January news from the engine room
Hello there, fellow wikiloopers!
It is one month after christmas today, and I don't know about you, but time seems to be passing quite quickly here at the engine room of wikiloops.
Let me give you a brief update on what has been in the works lately, and include some links and insights for those of you who care to dig a little deeper.
One major task at the beginning of any new year on the 'loops is to present the traditional [b]annual transparency report[/b] about the wikiloops projects gains and efforts.
Before that can be done, all accounting tasks need to be finished, and a lot of statistical evaluation has to take place to extract the data.
To say the least, you really need to feel some kind of love for numbers to enjoy such a job, but many times the results which can be gathered can give you a different perspective once they can be presented in a halfways decent way.
After spending more than a week with those preparations, the report was made available to the public in the wikiloops forum.
For those who may have missed it and who would like to take a look, you can open the .pdf report by clicking on the following link: https://www.wikiloops.com/forum/attachments/wikiloops_2016_public_report_1.pdf
It does include quite a lot of graphs which all show quite steep growth curves once again, some fun insights like [i]"we created more than 16 years of non-stop-human-fun in 2016"[/i],
but also some numbers which indicate that -even tho we set another record with 619 donating individuals in 2016- wikiloops is still quite far from the desireable conclusion of:
[i]"This project is a self-fuelling thing that can grow on forever"[/i].
Those who are familiar with previous years reports and the way we have been operating wikiloops will know that this really is nothing new, and that we obviously managed to continue the project anyways - thanks again to all of you who were and are part of this economic paradox :)
[i]"Playing it fair & transparent"[/i] and [i]"involving the community before considering any major changes"[/i] have been the keys in creating and operating wikiloops, and I must say I'm quite proud of having a forum full of actual proof of these concepts being more than just fancy slogans.
I believe I said it in a similar way at the end of the wikiloops member meeting 2016 (that's in the youtube-film, too):
[i]"wikiloops is great because of the many people who got involved and contributed a little something, it is not the work of a single guy, but a true community effort."[/i]
Sticking to these ideals, we have prepared an eleven-question-poll to ask you about your idea of what is fair, and to find out which aspects of wikiloops are the most valuable to you.
Why are we wondering about that?
Because -after looking at the 2016 report and the result of the funding campaign for 2017- quite a number of members expressed the thought that we'd better start to prepare some Plan B for wikiloops, which would provide a stronger safety net for the project, and oops, there we need your feedback!
It would be easy to come up with a Plan B, but the "for wikiloops" part is rather difficult once you start to think about it.
If you would end up thinking [i]"Yes, that's maybe a great way to operate a website, but it has nothing to do with the wikiloops I liked any longer"[/i], then I'd say we made a big mistake there, so this is why you are invited to take part in the 2017 members poll, which can find here:
https://www.wikiloops.com/member_poll_2017.php if you like :)
Before I end with the traditional stats of the day, I would like to explicitly thank those users who have once more spend a lot of time thinking and exchanging thought with me in the past four weeks, we all wrote another book of communications in the effort to keep wikiloops around, and having people like you out there means a lot to me, it is what makes wikiloops be wikiloops.
Thanks for the read!
Richard Kaiser a.k.a. Dick
stats of today:
75.364 tracks online
45.865 members registerred
2.088 active uploaders
364 members in supporting member status
It is one month after christmas today, and I don't know about you, but time seems to be passing quite quickly here at the engine room of wikiloops.
Let me give you a brief update on what has been in the works lately, and include some links and insights for those of you who care to dig a little deeper.
One major task at the beginning of any new year on the 'loops is to present the traditional [b]annual transparency report[/b] about the wikiloops projects gains and efforts.
Before that can be done, all accounting tasks need to be finished, and a lot of statistical evaluation has to take place to extract the data.
To say the least, you really need to feel some kind of love for numbers to enjoy such a job, but many times the results which can be gathered can give you a different perspective once they can be presented in a halfways decent way.
After spending more than a week with those preparations, the report was made available to the public in the wikiloops forum.
For those who may have missed it and who would like to take a look, you can open the .pdf report by clicking on the following link: https://www.wikiloops.com/forum/attachments/wikiloops_2016_public_report_1.pdf
It does include quite a lot of graphs which all show quite steep growth curves once again, some fun insights like [i]"we created more than 16 years of non-stop-human-fun in 2016"[/i],
but also some numbers which indicate that -even tho we set another record with 619 donating individuals in 2016- wikiloops is still quite far from the desireable conclusion of:
[i]"This project is a self-fuelling thing that can grow on forever"[/i].
Those who are familiar with previous years reports and the way we have been operating wikiloops will know that this really is nothing new, and that we obviously managed to continue the project anyways - thanks again to all of you who were and are part of this economic paradox :)
[i]"Playing it fair & transparent"[/i] and [i]"involving the community before considering any major changes"[/i] have been the keys in creating and operating wikiloops, and I must say I'm quite proud of having a forum full of actual proof of these concepts being more than just fancy slogans.
I believe I said it in a similar way at the end of the wikiloops member meeting 2016 (that's in the youtube-film, too):
[i]"wikiloops is great because of the many people who got involved and contributed a little something, it is not the work of a single guy, but a true community effort."[/i]
Sticking to these ideals, we have prepared an eleven-question-poll to ask you about your idea of what is fair, and to find out which aspects of wikiloops are the most valuable to you.
Why are we wondering about that?
Because -after looking at the 2016 report and the result of the funding campaign for 2017- quite a number of members expressed the thought that we'd better start to prepare some Plan B for wikiloops, which would provide a stronger safety net for the project, and oops, there we need your feedback!
It would be easy to come up with a Plan B, but the "for wikiloops" part is rather difficult once you start to think about it.
If you would end up thinking [i]"Yes, that's maybe a great way to operate a website, but it has nothing to do with the wikiloops I liked any longer"[/i], then I'd say we made a big mistake there, so this is why you are invited to take part in the 2017 members poll, which can find here:
https://www.wikiloops.com/member_poll_2017.php if you like :)
Before I end with the traditional stats of the day, I would like to explicitly thank those users who have once more spend a lot of time thinking and exchanging thought with me in the past four weeks, we all wrote another book of communications in the effort to keep wikiloops around, and having people like you out there means a lot to me, it is what makes wikiloops be wikiloops.
Thanks for the read!
Richard Kaiser a.k.a. Dick
stats of today:
75.364 tracks online
45.865 members registerred
2.088 active uploaders
364 members in supporting member status
gwailoah
Trying to juggle community expectations with financial realities is hard. And it is Very clear that more money has to come in for the project to survive and grow. Not sure if you have a management team or if it is all you doing all the work. Maybe devolve and strategise fund raising to a dedicated finances manager rather than be all on you all the time? Just trying to be constructive here :) I will do the survey soon, and add further thoughts I hope might prove worth considering. It is an amazing project you have here, and something will get figured out to keep it going. More sponsors!!
+3
1 gennaio 1970 alle ore 01:00
Dick
Thanks for your feedback! A "dedicated finances manager" would be a dream to have indeed, sadly, nobody volunteered to take that job so far :)
Most of the sponsoring/advertising contacts and fundraising activities rest with me, while there is a group of helpers. One of those friendly people took the effort to contact all kinds of cultural or international-relationship related foundations to seek support for wikiloops (thanks again for that), but most of those old established foundations do not have programms to support "merely" virtual online projects.
We probably need some kind of professional online marketing shark with the right contacts to open the right doors.
"Something will get figured out" - I do believe that, too. +1
Most of the sponsoring/advertising contacts and fundraising activities rest with me, while there is a group of helpers. One of those friendly people took the effort to contact all kinds of cultural or international-relationship related foundations to seek support for wikiloops (thanks again for that), but most of those old established foundations do not have programms to support "merely" virtual online projects.
We probably need some kind of professional online marketing shark with the right contacts to open the right doors.
"Something will get figured out" - I do believe that, too. +1
Lysbleu
If you are interested, here is my opinion of Wikiloops.
It's a real revolution.
This is the kind of site that was expected. I am amazed at two things mainly. First, the level of talent that is found there. Second, the relatively high age of participants. This is understandable when you think about it because there are many people in retirement. So, who have time (and money for most).
Also, I was not hot at the idea that we could make groups and sessions in private. But I must admit that personally I find the results more satisfactory.
In fact, I do not have any prejudices of it anymore.
Yes, times are hard economically for everyone (or almost). But this site seems to me too good to disappear from now on. At least if something better appears. Maybe the next step is the video swap when the super fast machines are very distributed. But I do not really see the point. +0
It's a real revolution.
This is the kind of site that was expected. I am amazed at two things mainly. First, the level of talent that is found there. Second, the relatively high age of participants. This is understandable when you think about it because there are many people in retirement. So, who have time (and money for most).
Also, I was not hot at the idea that we could make groups and sessions in private. But I must admit that personally I find the results more satisfactory.
In fact, I do not have any prejudices of it anymore.
Yes, times are hard economically for everyone (or almost). But this site seems to me too good to disappear from now on. At least if something better appears. Maybe the next step is the video swap when the super fast machines are very distributed. But I do not really see the point. +0
eGiL
Out of curiosity, the hardware wikiloops run on, is it located locally within your grasp Richard? Or is it remotely hosted? The reason i'm asking is that i am working for a server distributor and might be able to help out with some sponsored hardware :)
+0
1 gennaio 1970 alle ore 01:00
Dick
Hey eGil, the servers are all remote, the bandwidth available in my 1000 souls hometown would not allow to set up local servers :)
wikiloops is currently set up using two virtual servers located somewhere close to berlin, germany, while the static content (mp3s, images etc) are served thru a cloud network with 12 server locations spread all over the globe. These cloud servers are actually the costly part, but surfing wikilops from australia, brasil or the american east coast really would be no fun without them. +1
wikiloops is currently set up using two virtual servers located somewhere close to berlin, germany, while the static content (mp3s, images etc) are served thru a cloud network with 12 server locations spread all over the globe. These cloud servers are actually the costly part, but surfing wikilops from australia, brasil or the american east coast really would be no fun without them. +1
1 gennaio 1970 alle ore 01:00
eGiL
Ok, thanks for the clarification, i will still make a case about some sort of sponsorship at work :)
+1
GBD
I use wikiloops a little different from the survey. The only time I down load is if I plan to record and upload.
I spend most of the time jamming with my Play List this can be hours. Question dose this use more server resources ? should I down load the tracks to jam with them ? +0
I spend most of the time jamming with my Play List this can be hours. Question dose this use more server resources ? should I down load the tracks to jam with them ? +0
1 gennaio 1970 alle ore 01:00
Dick
Hey GBD,
the answer to that questions depends a bit on your browser settings and the maximum size of your browser cache. If you listen to a playlist of say 10 tracks over and over again, these tracks will be cached ( =stored temporaryly) in your browser for some time, so no additional traffic will need to happen.
It is nice of you to consider changing your preferred way of using wikiloops to make sure you are not creating unnecessary budget needs, but the amount of money that would be saved this way would probably have to be priced in milli-cent - as the transparency report shows, the actual streaming cost is a rather small part of the budget, so -even tho it's a nice intention- I would not say that this would be a way to change the situation significantly.
I am like you aware that downloading tracks is not really necessary to enjoy the 'loops, and even when creating remixes, I tended to rather record the browsers audio than downloading and importing a track, but when setting up the survey I analyzed what the average Joe seemed to be doing on wikiloops and developed the catalog of questions based on the interests and verifyable motivations to sign up.
Getting downloads seems the main interest of a very large group of people, that's why one focus is on this aspect. +1
the answer to that questions depends a bit on your browser settings and the maximum size of your browser cache. If you listen to a playlist of say 10 tracks over and over again, these tracks will be cached ( =stored temporaryly) in your browser for some time, so no additional traffic will need to happen.
It is nice of you to consider changing your preferred way of using wikiloops to make sure you are not creating unnecessary budget needs, but the amount of money that would be saved this way would probably have to be priced in milli-cent - as the transparency report shows, the actual streaming cost is a rather small part of the budget, so -even tho it's a nice intention- I would not say that this would be a way to change the situation significantly.
I am like you aware that downloading tracks is not really necessary to enjoy the 'loops, and even when creating remixes, I tended to rather record the browsers audio than downloading and importing a track, but when setting up the survey I analyzed what the average Joe seemed to be doing on wikiloops and developed the catalog of questions based on the interests and verifyable motivations to sign up.
Getting downloads seems the main interest of a very large group of people, that's why one focus is on this aspect. +1
wikiloops online jamsessions are brought to you with friendly
support by:
I´m not a very good guitarist but this site is awesome. Will keep on supporting :-) Greetings from Germany :-)
Chuck Stew