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The Dome has outgrown its site despite a redesign by MSN using feedback from us... and is far too busy and complex to be run on a completely voluntary basis as an average of 500 messages are posted each week.
Further, as can be seen in the picture above of the current entrance to the msn community, Microsoft has begun to pepper these communities with unwanted advertising at both the home page and individual thread level.
As a consequence, we are now looking for outside funding and assistance to 'move on' to what we now know we need to accomplish the objective of creating a communal online writing venue; referred to as 'Dome II'.
Dome II will grow organically, using the feedback of members and visitors to determine the directions it grows in and will be run by a creative/editorial/business team with Ms Pritchard as Director and a suitably qualified business/financial manager; someone with a proven track record and demonstrated integrity.
Dome 2 is incorporated as a non profit members Co-op, with members each owning a share of the company. Membership will be open to all per Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative Development Agency guidelines. (Click to Review Document.)
The Dome itself will hold information and resources of the widest possible variety for ‘creatives’ within a dramatic and entertaining context; a form of theater, creating the fantasy of being inside a magical, inspiring, witty, exciting club where nurturing, enjoyment, fun, humor and companionship enrich and encompass the learning/information/communication/sales modules that comprise it. This creates an ongoing learning situation where learning becomes a pleasure.
We will create an extendable electronic ‘building’ that holds all of the activities/resources we offer. The Dome will be the ‘nicest, most comfortable, friendly lunatic asylum in the Universe’ where experimentation and individuality are cherished and rewarded.
The Home page will feature a drawing, full of ongoing and changing visual jokes, graphics, animations and suitable music.... of the front of a Domed building,
Each of the main sectors, The Community, The Online Creative Writing School, the Library, and the Writer’s Mall will be within a stylized suite of rooms, gardens, atriums, balconies, courtyards, eventually populated by .animated waiters, tour guides, bartenders, dancers, teachers, members, customers... even little playlets... visual jokes containing useful information. All of the spaces will be designed by the same web artists in coherent and consistent style.
As the Dome develops, video and high tech avatars will become part of the cast of The Dome, acting as guides, teachers and players in interactive dramas/comedies ‘with a teaching or informational subtext, creating place with the sense of reality in a good film or play'.
The Dome will also have dedicated areas for special interest groups, Silver Surfers, children and teens, those with disabilities, physical and psychological, those with social or cultural disadvantages; lack of basic education, those in prison, those with little or poor English. There will not be ‘ghettos’ separating these people from the mainstream, indeed, everyone will be encouraged to visit to work in as many parts of The Dome as possible.
These sections will have ‘added value’ bolt on resources for those who need them and create a central meeting place where they can exercise a high a degree of autonomy, deciding on content, structure, setting up their own projects, acting as a ‘think tank’ in the evolution of their territory. Backed up by management and specialist staff..
Members of these sections will be urged to become ‘management’ as soon as feasible, both of their own sections and of The Dome itself.
The Dome even now also functions as an online magazine of work in progress and an experimental lab for R&D in cyber literary arts. In Dome 2, these will be extended and given specially designed facilities.
The Dome 2 will be a genuinely virtual company with no premises or offices. Everyone will work from home/wherever using telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, or video conferencing to communicate.
The Dome will be advised by a Council of Experts (unpaid) invited on the basis of their qualifications and their ability to assist in raising the funds needed to perpetuate activities. This Council will meet regularly every month (virutually) as well as when needed based on the Managing Director's determinations. Aditionally there will be an Editorial Board (unpaid) who will review work in process of being published by the Dome.
Every three months, staff will be invited to a weekend at a conference center or hotel for training, networking, brainstorming and socializing. In the two other months per quarter, staff will attend a one day meeting to address current businees and artistic issues or hold a minuted meeting using chatroom facilities. Once a year, we will do the same over a longer weekend.
Some posts, Managing Director, Business Manager, will eventually be full time; all others will be part time and project based. We hope to offer well paid, flexible work for writers/artists/musicians in which their online teaching can be fitted around personal and professional commitments.
Two ad hoc weekends have already been held and were a great success in the opinion of all.
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