[sword-devel] Presentable portfolio

[DM Smith]

On Dec 31, 2008, at 11:31 AM, Peter von Kaehne wrote:

> Sorry this section got lost in my last email.
>
> I am thinking after some discussion with Troy last night we would
> benefit from having a shorter list of presentable portfolio of stuff  
> we
> do. At the moment the closest we have to this is
> www.crosswire.org/applications.jsp
>
> The difficulty is that a lot is in flux right now - more than any time
> since I joined CW.
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts here?
>
> There is obviously the old list of the "Big Five" - BibleCS, BD, GS,  
> MS
> and BT, which in justice needs to be augmented to 6 or 7 with BpB and
> AlKitab.
>
> There is Swordweb which can not be seen as a consumer frontend, but is
> hugely important in its own right, now maybe getting a competitor in  
> gsword.
>
> There is stuff like FireBible - quirky and not easily captured under  
> the
> heading frontend and then GoBible which is not really grown on our
> fields but has joined the fold, Sword reader, etc.
>
> What is it that you show to people when you try and get them to give  
> us
> their texts?
>
> What do you want to show to people when you try and make them  
> understand
> wat we are about?
>
> Should we have a two tier system of front ends listed? I am thinking
> loud here, but would like to have comments.


I agree with Troy that the http://www.crosswire.org is our first  
impression and needs to be a great one. I think that much of what you  
have done has moved that direction.

I think that our audience is multi-faceted:
(IMHO)
- Our biggest target audience is the front-end user.
- Our core audience is volunteers and developers.
- Our service and collaboration audience are Bible Societies, Outreach  
Ministries and Publishers.

I think the front page should list the "Big Five" applications. And I  
think that they should be listed according to OS penetration: Windows,  
Mac, Linux. So I'd suggest mentioning them in the following order:  
BibleCS, BD, MacSword,  GnomeSword and BibleTime (though the order of  
the last two can be flipped.) When GS and BT are "native" Windows  
apps, I'd move them up.

At some point Alkitab should be added, too. It is a great app.

I'd also suggest that the title banner have miniature platform icons  
after the app name. And the text for cross-platform applications  
should list the platforms on which it runs.

So, yes, I'd suggest a two-tiered approach: an initial first page  
listing and what you have for the break out by platform.

In Him,
	DM