August 28th, 2020
Long-range plan
The objective of this plan is to assemble the Encounter System software and build a community capable of creating worthwhile storyworlds with it.
I will build the alpha version of the software in September. This will include the rehearsal capability and the demo storyworld. I will also add the new members to the Thaddeus discussion group, where we will discuss the contents of this document. In October I will fix bugs and polish the demo storyworld. We should have presentable software by November 1st.
Issues
My brain is overloaded with technology. It’s stuffed with Pascal, BASIC, 6502 and 68000 assembly language, Forth, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, XML, HTML, a number of operating systems, and dozens of lesser technologies. Whenever I attempt to pick up a new technology, something in my brain screams “No more!” Therefore, I must rule out any grand and glorious new technological adventures. We have to stick close to what I already know for the nonce. Once the technology is mature and doesn’t need my participation, we can (well, YOU can) take it in new directions.
The Role of Other People
We must move from where we are now (Point A) to where we want to get eventually (Point B). Point A is a 100% Chris Crawford production. Point B will have to be a 0% Chris Crawford production. Presumably Point B will be a production of a group of Encounter-mateers. We cannot hope in the random contributions of random volunteers; we shall need some dedicated volunteers to take over. Yet nobody can rationally commit to a half-completed project whose worthiness is uncertain. Therefore, I shall have to carry the load until such time as we have a strong group of volunteers.
JavaScript
The software is written in Java, but Java is not easily accessible to the general public. Therefore, the software must be converted to another form. I believe that JavaScript is the best option, as it is easily integrated into web pages and imposes no burden on the server. However, my skill with JavaScript is poor; we’ll need one or more people to carry out this task. If we cannot get some people to do the conversion to JavaScript, I’ll do it myself during November.
GitHub
Setting up the software on GitHub seems an obvious step, but there are two constraints. First, I do not have the technical expertise to administer a GitHub account. Therefore, we’ll need a volunteer to administer the account. Second, I’m not sure that we need to set up anything on GitHub if we are using JavaScript, because the JavaScript code itself is public.
Thaddeus
This is a conventional discussion group on the Internet. It will be the place for ongoing discussions. I’ll be expanding membership in Thaddeus over the next few weeks.
Conference
I’ll be starting a conference in October. This will operate using Zoom, and will initially focus on the Encounter system. There will be four meetings per month:
08:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time on the first Sunday
12:00 noon PDT on the second Tuesday
4:00 PM PDT on the third Thursday
8:00 PM PDT on the fourth Saturday
Each meeting will be preceded by an email containing a link to a web page presenting the topic to be discussed at the meeting. The meeting itself will begin with a 10-minute opening presentation on the topic, after which the open discussion begins. Attendees will enter their questions or discussion points in text in the Chat area of Zoom, and the speaker will respond to those questions as they arise. Initially the conference will focus on the Encounter technology, but the conference may expand to address other topics as appropriate.