newspaper series. I think we should definitely continue to print the newspaper series in the Free Press and other Vermont newspapers.
-Benefit concert/slam would be epic.
-I really loved writing for LCCMF, and seeing the Flynn performance. At the pizza party before the Flynn, GG mentioned having a few writers who would go out and see plays and performances--anything really--and write about it. I thought that was a super cool idea at the time, and my opinion hasn't changed. Is that still a possibility?
-I like baily's chat idea. Maybe it could only be open at certain times though--such as weekends, or after school. This might minimize the useless chatting. Sometimes just talking about a piece quickly works a lot better than long comments.
-I'm not really a fan of personalizing the blogs. Sure, it'd be cool, but I don't think it's really necessary. Like Special said, the current format of YWP focuses on the writing, with everyone having the same blog format. I don't know. I guess I'd have to see how it would be done to pass further judgement.
-I feel like all the things we can do on YWP aren't really taken advantage of. The forums, and book pages, and photographs just aren't used very much. I don't know how to change this, and how to make these options more popular, but I think it's something we should work on.
-I WOULD LOVE A YWP iPOD APP!! I have no idea if this is possible or not though.
-And finally, an original idea. . .

Okay, I don't really have one. Yet. But there is more to come-and I promise to actually add to the discussion:)

WYSIWYG editor. I wouldn't use it, but I know that other people absolutely would.

And wasn't it in the works anyway?

Small steps. Many of them, and we'll get to the bigger goal.

Actually we've figured out the rich text editor. We're using it on our schools web sites. The PROBLEM is that when you install it, any time you edit an old post, it turns it into a one-graph mash. So that's been the bugaboo.... Solution would be to create a new content type, and only have the WYSIWYG editor only active for it OR archive the old site (this site) and start afresh....or, of course, find a WYSIWYG editor that doesn't do that....

And what we'd like to do is like this that we bumped into on http://onsugar.com This site uses the same CMS that we use -- Drupal -- but it has been drastically altered -- in many good ways. However, altering the core code presents many other problems, so we would hesitate to do a lot of what that site's developers have done. (Content, by the way, does not interest me though I know it interests many others.) But here's what the content form looks like: (What do you think?)

By way, the kind of thing we'd love help with in the YWP 3.0 Project is EXAMPLES of cool sites that are designed well, or that allow you to do cool things you can't here or that are into subjects and projects and multi-media, etc. in ways that we don't do here.... SHOW us examples of what you like, or what you've discovered. Invoke StumbleUpon! Explore!

Do you guys have a sandbox?

I must say before anything else that I am vehemently opposed to the idea of charging for membership on YWP. I have always thought of this site as a place for all young writers, especially kids with limited opportunities because of financial difficulties. Every dollar counts for people in those situations. And when I'm looking at online resources one of the first things that convinces me to look elsewhere for what I need is when there's a price. Too many users will be turned away if there is a membership fee, and that goes against what I believe YWP stands for.

Having said that, I do have one thought I would like to share in the financial sector. There was an idea proposed by, I believe, Geoff Hewitt about having YWPers writing for actual payment, and having a portion of their earnings go to YWP. I've been thinking about this idea, and I like it. Perhaps there could be an Adopt a Young Writer program where bookstores, newspapers, theatres, etc. could actually hire young writers to blog, write reviews, articles, anything, then pay them. (I am currently writing the teen blog for my local library--as a volunteer--including book reviews and articles on events happening at the library, but my idea is something along that line of writing.) YWP can help the young writers to find these opportunities, and maybe help them if there are any editing questions, and in return the writers can donate some of the proceeds to YWP. Maybe the rest of the money can be set aside for college tuition or to pay for writing courses, but that depends on what kids want. Not only will this be beneficial financially, but it will also give kids the experience of working in more professional conditions.

I'm very much for the idea of writing with kids from other areas, either out of state or even internationally. There are so many different projects that could be done, from journalistic articles to stories about different cultures to simply writing about the experience of meeting someone from another part of the world and learning about their life. I know I once read about a site that paired different classrooms to work together, something like that would be perfect.

As to what's happening on other sites, my first response was to look at what Teen Ink is up to. I suggest checking out their site, the set up is pretty interesting the way you can pair graphics with your writing and make it look very professional. Another thing that I find interesting is their interview contest in which kids submit interviews to win a chance to interview a celebrity. Perhaps we could have a similar contest in which kids could win a chance to interview Vermont authors, politicians, or other well-known people, and have the interviews published. These contests could draw the attention of more kids.

And last, I like the idea of having the chance to read work on the radio, another idea I believe was raised during a YWP meeeting. I know there was (is?) a program in which writers had the opportunity to read work on VPR, reviving this project and maybe even expanding it to, if possible, NPR would be fantastic!

That's all...for now.
Cheers~
Muse

I very much like Peaches' randomizer idea. I feel like YWP can sometimes be this closed circle of Writers to Read/ Friends of Writers to Read and then everyone else just hoping that one of them will read your work. I understand that people are more likely to read their friend's work (guilty party myself here), but it's quite disappointing when you put a lot of effort into a piece and nobody even looks at it.
(I'm not trying to blame anyone, I'm just making a point.)
So I think that's a good idea.
I agree with QwertyGirl about paying for events. Not a ton of money, and maybe it could be like an optional donation, but YWP deserves some support for all they do for us.
Customizable blogs... it sounds like so much fun, but would it take away from writing?
I think we should have ways to post blogs anonymously without having to create another profile (guilty again).
I would write more, but midterms (ugh!) are calling. I'l be back, with more...
who.am.i.
who.i.am.
_________
"If you live in the city
And you want it to burn
Because you think nobody could learn
The delicate demons and
Loneliest ways of a heart..."
-The Submarines

So I loveee alot of Calliope's ideas.
YWP already does a great job with providing kids with information and writing oppertunities (Anouncment about the slam in Barre, for example)
But if it had more focused suggestions on how to get talented work and workers out there into the real world, there could be financial, experience-gaining, and life long benifits for the kids.

A Calender page, where everyone can post writing events that are happening by the month, would create a visual for the announcements that are posted.

I love the site threadless.com
It's a place where mainly graphic artists edit their work onto t-shirt templates, and the would-be tee's get rated by other artists, the highest scoring design gets their work made into an actual shirt members can buy.

I like the layout, and the idea of maybe having a section of writing devoted to would-be entries in some sort of future YWP magazine. Pieces could be voted on and the ratings would determine the entires.
maybe this part of the site would have the artist's udentity completely concealed, every piece would be written by XXXXXX until after voting.

I haven't been following this, while I read a few comments at the top, I am overwhelmed by the thought of reading them all. So, please forgive me if I repeat ideas, &c.

Money money money: could we ask for donations from schools who have classes use the site? I'm sure that my school district might possibly hand over a few pennies if they're letting their rabid children run wild over the untamed land... Anyway, I like the idea of bookstores, &c. "hiring" a YA writer for projects like book reviews and the like. However, I'm not sure who would do that. Maybe the stores could put together and sell anthologies of the Writers to Read or each Writer to Read could have their own little pamphlet of works on display for people to buy. Something like that. The WtR would pick the works they want put in and then the funds would be split between the writer and YWP.

Cool, chill, fo'shiz dealios: I don't know if it's that YWP isn't cool or there needs to be something more but, for me, I've almost come to a complete writing stop. I just don't write anymore (at least, not on my own). YWP got so big and when Writers to Read post work, in my experience, people either say "wow" (or some other supportive but ultimately unhelpful comment) or they won't comment at all. And as a writer, that's discouraging. To add to this, while I realize WtR should be illustrating proper commenting and feedback techniques, I hardly have time anymore to type up and post the little work I have, nonetheless make a few comments on other people's blogs. It's an inconvenient truth.

Those are my braindribbles for now. I'm excited to see what YWP becomes.

I like the idea of selling anthologies, but not ONLY of the writers to read. I think we should have a "Monthly Anthology" along with the other prompts. Selections for the Monthly Anthology will be selected the same way as the other prompts. Hope that helps. Haven't really been following that much but would love to help.

My eyes hurt from reading all of these comments--so I've just sorta skimmed through the basics.

-I agree with (I honestly cannot name everyone who mentioned this..) about donations at the different YWP events. That way, it wouldn't obligate people to emptying their wallets, yet it's a form of making money.

-Can't you create Ipod apps on Macs? I don't have a Mac, so I may be wrong...anyone out there with a Mac?

-A benefit concert would be AMAZING. With all the talented musicians here, that would be a piece of cake.

-Chat---is not a good idea. We've already had too many problems on the blogs with unnecessary chatting, so if you let the kids do it, it'll become a chatting site.

-T-shirts would be the best thing ever. You could have a contest for creating the logo too! It would really increase the flow of the artistic juices. (I read that over again..and it sounds really weird)

-Personalization for the blogs would be cool, but to a limit. If people were too tangled into creating the prettiest blog, the purpose of YWP wouldn't stand anymore.

-We should advertise out to the schools. Maybe having seminar-type things at schools? I don't know, that's just an idea. The main thing is, we should make people more aware of this site. I'm sure there are a lot of great writers out there who don't know about YWP.

-I quickly read something about having a YWPer of the month. That would be a cool idea. A lot of great writers who aren't as well-known on the site could be recognized!

-Newspaper would be so much fun and so cool.

That's all I have to say for now. I'm sure I'll be back!

Ok, wow, lots of good ideas here.
I especially like the newspaper idea.
Perhaps we could even get some artists and writers together to make a comic strip for it or something.

I don't think any other ideas presented by myself at this point will be original, though, so... that's all I've got for now.