Beta introduction and process for beta testers
Welcome and introduction!
As a friend of Mute, we would like to invite you to be involved in the relaunch of our web site Metamute. With technical help from OpenMute, the Mute team have been working on a replacement for Metamute.com for the whole of 2005 and we are finally ready to bring you its progeny, Metamute.org. We hope you'll like the new Metamute's mixture of OpenPublishing, commissioned content and Print on Demand features and that you'll be an active part of its evolution over the next year.
The site is now pretty much ready for release, but before we open it to the public we need your help taking it through its paces. To do this, you'll need you to register on the site, after which you can post content, try out different features and test facilities like our POD park. For those who watch out for these things, Metamute.org is based on FLOSS content management systems Drupal and CiviCRM. A number of site features are still under construction, but these should be completed before the site is publicly launched at the beginning of February 2006.
Below you can find a list of areas you can post to as well as details on areas that are still under construction. We have also described a variety of channels created for your feedback.
Your help is much appreciated – Mute
Web addresses and contact details
Main site – http://metamute.org/
Public Library BitTorrent – http://pl.metamute.org/
Agent Network – http://dev.metamute.org/ and http://crm.metamute.org/
Bug tracker – http://3d.openmute.org/
Email lists – http://lists.metamute.org/
IRC http://irc.freenode.net #metamute
Contact us, Email: webmaster AT metamute.org or Tel: +44(0)20 7377 6949
Site features
NB, this section of the beta text is a straight replica of what new users will be receiving as 'What's New?'. We have not edited it, so excuse any lack of brevity.
Membership
Metamute.org is a membership based site where you can log in to submit articles or upload media. There are a variety membership categories, reflecting levels of involvement and usage. These are: anonymous, authenticated, subscriber, agent and editor.
Free to share magazine content
Simultaneous to its publication in print, Mute will be making its magazine content freely available online for non-commercial use, reprinting and translation.
OpenPublishing
The following areas of the site are open for members' contributions: News & Analysis, Public Library (P2P file sharing service), Calendar, Forums & lists.
POD and User POD [*]
Print on demand is a high quality, low cost form of digital book printing, through which one or 1000s of copies can be printed in several locations throughout the world. Mute has opted for this technology for reasons of cost, but also so we can be more responsive to developments on our website. Outside of our regular magazine run, we will be producing a variety of other POD imprints.
As a user, you can recompose any content items from the site and have your own book printed and delivered at low cost. The digital print process also means you can leave a PDF of your book online to share with others, in our POD Park.
Public Library (PL)
Media based works can be uploaded/ downloaded by any user at our P2P file sharing torrent, the Public Library. At the PL, you can also share your opinions on the files available and we encourage users to regard this reviewing as integral to the uploading and downloading of their media warez.
Content filtering [*]
The Mute site is vast and will become even more so. To make its content more accessible, we have added a system of classification which helps you sort the content of the site. We feel strongly that the new Mute should be about your view of things as much as ours; to make this happen we invite you to expand on the subjects we've included in our category listings. Help guides will soon be available on how to do this, and we will also keep our own classifications constantly under review (the present listing is definitely just a beginning!).
Shop
We have opened up our shop to allow users to sell their cultural products and digital downloads next to ours. In line with this, we have also enabled multi-currency transactions via PayPal or credit card to make it easier for users to make associated financial transactions.
Agent network, the Networked Distribution Services/NDS [*]
Mute invites site users to join our agents scheme, which rewards the local distribution and sale of Mute with 30% of the cover price. The system – whose working title is NDS (Networked Distribution Service) – is made possible by software which allows orders, deliveries and payments to be tracked online. Mute's agent network is also open to users offering their publications for distribution and sale: through this process of mutual support, we aim to contribute to alternative distribution networks globally. See http://crm.metamute.org and http://dev.metamute.org
Translations [*]
Users can translate articles on the Mute site into a variety of languages through a simple online editing process. Volunteering to translate can be done without contacting the editor, as the site provides an easy to use text editor and automated submission process. Mute is still working on the protocols involved, as multiple translations in (likely) varying degrees of completion will need to be categorised systematically and original authors consulted on their preferred relationship to new texts.
Banner monitoring
Metamute.org allows web advertisers to have greater levels of control over, and awareness of, the activity of their ads. Information relating to banners' performance can be viewed and analysed by day, week, month, and banners can be switched on and off for specific periods of time. As in other areas of the site, this activity is contained in a personalised work area which automatically responds to members' status and registration details.
Project commissions
Metamute.org has a projects area where we will regularly feature new art and cultural commissions.
[*] Items accompanied by this sign are still in varying stages of development, although they are a full part of our project planning.
Reporting back to us
We have created a variety of feedback channels for the beta testing group to ask questions, take part in discussions and report bugs or feature requests.
·Lists– we have a discussion list called that you are welcome to join. This can be done at http://lists.metamute.org/mailman/listinfo/mute-beta1 . Mute and OpenMute team members are on this list and you can see it archived at http://www.metamute.org/en/forum/3413
·Bug tracker – the bug tracker is a web based system for reporting bugs or feature requests. Within it, we have set up a project called MetamuteBeta. At the bug tracker you'll find a list of all currently reported issues and you are welcome to add a bug note if you think it's required. You will need to register at http://3d.openmute.org and navigate to the 'Development' area of the site, visible on the left menu bar.
·IRC – We have an active IRC channel on http://irc.freenode.net called #metamute. Please join us here to chat about the project.
How long will the beta test period last?
We are planning to run the Beta test of the Metamute.org site over January 2006, unless we encounter major problems. Fingers crossed :-)
What we'd like you to do on the site
•Post to the site – there are a variety of OpenPublishing areas of the site including 'News & Analysis', 'Public Library' (a P2P file sharing service), Calendar, 'Discussion' (forums & lists
•Become a PL seed – we need beta testers to upload to the Mute BitTorrent and also act as seeds on the file sharing network. Full instructions can be found on the PL site, http://pl.metamute.org/
•Troubleshoot POD – the POD features of the site currently allow you to create your own personalised collection of Mute site content and have the collection stored in our POD Park area as a downloadable PDF file. At present, the PDFs created only have extremely basic styling, but we are working on a version of the facility to jazz it up. Either way, having people test it will be very useful
•Feature suggestions –if there are things you think we should add to the site or that we could make improvements on, please don't hesitate to make your suggestions.
•Text corrections – if you see any errors or typos, corrections are appreciated.
•Moderation – over the period of the beta test we'll be introducing a set of features that allow users to vote on articles, in effect 'moderating' them to higher priority positions. We will make an announcement on the beta email list when they are available.
Known problems
A number of features on the site are still in development or proving problematic. These have been listed below so you are aware that we are working on them and don't waste your time informing us.
•Pay on account – at present this service for 'agent' members is not functional.
•PODs timeout – large PDF documents that are created as part of the POD process time out when you click the 'view PDF' button, the result of which is that a single page blank document is returned to the user.
•Contextual menus – the contextual menu is the two-layered grey/white menu that runs horizontally across the top of the site. The menu system is meant to give the user and indication of which part of the site they are in by highlighting it in red. Occasionally, the menu system loses its highlighting.
•Agent network – currently the agent network is uncompleted. We will make announcements on the progress of the system on the beta email list.
•Site information – some written site information is still under construction (including projects and other), so please bear with us... though comments are still appreciated!
Be aware!
•PayPal is live – our PayPal transaction system is live so if you make a purchase your account will be debited. Any questions regarding payments should be sent to
•Data loss – since the site is in beta testing mode it is possible that articles or any type of data added to the site could become lost or, in an extreme case, we might have to restore the site to an earlier backup version.
The roadmap
06/01/06 Version BETA
06/02/06 Release 1
2nd Quarter 2006 Release 2
2nd Quarter 2006 POD
2nd Quarter 2006 Agent network
