Difference between revisions of "Essay:Conservapedia Elevator Story"
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The '''''Conservapedia Elevator Story''''' is a brief, focused summary of what this project is about and why it matters, which can be told to someone in about 30 seconds. The concept of an "elevator story" comes from the field of business communications, where the importance of being able to effectively market yourself, a project or an idea in the time it takes to ride an elevator with someone is a competitive advantage. | The '''''Conservapedia Elevator Story''''' is a brief, focused summary of what this project is about and why it matters, which can be told to someone in about 30 seconds. The concept of an "elevator story" comes from the field of business communications, where the importance of being able to effectively market yourself, a project or an idea in the time it takes to ride an elevator with someone is a competitive advantage. | ||
| − | The Working Draft: | + | ==The Working Draft: == |
'''"The internet offers many biased sources of encyclopedic content like Wikipedia, and countless [[liberal]] blogs that rant and rave without end. Few would sensibly choose any of these resources for educational material for students or themselves. Conservapedia was started as an academic project to meet the online-reference need, and it's grown to provide an important source of insight amid a sea of misinformation, bias, and [[deceit]]. If you are looking for [[gossip]] or traffic-building sensationalism, go to Wikipedia. If you want to seek the truth with an open mind, and share your insights with others, welcome to Conservapedia."''' | '''"The internet offers many biased sources of encyclopedic content like Wikipedia, and countless [[liberal]] blogs that rant and rave without end. Few would sensibly choose any of these resources for educational material for students or themselves. Conservapedia was started as an academic project to meet the online-reference need, and it's grown to provide an important source of insight amid a sea of misinformation, bias, and [[deceit]]. If you are looking for [[gossip]] or traffic-building sensationalism, go to Wikipedia. If you want to seek the truth with an open mind, and share your insights with others, welcome to Conservapedia."''' | ||
Revision as of 01:14, December 30, 2008
| ! | This Is An Original Work. This Essay is an original work which represents the views of its author or authors and does not necessarily represent the views of Conservapedia or its management. |
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The Conservapedia Elevator Story is a brief, focused summary of what this project is about and why it matters, which can be told to someone in about 30 seconds. The concept of an "elevator story" comes from the field of business communications, where the importance of being able to effectively market yourself, a project or an idea in the time it takes to ride an elevator with someone is a competitive advantage.
Contents
The Working Draft:
"The internet offers many biased sources of encyclopedic content like Wikipedia, and countless liberal blogs that rant and rave without end. Few would sensibly choose any of these resources for educational material for students or themselves. Conservapedia was started as an academic project to meet the online-reference need, and it's grown to provide an important source of insight amid a sea of misinformation, bias, and deceit. If you are looking for gossip or traffic-building sensationalism, go to Wikipedia. If you want to seek the truth with an open mind, and share your insights with others, welcome to Conservapedia."
Background
The purpose of developing a "Conservapedia Elevator Story" is to provide a tight, focused message about what this project does and the need(s) it meets in a way that allows it to be described to others easily and effectively in casual conversation.
The typical example would be finding yourself in a conversation with someone at work, after church or at a party, and an opportunity comes up to mention Conservapedia. The "Conservapedia Elevator Story" helps answer the "What is Conservapedia?" question without having to be too long-winded.
Approach
One approach to crafting this message is to follow a "Screenplay Method", as suggested in an article by Brian Freeman and Sean Mcdonnell.[1] This approach is based on a good story having four key elements:
- Stage setting: What's the situation at the start?
- Conflict: What problems do the characters face?
- Resolution: How is the conflict or problem resolved?
- Outcome: How is life different as a result?
This approach has the advantage of not just explaining what Conservapedia is about, but more importantly, why it's important and how it can help people. That is the key to getting the word out about this site.
Working Draft
Guidelines
The text below is a proposed, working draft for a Conservapedia Elevator Story. All Conservapedia editors are invited to revise and improve it, but edit conflicts need to be worked out constructively on the Talk page.
Related Proposal
The inspiration for this project came from a Conservapedia News Story posted in December 2008, which described a proposed "Conservative Elevator Story" that could be used in focusing people on the 2010 election cycle. While the purpose of this page was to develop a story for Conservapedia itself, it would also be a worthwhile project to develop a distinct, Conservapedia-sponsored "Conservative Elevator Story" that captures the conservative message from the perspective of this site (as opposed to telling the story of this site itself).
