Further Discussion of the Creative Jam
Folks seem to like the idea of hosting a creative jam where everyone can play and anything goes in terms of medium. (This discussion also has a version on Dreamwidth.) Let's discuss some further parameters.
Each session will have a theme of some kind so as to give people a starting point. Themes are being collected on the original post. You can suggest a favorite cause, something that's underserved by the mainstream, something you think will have widespread appeal, quirky concepts, whatever you want. There will be a theme poll on Monday. Currently my plan is to offer a question with checkboxes (mark all the ones you would participate in) and a question with radioboxes (mark the theme you'd like to feature first).
We need to decide some aspects of timing:
* How often should the creative jam happen? stryck suggests once a month.
* When should sessions happen? I suggested the last day of each month as a possibility, which gives different days of the week and doesn't conflict with an established project. Conversely, we might consider picking a Monday or Tuesday, which tend to be high-traffic days for blogging, the way the Poetry Fishbowl is typically on the first Tuesday of each month.
* How long should each session run? stryck suggests a 24-hour period from noon to noon, similar to Sketch Fest. Torn World's Muse Fusion has a weekend span.
Ideally, we'll reach parameters for timing that maximize the number of people who can participate, both as prompters and as creators. Nobody is expected to participate in every session; you can pick and choose based on your interest in the themes and/or your schedule availability. The goal is to attract a large enough pool of people that we can cycle through different folks over time and still have a good level of activity each session.
Since this community is all about crowdfunding, we should cover that too. Probably some creators will want to post a free sample, so that the audience has something to enjoy. Likewise many creators will want to make some items available for sponsorship in various ways. (If you don't want to post a whole item for free, consider an excerpt such as the beginning of a story or detail of a picture.) Do we want those posted in comments/replies under the jam session post, as new posts within the community, as new posts on the creator's site, etc.? If items are posted elsewhere, they should at least be linked from comments/replies under the jam session post so that they're easier to find.
Another crowdfunding aspect is that there are lots of established projects with unique characters, settings, etc. Some of those have relatively open participation (like the shared-world Torn World) while others are the work of one person. If creators want to do something from one of their own settings, or prompters want to request something from a favorite project, those are welcome along with new or one-shot items. The Muse Fusion has a rule that prompters aren't allowed to request a specific creator for their prompts. Do we want to instate that rule for our creative jam too?
Most projects have perks, sometimes different ones for individual supporters vs. collective audience. Some creators will probably use their favorite perks. Do we want to consider some kind of collective perk, maybe based on activity level -- number of creators participating, number of prompters participating, number of items posted, etc.?
A followup post after each session would be helpful, though it's not required. Those take some work to compile, but they make it easier to track progress and look at all the goodies. If someone would like to volunteer for this, please speak up. I may not have time for it myself.
What do we want to call this? I used "panjam" and "creative jam" in my original post. "Crowdfunding Creative Jam" would be a little more specific to the community. Other suggestions are also welcome.
Do we want an icon to advertise the project? Both the Poetry Fishbowl and Muse Fusion have session icons, and the Crowdfunding community has a variety of "Crowdfunding" icons. Once we've picked a name, artists and other icon makers could devise some possibilities that people could use, and we could vote on an "official" one.
If you have other ideas, suggestions, questions, etc. then please speak up. In particular, think of the projects you host and/or support, to see if they do things that might be helpful here.
POLL QUESTIONS
What should this project be called?
- Crowdfunding Creative Jam
- Creative Jam
- PanJam
Which of the 15 themes would you participate in? (checkboxes)
Which theme do you most want to do first? (radiobuttons)
How long should each session run?
- 24 hours, from noon to noon
- 48 hours
- weekend, Friday night to Monday morning
When should each session run?
- last day(s) or weekend of the month
- third Monday or weekend of the month
- some other time, consistent each month
- some other time, flexible each month
Working from prompts, should creators be REQUIRED to post at least an excerpt free?
- Yes
- No
Working from prompts, should creators be REQUIRED to share the resulting material with the prompter?
- Yes
- No
Where should creative material resulting from prompts appear?
- Entire content pasted directly into a reply to the prompt under the main post.
- Only an excerpt in a reply to the prompt, linking to full content elsewhere on Crowdfunding.
- Only an excerpt in a reply to the prompt, linking to full content elsewhere on creator's site.
- Separate message on Crowdfunding, linked in reply to prompt (no excerpt).
- Separate message on creator's site, linked in reply to prompt (no excerpt).
Should there be a time limit for creating work based on a claimed prompt?
- No, creativity takes however long it takes.
- Yes, one hour.
- Yes, one day.
- Yes, one week.
- Yes, some other timeframe.
May creators treat someone else's prompt response as a new prompt (i.e. sketch inspiring story)?
- Yes
- No
May prompters request a specific creator?
- No, all prompts must be general enough for any creator to use anywhere.
- Yes, but everyone else may still use that prompt if they wish.
- Yes, and only the named person may claim that prompt to post resulting material.
May prompts specify a particular character, world, etc.?
- No, all prompts must be general enough for any creator to use anywhere.
- Yes, but creators may use the prompt for something else anyway and post resulting material.
- Yes, and creators must use the particulars specified in order to post resulting material.
- Only for characters/worlds/etc. whose original creators explicitly give permission.
How many people may make use of the same prompt?
- Only the first creator to claim the prompt, for maximum spread of creators over prompts.
- Everyone who wants to use it, for maximum flexibility of creator choice in inspiration.
Each session will have a theme of some kind so as to give people a starting point. Themes are being collected on the original post. You can suggest a favorite cause, something that's underserved by the mainstream, something you think will have widespread appeal, quirky concepts, whatever you want. There will be a theme poll on Monday. Currently my plan is to offer a question with checkboxes (mark all the ones you would participate in) and a question with radioboxes (mark the theme you'd like to feature first).
We need to decide some aspects of timing:
* How often should the creative jam happen? stryck suggests once a month.
* When should sessions happen? I suggested the last day of each month as a possibility, which gives different days of the week and doesn't conflict with an established project. Conversely, we might consider picking a Monday or Tuesday, which tend to be high-traffic days for blogging, the way the Poetry Fishbowl is typically on the first Tuesday of each month.
* How long should each session run? stryck suggests a 24-hour period from noon to noon, similar to Sketch Fest. Torn World's Muse Fusion has a weekend span.
Ideally, we'll reach parameters for timing that maximize the number of people who can participate, both as prompters and as creators. Nobody is expected to participate in every session; you can pick and choose based on your interest in the themes and/or your schedule availability. The goal is to attract a large enough pool of people that we can cycle through different folks over time and still have a good level of activity each session.
Since this community is all about crowdfunding, we should cover that too. Probably some creators will want to post a free sample, so that the audience has something to enjoy. Likewise many creators will want to make some items available for sponsorship in various ways. (If you don't want to post a whole item for free, consider an excerpt such as the beginning of a story or detail of a picture.) Do we want those posted in comments/replies under the jam session post, as new posts within the community, as new posts on the creator's site, etc.? If items are posted elsewhere, they should at least be linked from comments/replies under the jam session post so that they're easier to find.
Another crowdfunding aspect is that there are lots of established projects with unique characters, settings, etc. Some of those have relatively open participation (like the shared-world Torn World) while others are the work of one person. If creators want to do something from one of their own settings, or prompters want to request something from a favorite project, those are welcome along with new or one-shot items. The Muse Fusion has a rule that prompters aren't allowed to request a specific creator for their prompts. Do we want to instate that rule for our creative jam too?
Most projects have perks, sometimes different ones for individual supporters vs. collective audience. Some creators will probably use their favorite perks. Do we want to consider some kind of collective perk, maybe based on activity level -- number of creators participating, number of prompters participating, number of items posted, etc.?
A followup post after each session would be helpful, though it's not required. Those take some work to compile, but they make it easier to track progress and look at all the goodies. If someone would like to volunteer for this, please speak up. I may not have time for it myself.
What do we want to call this? I used "panjam" and "creative jam" in my original post. "Crowdfunding Creative Jam" would be a little more specific to the community. Other suggestions are also welcome.
Do we want an icon to advertise the project? Both the Poetry Fishbowl and Muse Fusion have session icons, and the Crowdfunding community has a variety of "Crowdfunding" icons. Once we've picked a name, artists and other icon makers could devise some possibilities that people could use, and we could vote on an "official" one.
If you have other ideas, suggestions, questions, etc. then please speak up. In particular, think of the projects you host and/or support, to see if they do things that might be helpful here.
POLL QUESTIONS
What should this project be called?
- Crowdfunding Creative Jam
- Creative Jam
- PanJam
Which of the 15 themes would you participate in? (checkboxes)
Which theme do you most want to do first? (radiobuttons)
How long should each session run?
- 24 hours, from noon to noon
- 48 hours
- weekend, Friday night to Monday morning
When should each session run?
- last day(s) or weekend of the month
- third Monday or weekend of the month
- some other time, consistent each month
- some other time, flexible each month
Working from prompts, should creators be REQUIRED to post at least an excerpt free?
- Yes
- No
Working from prompts, should creators be REQUIRED to share the resulting material with the prompter?
- Yes
- No
Where should creative material resulting from prompts appear?
- Entire content pasted directly into a reply to the prompt under the main post.
- Only an excerpt in a reply to the prompt, linking to full content elsewhere on Crowdfunding.
- Only an excerpt in a reply to the prompt, linking to full content elsewhere on creator's site.
- Separate message on Crowdfunding, linked in reply to prompt (no excerpt).
- Separate message on creator's site, linked in reply to prompt (no excerpt).
Should there be a time limit for creating work based on a claimed prompt?
- No, creativity takes however long it takes.
- Yes, one hour.
- Yes, one day.
- Yes, one week.
- Yes, some other timeframe.
May creators treat someone else's prompt response as a new prompt (i.e. sketch inspiring story)?
- Yes
- No
May prompters request a specific creator?
- No, all prompts must be general enough for any creator to use anywhere.
- Yes, but everyone else may still use that prompt if they wish.
- Yes, and only the named person may claim that prompt to post resulting material.
May prompts specify a particular character, world, etc.?
- No, all prompts must be general enough for any creator to use anywhere.
- Yes, but creators may use the prompt for something else anyway and post resulting material.
- Yes, and creators must use the particulars specified in order to post resulting material.
- Only for characters/worlds/etc. whose original creators explicitly give permission.
How many people may make use of the same prompt?
- Only the first creator to claim the prompt, for maximum spread of creators over prompts.
- Everyone who wants to use it, for maximum flexibility of creator choice in inspiration.