Short (8 page front section) Suggestions

Current 5/12/99, 9:26 am

Title/Names/Contents

The conventional name for this section is "News," even though it rarely goes by that title. So let's call it that, until we have our own name for it. That name might be...

It depends, of course, on whether we change what we call the other sections. Right now LJ uses plain nouns to name each section, and follows the convention (used by Fast Company, Upside and Business 2.0, among others) of nonsequential Content listings. We can keep that up, but I've always found it annoying, confusing and unnecessary in most cases. I think we need do add this section transitionally in order to keep from redesigning everything at the same time. So I suggest a sequential arrangement for the August Contents. Then in September or later we can go with a new section-name scheme that we will have thought about a bit longer. So the contents would go...

News sections tend to include combinations of any or all of the following:

The idea is to do four things:

  1. Give readers a pile of engaging short items that lead them into the magazine
  2. Give editors and layout people a pile of elements they can put together like a mosaic to comprise a section, inserting and cutting items as needed.
  3. Give the magazine a few signature elements that bring readers back issue after issue (as, say, Harpers Index does for Harpers Magazine).
  4. Tap into easily available sources — especially the Web and our friends in the community — to minimize the labor involved.

What follows are a few possible candidates.

LJ Index

Patterned after Harper's Index, which is a signature feature of Harper's. (Note: I'm making most of these up. the real ones have *s — DS).

[Chris DiBona has offered to come up with some of these numbers.

Companion idea: Interactive LJ Index. See the interactive index at the Harper's site. Great reader participation scheme.]

Paths to Antartica

This graphic feature would follow links to Linux destinations, and present them graphically. This contrasts with "portal" thinking, where (in the closed source world) everybody wants to be a departure site (preferably a "sticky" one) rather than a destination site.

A good source here is Alexa Internet, which measures Visits, Links In, Pages and other things. The graphic below is Links In. Visits would have favored Red Hat even more. Here is how the copy might go —

Alexa Internet considers inbound links a measure of "reputability." That's certainly one way to look at it. We just see links as paths from there to there.

There, of course, is a matter of choice. And some destinations are much more popular than others — at least in the HTML we write. Not all a hrefs are created equal.

Take Linux distributions. Here is how Alexa Internet ranks the top five, in the number of Links In from other sites.


Lionly Cowards

Greatest lines by "anonymous Coward" at Slashdot (I think a penguin face on the cowardly lion would be fun, but hey: that might be a stretch.)

Wrong

Great Hacks in Our Time

This is Chris DiBona's idea, and I think it's primo. Chris: "Feature a piece of code — a really cool thing that has happened in the code... a snapshot, like ten lines, a really righeous hack — that we could do any number of things with. Such as...

Tuxedos in the Enterprise

Two or three paragraph-length quotes from enterprise guys who are happy to be running Linux now, doing whatever (preferably different things). Vendors should be able to give us these.

Show Toppers

Anecdotal tales from Linux vendors and attendees at Linux World, Comdex Spring and ISPcon. Gather by email to selected contacts.

Credos

Credos and other signature quotes from posts here and there. Examples:

Fresh 10

The top ten most-downloaded programs out of Freshmeat. Chris DiBona says he could get this. "It would be so cool because it would circumvent the bullshit coming out of the Eggheads, who say 'who knows about Linux.'"

Open Sores

Biggest belly-aches by grouches who don't like open source. Glean the net and other places for quotes.

Weigh-ins

Another Chris DiBona idea: list the "curb weights" of the five leading Linux distributions. Can be done one of at least two ways —

  1. With a graphic drawing of each kernel (or something representing the kernel), plus representations of what each distribution wraps around it. The idea would be to make clear something most people don't know: that each Linux is different. Perhaps use drawings or photos of cars ("heavy chevies" would be fun), with "curb weights" listed.
  2. With simple measurements of differences. "We could install each one on the same machine and see how long it takes to get a prompt," Chris says. They'd test that, of course, at VA. (Not sure Chris volunteered this, but... we'll find a way.)

However we represent this kind of thing, the idea here is to give both the techies and the business newbies fresh views of matters techies have long taken for granted about Linux. In other words, take what we know intuitively and make it explicit.