So: let me show you some decisions we made that were different form CMS’s and Blogs and all that. (Oh, these screenshots represent a moment in time; things will look differently when we launch.)
I remember a long time ago reading about the New Yorker’s slushpile. This is a place where they put all the unsolicited manuscripts, and then once and while they’d send an intern in to dig through them and find the next John Updike. Well, in PS we made the slushpile public, and now teh audience can not only see an easy path to write for a given magazine, but they can also comment on ideas and rate them. This saves editors a lot fo time, and keeps them in touch wiht the reader base.
What’s nice about ratings and comments, is that sometimes a contraversial story idea will look lackluster in the ratings, because the positives and negatives cancel eachother out. But if you see a ton of comments on an idea, you the editor know to take a closer look. Contraversy is good for communities, and good for magazine sales/pageviews.
BTW, I’m declaring a spell-check free zone while I’m trying to get these concepts out of my head. Just letting you know.
Our dashboard is designed for the editorial staff: its designed to tell you where all the stories are in the process, and if there is anything you have to attend to. Too many dashboards just give you some navigation you have anyhow in the tabs– what’s the point? Except they don’t know what to put on this page.
Note also the status messsages are not just custom to the publication; they are free-form text. Use them as you need, then color them red, yellow or green ( I think most folks know what those colors are all about!)
Okay, more in a bit….