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smiley
November 2nd, 2001, 07:52 AM
Does the world need another 'encyclopedia of the solar system?'
I think it does. I think we could offer some really useful content that would blow away the other sites. We've have a great partnership with Bill Arnet 9planets (http://nineplanets.org/nineplanets/) , and maybe he'd be amenable to us providing updates to his pages.

What I'd propose, for starters, is the best (most complete) reference data on the solar system. Second, there could be interactive 3-D visualizations (I've done a few of these (http://guymcarthur.com/projects/vrml/) probably requiring a plugin, but possible as Java applets. And there would be good text on the planet's geological history, etc (seds has a few alums with planetary science degrees, myself included [minor], or we could get some notes from the experts themselves).

Anyways, using our skills and connections I really don't think this would take that long to put together. It would be highly visible, useful to a lot of people (not just schoolkids), and really be effective at inspiring space interest.

I have a hand-drawn mockup which I can scan or re-draw in Gimp and post here if people are interested.

SEDShead
November 2nd, 2001, 09:02 AM
Please post the mockup!

Sounds interesting.

Daniel
November 2nd, 2001, 01:27 PM
Maybe do it a multi-lingual version, by using a php DB or such that the text will change from one language to another ? will really add a lot.

JohnWright
November 2nd, 2001, 10:37 PM
It would be great if this new project produced a new "hipper" version of the encyclopedia of the solar system idea. Something with a nice look and less of a text book feel...

it's all about the end user :)

J

smiley
November 19th, 2001, 11:03 AM
Originally posted by JohnWright
It would be great if this new project produced a new "hipper" version of the encyclopedia of the solar system idea. Something with a nice look and less of a text book feel...

it's all about the end user :)

J

I totally agree. The L&F is so important for web stuff.

I tried drawing my mockup in an editor but it was too time-consuming. I'll scan in a better one.

Sorry for not checking this thread in so long but I didn't receive any email notifications!

smiley
October 2nd, 2002, 09:08 AM
I've actually got something to show (!), so will be starting a new thread.

Daniel had a good comment about multilingual support.

Probably the way I would do this is with a web templating system, such as XSL.

So, yeah, it's do-able, getting help for language conversions will be the limiting factor....

Daniel
October 2nd, 2002, 12:20 PM
will find someone to do hebrew, and maybe russian.
But when you put the <html dir=???> command, make sure it is a paramater so it can be changed from rtl to ltr...

smiley
October 2nd, 2002, 08:08 PM
Originally posted by SEDShead
Please post the mockup!

Sounds interesting.

Here it is one year later. :)
I'm posting a mockup in the new thread.