New Website for Polywell

Discuss ways to make polywell research more widely known or better understood. Includes education and outreach.

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xevioso
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:54 pm

New Website for Polywell

Post by xevioso »

As promised, I have started building a full fledged website for the Polywell project. You may view an initial version of the home page here:

http://www.xevioso.com/projects/polywell/

None of the links at the top work because those pages have not yet been developed. The logo is a work in progress, because in order to do this properly I need to develop a model if the device in Studio3d max and then rasterize it for the logo. So the logo is temp. Actually, everything is temp.

Except the image is pretty cool, because it shows the sun setting on an oil field, which is pretty apt.

I have a few questions, as Im serious about turning this into something the will assist http://www.emc2fusion.org/ in getting funding. But I don't want to do a whole lot of work if it will turn out to be useless.

So 1) Should I get in contact with http://www.emc2fusion.org/ and discuss replacing their website with my own? I would not use the Polywell Energy name, but develop a logo for them if they felt that was appropriate.
2) There is a lot of content available out there for the site, but I am going to use my better judgement when it comes to including items for certain sections. Does anyone have any opinions on the "buckets' of content at the top? Is there anything missing (other than contact us)?
3) Are there any other awards or accolades the project has received?
4) I have reserved the names polywellenergy.com and polywellenergy.org so that I can post this site there, but I don't want to purchase a hosting package if I'll be able to work with emc2fusion and have the site hosted there. How amenable are they to working with a professional web developer?
5) One thing that would really, really help would be professional photographs of the device. The device itself is brandable and could easily be part of their corporate identity; I will make it part of the logo. Do we have really good photos?

Comments are appriceated.

JoeStrout
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Re: New Website for Polywell

Post by JoeStrout »

Xevioso, this is pretty cool. I do think that the EMC2 FDC website needs a makeover, and if you're willing to donate your time and skills to the cause, I think you have a good chance of becoming the one who does that.
xevioso wrote:So 1) Should I get in contact with http://www.emc2fusion.org/ and discuss replacing their website with my own? I would not use the Polywell Energy name, but develop a logo for them if they felt that was appropriate.
Yes, I think you should contact Dr. Bussard directly, but only after you have a site that incorporates everything on the current site. Otherwise, it is too easy for him to say, "bah, this doesn't even have whatever-it-is." But if you show him a site that has all the same content, and a much cleaner, more professional look, it will be hard for him to turn you away. You may want to ask for feedback here first. I don't have any reason to think Dr. Bussard is particularly hard to work for, but he's a bit of a celebrity, and all celebrities get used to turning away people they don't already know, to avoid being swamped with loonies.

So, when you contact him, you'll want to be sure to use your real name, explain clearly that you want to donate your time and skills to the organization, and be concise and to the point. Basically, convince him that you're going to save him more time than you cost him.
xevioso wrote:2) There is a lot of content available out there for the site, but I am going to use my better judgment when it comes to including items for certain sections. Does anyone have any opinions on the "buckets' of content at the top? Is there anything missing (other than contact us)?
An "investors" section may not be appropriate; I think you want "donate" instead, since EMC2 FDC is a non-profit organization. Otherwise, it looks good.
xevioso wrote:3) Are there any other awards or accolades the project has received?
Not as far as I'm aware, and I'm not sure you want to mention the one that's there. That "international academy of science" is not the same IAS that scientists are familiar with. It's a much smaller, less prestigious organization, a bit tainted with the stink of a scam due to using the same name as the older, truly international one. But I guess if Dr. Bussard wants it, then you put it in.
xevioso wrote:4) I have reserved the names polywellenergy.com and polywellenergy.org so that I can post this site there, but I don't want to purchase a hosting package if I'll be able to work with emc2fusion and have the site hosted there. How amenable are they to working with a professional web developer?
You'll have to contact them to find out. But, it's great that you got those domain names. At a minimum, you could have them redirect to emc2fusion.org if that's where the site ends up.
xevioso wrote:5) One thing that would really, really help would be professional photographs of the device. The device itself is brandable and could easily be part of their corporate identity; I will make it part of the logo. Do we have really good photos?
I suggest you start with what you can get from the AskMar papers, and then if you need better ones, ask Dr. Bussard about it only after you already have a good working relationship with him.

Great work!
Joe Strout
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JoeStrout
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Re: New Website for Polywell

Post by JoeStrout »

You mentioned this in the fund-raising forum as well. As far as that goes, I think it'd be really helpful to have some sort of progress thermometer showing how much has been raised, compared to a goal (at which point, for example, they could build and test WB-7).

If you end up working for Dr. Bussard (even as a volunteer), then he could authorize you to get that information on a regular basis from NMCF.
Joe Strout
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xevioso
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Thanks

Post by xevioso »

Great, so I'm on the right track.

My only thing with the Donate button, is that to someone who is a potential investor, even for a non-profit, the term "donate" implies small-scale, when what is needed is a larger scale investment. There are VC's out there that would be willing to invest, even for a non-profit. But I will change it to Donate and try to convince him otherwise.

Thanks for the advice. I will now get back to work on it.

jlumartinez
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Post by jlumartinez »

Great job!! It looks impressive. I agree that you should contact RW Bussard just after finishing at least the main pages of the site.

As a comment, I suggest to add a short biography (5-8 lines) of RW Bussard inside the page dedicated to EMC2 research. He is a well-known physician and will be interesting to see that behind Polywell is a long career in the nuclear fusion field. You can extract some data from the Wikipedia page dedicated to him

Nanos
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Post by Nanos »

I might suggest a couple of things, increase the font size to 14 points so older people can read it without difficulty (I know you can change the font size in some browsers, but people hate to fiddle with things, they just get annoyed and can't be bothered to read it if its too small.) and make it auto-resizable depending on window size, so people with small screens do not have to scroll and people with large screens have it full up.

Oh and a livechat part along with the forum.

jlumartinez
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Post by jlumartinez »

Maybe a livechat is useless because I think we are not enough people to have an online chat yet. With this dedicated forum is more than enough by now. Here we can answer into the forum or sent private messages so in my opinion is perfect. It was a great idea of Joe to created it because every day is richest in contents and links. Remember that only there are around 15-20 post per day (ok, it is August and many of us are on vacation...). It is to low for a livechat.
Let´s help Xevioso to do by now just the general background and the roots of the site and later we can add/modify some little aspects

JoeStrout
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Re: Thanks

Post by JoeStrout »

xevioso wrote:There are VC's out there that would be willing to invest, even for a non-profit. But I will change it to Donate and try to convince him otherwise.
I don't think it's possible to invest in a non-profit; you can only donate to it. "Invest" means to obtain partial ownership of a company so as to participate in its profits. None of that applies to an NPO.

If somebody wanted to invest in polywell development, it would have to be through a separate, for-profit company, not through EMC2 FDC.

And even if there were such a company, you could get into fairly serious trouble with the SEC by having an "Invest" button on the home page. That would count as general advertising or solicitation for investment, which violates SEC regulations for a private company. Fine for a publicly traded ones, but definitely not OK for a start-up. (I'm not a lawyer, but I am an entrepreneur, and this is what I learned from my last start-up.)
Joe Strout
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Zixinus
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Post by Zixinus »

Livechat is easier to access, and there could be volunteer members that would try to answer anyone that would inquire. And would moderate.

Nice job with the webpage. It certainly looks better that what EMC2 already has.

My suggestions for improvements:

1. Use switching quotes, not just Bussard's. I am also unsure whether depicting an oil pump of whatever that thing is, is sending the right idea. Are there and good pictures made by coal power plants?

2. Make a "how it works" section, along with how fusion works in general. First with only graphs, but maybe later we can put in some animations?

What else? Complete the site.

Anyway, good work.

xevioso
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:54 pm

I'm workin!

Post by xevioso »

Werkin away...I'll have something by EOD today.

xevioso
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:54 pm

Alrighty!

Post by xevioso »

http://www.xevioso.com/projects/polywell/index.html

Voila...now it's much better.

1) The polywell device on the home page and part of the logo was built in Studio3dmax. I can animate this at some point or change the color or whatever. But I think it should be an integral part of the site in some fashion.
2) The photos are all temp. They are taken from getty images, which traditionally charges $50-150$ per image. I want to actually talk to Dr. Bussard first before finalizing these.
3) I have some formatting changes to make, and I need to complete the Contact us and Terms of use page.
4) I have taken a number of excellent comments and have integrated pretty much everything I thought I saw throughout the site. There is a lot here. Please go through this, and offer your comments on the location of certain items. if something is out of place, or if I am missing anything, let me know, and I will try to add it. I would like to call Dr. Bussard or email him tomorrow with what I have done.
5) Someone said they had a FAQ ready or close to ready. If there is one, I have a spot for it.

Anyways, now we are rollin...I'm almost happy with the way ot looks, and I'd be pleased to submit this to a normal energy company as a professional site. So from a web development standpoint, we're pretty close.

I will also add tracking code into the site so Google analytics can see who goes to the site.

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Re: I'm workin!

Post by JoeStrout »

The new site is looking good. You'll probably need to take down the YouTube video that steals the Stargate SG-1 music (but it's a fairly cheesy video anyway — you could probably do better). And some of the text, which I see you've copied from other sources, isn't really appropriate; in particular, "The Polywell Approach" delves way too deeply into details and spends not enough time providing the big picture.

But the overall layout and design is quite nice, and I think you're making great progress.
Joe Strout
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cuddihy
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How it Works

Post by cuddihy »

Actually... a great explanation that covers every single one of the off-the-cuff physical concerns. Nice work!
Tom.Cuddihy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faith is the foundation of reason.

jlumartinez
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Post by jlumartinez »

Great job!! Mainly the site is prepared for public release. I think it is quite complete because it mixes in the right proportion some technical highlights and papers with and good visual and impressive image of Polywell.

If you accept a couple of suggestions:
- I agree with Joe that the "polywell aproach" get quickly into details without having a general idea of what a Polywell is. I would add a first paragraph as this one: " The Polywell is a gridless inertial electrostatic confinement fusion concept utilizing multiple magnetic mirrors. It was designed by Robert Bussard under a Navy research contract, and is intended to overcome the losses in the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor to create fusion power. " , and then the rest ....
- I think EMC2 company should have a more important weight into the research page. At lest a couple of paragraph defining well the company. I can´t not help in this because I don´t know them. Maybe some can write it for you

I think in general that it is a great idea to have a whole website dedicated to Polywell and EMC2. I appreciate a lot the time you have dedicated to create this website !!!

xevioso
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Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:54 pm

Great!

Post by xevioso »

Good suggestions.

My issue is that I am not a copy-writer, nor a scientist, but a web developer. Traditionally in this sort of medium a company will hire a marketer, who will write the content with the aims and missions of the company in mind. So I am hoping that when Dr. Bussard sees this, I will be able to explain this to him, and that he will be able to provide someone who can rewrite sections of the website. I don't know much about EMC2 other than

It is directed towards the general public and the technical aspect, and that's the goal...I don't know anything about his company other than the tidbits I can find on the web, but to get funding it's important to present a company as professional as possible.

Does anyone know the best way to contact him? His website only give the contact info as belonging to the new mexico foundation.

I am going to finish the site up tomorrow am and try to contact him. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

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