[LAD] RFP: Channel Linux - BETA

Hi,

Some of you might be interested in my new project. It's been a few years
in the making

              http://channellinux.com

We have big plans for this new project. Please let me know if you come
across anything that you think would be interesting for the viewing
audience and please link to the site everywhere you have an opportunity.
If you help me to grow the traffic and keep the content coming it will pay
back to the community tenfold.

Please refrain from replying to this post with content links or feedback
on the site. I'm sure everyone knows my position by now so I will refrain
from commenting on replies to this post too :-)

TECHNICAL

I have created two separate threads for this on each list so if people
want to navel gaze and politic, please refrain from doing that on LAD ;-)

The site is designed to work on all screen sizes but has only been tested
on Firefox and Chrome. I am not interested in testing on other browsers.
The ones that don't work are either broken or do not have a large enough
user base to justify my time.

I am interested in results on small screen mobile devices. Not because I
don't know what will happen but because I would like to hear some more
ideas for how to tweak the layout to work more effectively. If you have
any ideas for that please reply to this thread ON LAD ONLY or send me a
direct email.

Ideas for UX improvements on usability or additional media types like
livecast, radio and audio streaming will also be very helpful. As above
please send me a separate email or eply to this thread ON LAD ONLY. I know
some of you on this list have many years of experience in the industry so
your ideas will be taken seriously and implemented with gusto.

Due to the "BETA" mode this is not a finished product. I am posting here
as a preliminary announcement to get some usability testing and feedback
results from a wider pool of knowledgable technical users. At a later date
I will push for an official release announcement.

ADVERTISING

The long term plan for this project is to generate income from advertising
just like a regular TV/Radio station and feed that back to the community
by paying people to create content. During the Beta period I am offering
free advertising to interested companies to allow me to test and iron out
the usability for a new format of internet advertising across multiple
devices. This is still fresh ground so no one has really nailed it yet.

I have several companies already participating but I am still working out
the display mechanism for the various ads that have been provided to me
across all devices and screen sizes.

If you have thoughts on ways to achieve this please reply to this thread
ON LAD ONLY

BACKGROUND

Linux Audio and Multimedia has a large and thriving community of
developers, creators, artists and users. FLOSS and GNU/Linux has an even
larger global community of people who are passionate about their OS of
choice and wear the badge of FLOSS and GNU/Linux proudly whenever they
have the chance. One thing has been missing. A dedicated Channel for all
things Linux Multimedia. Sure, there are lots of news sites out there and
many communities and people that produce digital content but no one has
really taken on the task of collating all the various media spread out
across the internet into a one stop and easy access portal.

But why stop there?

GNU/Linux is the dominant operating system on the planet and enables or
creates billions of dollars in revenue for some of the largest companies
on the planet. As a global community we effectively power the internet,
create the worlds best movies, participate in and drive scientific
progress at the highest level, power the next generation of green
technology, send rockets into space, enable governments to operate
efficiently and even feed and power the world.

Why not take things to the next level and create a truly cross device
experience for mobile, desktop and TV? We have the knowledge to make it
happen.

However there is also a problem facing the global pool of artists and
developers who dedicate their time to FLOSS multimedia. We don't get the
kind of financial support that we deserve for all our efforts. The big
companies barely spend a fraction of their wealth on supporting and
growing the FLOSS multimedia tools that enable us to entertain the world.
What can we do about that? We don't have to sit here crying into our milk.
We can generate our own income and feed that back into the community by
promoting and marketing to the global community of people interested in
FLOSS and GNU/Linux. It doesn't mean we have sold out. It just means we
are using what we have got to make things better.

Channel Linux is in Beta mode and it might stay like that for some time.
The first step is growing the traffic to the site. The next step is taking
that traffic and making it work for us. Companies are prepared to pay
serious cash if they have a guaranteed way to reach their target market.

So what does it all mean? We need content, lots of it. We need
constructive feedback and suggestions for making the site really hit the
sweet spot of usability and entertainment. And we need your links, tweets,
facebook likes and passionate evangelism to help us grow the traffic to
the kind of numbers that companies with serious cash are prepared to spend
their money on.

We have the capacity if we choose to use it. I hope you are prepared for
the ride :-)

--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Digital / Boost Hardware Ltd
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