The response to—and show of support for—TXP Magazine’s revival has been amazing. Thank you! In fact, the show of hands from people wanting to help is to the point where I need to clarify what areas of help are needed so you guys can orient to the direction(s) that interest you (or not) easier. I’m happy to say that we’ve already got some people onboard, and I’ll introduce them in context. But we still need more, and these three articles are written for that reason.
Participation can be classified in three ways:
- Long-term — Filling a regular role on the magazine team.
- Short-term — Contributing in the beginning, but fading out after launch.
- Special projects — Big things that don’t have a regular schedule, but are important for the community and need support.
I address these in separate articles published back-to-back. You’re reading the long-term opportunities article. The others are:
Before you skip off to one of those other articles, please read the next section, at least.
Commitment and tools
In your own lives, you are people who have chosen to work in digital, and concepts like collaboration, communication, and deadlines are not foreign to you. You may appreciate that these concepts are inherently a part of publishing a web magazine too. Anyone involved with the TXP Magazine project knows they’re committing themselves to a serious effort, are part of a team, and can be relied upon to do what they opt in for.
You should also come down on the side that social media and the conveniences of cloud technology are a part of modern day digital work, because we make use of them in this project. At the very least, you should be okay with using Skype, Twitter, and Google Docs (just about Google anything). We may introduce need for other tools as well (like a SugarSync account), but the point is to be willing to use them when/if the time comes.
Most importantly, everyone should know how to listen, collaborate, and compromise to get to the best solutions. Soloists and curmudgeons won’t do well here.
Now, on to the fun!
Long-term help opportunities
These are the roles that secure you as a regular part of the TXP Magazine publishing team. Your names will be in lights and the Huffington Post may contact you down the road with big job offers.
Column Editors
Think of column editors as “knowledge experts” in a given topic area we write on (our regular columns), and who share responsibility for the health of their particular columns in the magazine.
For example, I mentioned Extension(alism) will be one of the columns we regularly write. An editor for this column would help research and write articles for this column alone. Tasks might include:
- Researching plugins (and their developers) for potential articles.
- Drafting column articles.
- Editing some of the guest author drafts (a role that is shared with me).
- Monitoring analytics for the column and reporting on them in an editorial meeting each quarter.
- Throwing in ideas for making the column better, or evolving it over time.
The same would apply to editors of the other columns, taking into account the specific contexts. Let’s consider them…
Community Spotlight would be good for someone who enjoys learning about and meeting new people around the world (remotely). I expect to write for this column too, and thus someone needs to be available to review my drafts (everyone’s copy gets at least one review by somebody else), as well write drafts of their own.
Site Watch should be a popular column, and the behind-the-scenes process will be tied with special projects like competitions and new Exhibit entries. I think a logical choice for this editor will be someone from the Sites Evaluation Committee (see special projects opportunities).
Showdown! is another column expected to be quite popular, and there’s a lot to get done before the first magazine issue. This person must love technical comparisons and the associated benchmarking. This editor would take lead on creating a standard benchmark process that could be used (reliably) for each showdown, and which would serve as a model for consistent structuring of Showdown! articles. I can imagine this editor will research similar benchmarks so we produce the most relevant and unbiased comparisons we can. We want the industry to see we are being fair, thorough, and professional; to build a positive reputation.
The Independent’s Frontline is a column for the freelance worker, and topics will likely cover a lot of ground. The editor of this column should be an independent professional, without a doubt, with a number of years of experience as such. Tools, trends, and productivity tips are par for the course, as well topics on balancing work with health, family, and fun.
In all cases, editors could help each other out if needed, and collaboration is always encouraged so nobody feels burdened. For the sake of healthy publishing operations, however, each column should have a dedicated editor at the helm.
Community Manager
This should be a fun role for anyone comfortable in the social ocean. With my increased focus on the magazine, I’d like to let someone else fluff the social channels, but also take it to the next level. For this to be done right, we need someone solely focused on keeping our remote communities lively with regular information and links, as well encouraging audiences to engage. A human touch is always better than a machine feed.
Ideally, and overall, this person would establish a process of social media strategy and community measurement; putting metrics in place and reporting trends/observations to team every quarter or two.
The day-to-day stuff would be things like:
- Take over my admin status in the Facebook group.
- Share tweeting duty with me (at least
txpmag, I can't speak fortextpattern, but that would be a good one too). - Determine what to do with the quiet Textpattern LinkedIn group. (I think this, or some other platform, has potential as a professionals/freelancers/clients channel, but it needs a plan and direction.)
- Ensure our social channel profiles are updated and relevant to magazine and Textpattern aims.
- Keep ears to the wind for signs of activities that should be of interest to project Textpattern, and that the magazine can tap into (market share reports, open source competitions, community meetups, relevant conferences, et cetera).
- Write articles for the magazine on occasion.
- Document the social media strategy, operations, and measurement that you develop over time.
While the overall strategy will take some thinking and doing, the day-to-day stuff is not terribly difficult, nor time consuming; it just takes dedication to the cause.
Podcast Series
A nice offer from the magazine would be a regular TXP Magazine Podcast Series on the iTunes store. My idea for podcasts is to interview interesting people from outside the community; people who have relevant things to say, or are somebody Textpattern (the project) should like to make an acquaintance with. I have a few ideas already, but you’d have to be on the editorial team to hear them.
In order to offer a podcast series, someone has to help with the research and interviewing, which includes lining people up, researching the interviews, writing the interviews, and record the interview conversations.
In case your thinking ‘Holy crap! That’s a lot of work’. Let me just say it’s not as much as it might seem, and even less if you realise it’s only one interview every two or three months. I’ve done some podcast interviews (3, 6, and 9), and the only hard thing about it is being comfortable during the actual recording (I never got there). And we already have a post-production editor for audio/video content, so that’s a big part of the equation solved.
I’m willing to do some of the interviewing on a rotated schedule, but I can’t maintain a series by myself, and will not initiate one if it’s just me. We need one, even two, more people on the podcast series doing research and interviews. This doesn’t have to be ready by first launch; it’s a nice-to-have next to the the primary objective of magazine editorial. Yet it’s doable… very doable.
If you love Textpattern and want to give back to the project in a new and interesting way, this is your golden opportunity; be a podcast interviewer and make a mark in Textpattern history.
That’s not all
The roles described above are just a few that could be filled now to help get the magazine rolling comfortably. However, other editorial roles may open up in the future, and the website will always make that known when it happens.
Maybe being a part of the magazine’s permanent editorial team isn’t your fancy. No doubt something short-term or one of the special projects may interest you.