Free site design offer to Edward De Bono, Part 3

Corbett | January 23, 2004 1:39 AM

Dear Mr. De Bono,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Regarding your website issue, here's how I am approaching this problem. I am approaching it laterally. Just as if approaching a problem with the De Bono method. Since websites are social communication phenomena, I have contacted several key "proponents" in the weblog (personal web log) community to open this problem up to them...

This includes designers, investors, social philosophers, web architects, writers, and professors. All of them are familiar with Edward's work, and respect him greatly. They are all deeply involved in some way or another in expanding the network of a personal web community, and together we will come up with a detailed list of improvements for the site.

The reason I picked this direction is because I feel, after reading his works and biography, that Edward's work is of a personal nature. He is personally involved in many aspects of the development of his methods, personally flies across the world, and empowers people he personally meets to expand his ideas. They are his ideas, and he enjoys communicating them to others in a personal way. He is engaging, and people remember him for this.

Therefore I feel his website should be a form of open communication between himself and the people interested in him. It would naturally include his information, how to contact him, his ideas, his work, his archives, etc., essentially unchanged from your current "site map," but the presentation and interactive layer would allow a community to form around it which is greater than the parts of the whole.

People should be able to meet other like minded people through Edward's site, projects should be discussed, and ideas should be shared. As the community grows, they should be easily informed of any updates to the site through a simple form of syndication such as RSS, which allows people to "subscribe" to your site and share the updates on your site immediately with their own intra-personal web networks.

A web site built like this accomplishes two important things: First, it builds readership through participation, and secondly, it promotes itself through the best possible mechanism, word of mouth. (In web language, this would be hyperlinks).

Also, the content on the website needs to be easy to maintain. Customization and updates should be effortless. Incorporating multimedia elements should be simple and transparent as well. For this reason, I suggest using an amazing piece of social software called Movable Type as the back end content management system. More importantly, it is made available for hardly any cost, and encourages people to evolve the space of personal communication and development through it's use.

Therefore I have approached some "proponents" in this community to ask for their support, suggestions, and help. Rather than just designing a site for Edward, I hope to further expand his social contribution and public awareness, even through the act of defining the elements necessary to make the site better.

This is what I mean when I say I am approaching this project "laterally".

Best regards,

Corbett Wall

Category: Ramble