We often do demonstrations at conferences we go to, and if we're near you in person we'd probably be happy to do a demo with you too.
Show adding or at least viewing/editing an existing card, and how editing something in one place results in change elsewhere. Then go through these, eventually showing how that was Wagneered:
Whenever compound names come up, explain them as necessary.
(Also see Geek Intro Slide, Ethan's more recent slide show.)
Here are notes from some demonstrations we've done:
2009:
Wagn ran the conference wiki — http://2009rcc.org/
Idea to show other user editing when in a conflict.
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2008:
Ludovic of XWiki:
Liked everything a card; also confusing, need to hide in some places.
Need custom UI in many places anyway.
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Newton: Draw a diagram of relationship among: card, relative inclusion, Cardtype, forms
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At RecentChangesCamp 2007 in Portland, we did speed intros.
Typical intro:
* Wiki is to word processing what Wagn is to database - users can evolve data structures over time, step by step, rather than having to sit down with a database designer, figure it all out in advance and be more or less stuck with it.
* cards rather than pages; each page has a bunch of cards.
* connections/connection cards - like fields of the card you're on.
* ease of editing
* data types, validation
* card types -> tag cloud when creating new cards
* ask if people want to play with it later, and invite them to wagn.org on the spot.
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Things we learned:
Some interest in http://wikiwyg.org/
Dan Mendell suggested we look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system
Prototype-based classification - George Lakoff, Eleanor Roche, Ludwig Wittgenstein
Antonio (Prototype-based categorization)
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cache/papers/cs/4646/http:zSzzSzwww.iti.informatik.tu-darmstadt.dezSz~kehrzSzbibzSzbasic-proglangzSzPhilPrototypes.pdf/taivalsaari96classes.pdf
Ian Henderson? (Vendor Relationships Management) - defined human life in 3000
I did a lot of demos at BeaverBarCamp. Several were 45 minutes - long enough to get through the Demonstrations+for geeks with time left over. One was five minutes in front of the whole group, and i didn't quite get to WQL (though i mentioned it as time ran out, and someone in the audience yelled out, "it gets cooler!"). Notes on what i did below, followed by some responses, things i learned, etc. Thanks to everyone there who was interested to learn about Wagn! --John Abbe
Feedback, etc.
Ticket system is a good demo (for geeks)
Ask people:
Are you using something, and wondering how Wagn might be different?
Create a competitor Cardtype - list their important features
create one for Wagn describing all such features, then can show Tables comparing
Suggested features:
implement required fields on forms
separate back and front completely
API (in general, and especially for import/export)
drag & drop cards into the sidebar
support simple import and export
Swallow some TiddlyWiki features (possible use for the space under the main card!) - http://www.tiddlywiki.com/
September 3, 2008 - Chicago
Who: Michael Maranda, Ted Ernst, Regula Frey, Jean Nurture Girl Russell, Gerry Gleason, Lewis Hoffman, John Abbe, Ethan McCutchen
(Friday we demoed to Laura Hale and Susan Muldowney. Laura suggested http://sniki.org/ as something that could use Wagn's structure. Also asked how Google views Wagns - e.g., inclusions in view:content are not going to be treated as links!)
next gen project management
(incl pre-project stuff & fewer assumptions - eg maybe you're not in one org together, don't have a project already, etc.)
constituent/donor mgmt (CRM)
+hooks to other systems
(do for Grass Commons!)
(Gerry)
create a card creation language so that you can create scripts
have Wagn export sets of cards to that language, and run that language to create card
Others to look at: Commoncraft re wiki, Ted's for AboutUs
break current demo into ~five chunks - 1) wiki intro (editable, Recent, etc.); 2)
http://www.plurk.com/Help/socialJournal
http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.html
guildsmiths.com (Jean, Nancy, etc.) is discussing taking on active stewardship
1) Ideally (from GC's perspective), they want to use Hooze, in which case no fee.
2) Willing to offer a three month free trial otherwise.
Here's a sandbox Wagn: http://sandbox.wagn.org
Remember to always offer people accounts on wagn.org
A survey example:
We'd love to know what you think of Wagn. If you like, click to take our survey.