Software Recommendations

[dave]

I have taken on a voluntary project with my local cricket club to transfer a book that has been written about the club onto their website. The book isn't 100% completed and our plan is to release small sections onto the website (e.g. season 1980/81) so that we can then prompt a conversation with existing members to fill in the blanks by leaving comments.

My initial thought is to just use WordPress on a subdomain but I thought I would throw it out there to see if you guys knew of any better software (such as a wiki) to use.

I used to be so on top of the software packages available for different tasks but like many have now become very dependent upon WordPress due to its simplicity.

Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts on the matter. Hopefully you have enough information to go by, if not please let me know.

 

[chris]

Hi dave, personally I think WordPress is a good option for this.

There are quite a few Wiki and Knowledgebase themes that might make WordPress more wiki-like if that's what your after. There are both free and paid options, like this for example http://www.woothemes.com/2011/11/wikeasi/.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[dave]

Thanks Chris, you pretty much confirmed my thoughts.

The more I think about it the less enthusiastic I am about usinga wiki. Allowing people to edit the main body of the story will somehow take away from the voice of the original author. The ability to leave comments will just add extra snippets and authenticity to the whole project.

 

[findtim]

not really sure what the END result is, a printed book? , an ebook? , a website FULL of info that can't be tampered with like a wiki?

WPMU sounds to me like a good idea, wouldn't this allow past members to create there own profiles and interact with others and "nut out" stories of past golden days.

also they will be incontrol of their "original" version of the story.

tim

------------

now the story

i remember a significant story from when i was 6yrs old, it was a conversation on the phone i had with my aunty, when i was 34 i told her this story and she said it never happened, there were KEY points in the story so theres no mistake of the day, ? who is right ? i think if you get some interaction for past members you will get some great stories BUT also you will get replies that start as " THATS NOT the way i saw it......"

and thats GOLD.

tim

---------

 

[dave]

The end result was always going to be a printed book, but the years keep passing by and we have decided that we just need to get it out there for everybody to look at and enjoy. I would like to think that eventually we can recompile everything and make an e-book (possibly printed) but knowing voluntary organisations I'm pretty sure it will never get further than the website.

 

[johno69]

My mate runs http://www.timebombebooks.com/ if you need help with that side of it.

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

I agree with Chris, Wordpress is the way to go. We run our telecommunications website www.tcpcode.com.au where we sell compliance manuals and checklists, all through Wordpress with electronic downloads, works a treat!

 

[findtim]

unless you are going to write the next harry potter i think ebook is the only way to go.

tim

 

[James]

unless you are going to write the next harry potter i think ebook is the only way to go.

tim

Why not do both but,

You have the content first on your site, you keep the users sticky on the website by bringing out new content each week. Keep them coming back for more, then you supplement this with an ebook where you have links in the ebook back to the website, this acts as an easy link building method as you can entice the users to upload the content i.e been the ebook to their own blogs and what not.

Just an idea.

 

[findtim]

good idea but i'm guessing dave doesn't want that much effort as its a "love job"

tim

 

[dave]

My mate runs http://www.timebombebooks.com/ if you need help with that side of it.

That looks very handy, thanks for the reference.

 

[dave]

good idea but i'm guessing dave doesn't want that much effort as its a "love job"

tim

This is definitely a small-time project and the real hard work has been done by the club member who has been writing the book for years and years. I just wanted to throw it out there to see if there were any useful tools/software out there that I wasn't aware of.