Hello Everyone;
There have been a number of excellent comments on the “Website Under Construction” blog post put up recently by Jeffrey Tucker. For instance, there have been good suggestions to make sure the word “Economics” is used instead of “Austrian School”, adding a “more from this author” button, putting up HD & SD versions of the same files (as YouTube & Vimeo currently make possible) and quite a few great comments about things people would like to make sure are maintained.
The good news is, a great number of the comments are things that I’m already working on.
I’m already in the process of tagging each file with appropriate subjects & descriptions, marking older files as incomplete or in need of some audio/video reconstruction, and generally getting things not only more organized in large chunks (putting files into a better hierarchy, as I have already mostly completed doing) but also getting each individual file to a point where it’s effectively searchable – there are a great number of files right now that I imagine are not appearing on any searches simply because their meta-data content is lacking.
These things will make any searching for known files MUCH easier.
Also, in my original proposal, I discussed adding media playlists and in-window playback of audio & video media, so I want to assure everyone that the design is progressing steadily in that direction as well. Please understand that it will take some time to accomplish these things, but the point of the mock-up that was posted the other day was to provide a more tangible rough draft of where I’d like to see things go. Fortunately it does seem like quite a number of people support the general change in direction.
However, I do want to address a couple of the concerns some people are having:
There appears to be some concern that the site is going to lose search functionality. I can assure everyone that this will be far from the case. It should be clear by now that every aspect of these changes are designed both to entice new visitors and to improve the ability of long-term regulars to find exactly what they want in a much more intuitive and accessible manner.
One comment noted:
It is my experience at least, that people visiting the media page are not looking for some random suggestion, but rather already have an idea of what they are looking to find.”
I think that comment is entirely true, but it’s my professional opinion that this is a function of the status quo rather than a goal the Mises Institute should actually be aspiring to.
Obviously, most people who currently visit the media page do so because they are already knowledgeable of specific files they wish to watch or listen to – but this only furthers the cloistered nature of the presentation of libertarian thought.
So it seemed to me worth mentioning that all of these changes aren’t merely designed to catalog existing materials for people who already have their Austrian School library cards, but to start presenting the ideas and material in ways that are appealing to those who do need suggestions and don’t necessarily have the attention spans or time to randomly sift through thousands of hours of media. I just want to make sure we all remember that the ultimate goal is always to get the ideas of Ludwig von Mises & the Austrian School on Economics and the Philosophy of Liberty disseminated to the public as best we can.
The improved search features will basically take care of themselves as the subject & categories on each file are re-organized – which I am diligently working to accomplish. Everyone will always have access to that, so if they know what they’re looking for, those items will only become easier & easier to find. But the overall focus has to remain on attracting new visitors and getting them to watch, listen, read and most of all come back.
With all this in mind, I’d like to ask the regular visitors here to extend some trust to me and my expertise in these matters. But I do appreciate and welcome input. I know everyone has their favorite videos or audio recordings, and to be most constructive, I’d like to put out these questions to the regular users of Mises.org:
- Which are your favorite Ludwig von Mises Institute media recordings, and why?
- Which of your favorites do you think are the most likely to draw in new guests and get people interested & familiarized with the Austrian School of economics & philosophy of liberty?
Everyone’s contributions on which media to feature will be extremely invaluable in the long run. I just want everyone to know that I am doing my best to guide this process and make sure it comes out with much better organizational system and a much more enticing design created to draw in new visitors. If you have any additional questions, comments or concerns; please feel free to address me directly through the mediums provided below.
Thank you all,
Sean W. Malone
seanwmalone@gmail.com
(718) 350-9527
{ 16 comments }
One of the most inspiring pieces of media I’ve seen on this site was a lecture by Walter Block labelled ‘Block Defends Against Charges of Racism and Sexism’. This two hour lecture was amusing and highly informative, and offered a libertarian perspective on issues of discrimination that I had never considered. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to working right now.
I know that video – Was at Loyola Maryland, if I recall… Great choice!
This reminds me though that I should also ask for preemptive forgiveness for any media that is down at any given time in the near future – We’re editing the site live, so some things may disappear and reappear.
My opinion is that the media presented front and center should have some relevance to the ongoing socio-political debate in the country and around the world – for instance – the topic du jour would be health care, financial crisis, cost of war etc. Extremely controversial topics should be left for people to find own their own, hopefully later in their exposure to the school.
Which are your favorite Ludwig von Mises Institute media recordings, and why?
What has the government done to our money, the audio version. Because it was like a keystone in an arch that made sense of all I knew about economics until then.
The Human Action audio, which I am still listening. That will attract the college going types. Which is important, because there is an over supply of college student because of government subsidies.
Which of your favorites do you think are the most likely to draw in new guests and get people interested & familiarized with the Austrian School of economics & philosophy of liberty?
Since money is always going to be relevant, I think money related topics that will draw people any day. But as a constant trickle.
For spikes in traffic, easy searchable, presentable, media rich, user friendly pages that address relevant crisis of the day are the way to go. Once the attention is sustained, people will slowly be drawn in by curiosity and inquisitiveness.
1) Fix the blockquote CSS bug
Ok, I just ended the blockquote, but this text(might still be) appearing as BOLD, which probably it should not be.
2) I second LightBringer that ‘Block Defends against charges of racism and sexism’, was awesome. One of the best I have seen(probably because Block was deeply involved with that lecture, rather than it being a purely academic knowledge dissemination).
3) I love Prof Block’s lectures, would it be possible for him to give video specific lectures(as in lectures given to the camera rather than audience).
4) Comments on videos. Yes youtube commenting is good but is having a lot of noise from the non-AE viewers which creates a lot of unproductive heat most of the time. Having commenting capability facilitates a discussion(a reverse chronological order).
The CSS bugs aren’t something I’m dealing with. I’m a media & entertainment professional, my job here is to make the site as enticing to newcomers and as interesting as possible. Email the webmaster for those concerns.
Comments on the videos & audio files should absolutely be a feature – as well as allowing user-defined tags.
As for getting new media produced – I’m personally hoping that that will be the case, but at this time I think the focus is on bringing the media site up to date.
While I don’t have any real suggestions about which media I prefer — Walter Block’s series of audio is great, but I haven’t consumed enough to say it’s better than the rest — I do have some ideas of how to find out.
I think each video and audio item on the page should have a public ranking system. There could be (at least) two dimensions to this: 1) Quality, i.e., how much you personally liked it, and 2) some measurement of how “advanced” the material is. The only word I can think of for this second metric would be “difficulty”, but that doesn’t sound right. Anyways, some way for people to rank how appropriate it would be for newcomers to the Austrian school, or even economics in general.
This way you won’t have to directly poll the populace of mises.org like this, you can have a dynamic system in which things are constantly adjusting to “demand” and “preference” much like the market itself does every day.
Just my two cents, and keep up the hard work!
Sean, that was my comment you quoted.
What do this mean?
Dixie,
What I meant was that libertarians in general and in particular those attached to the Austrian School of Economics are in very cut off from the mainstream.
The media component to the Mises.org site has the best chance of any section at drawing in new blood. One of the reasons we find that people like Michael Moore have far more influence on the public’s understanding of economics & capitalism in general, is because while they’re busy presenting their case in as entertaining & accessible a manner as possible, we are often bogged down in deeper academic pursuits.
I’m certainly not rejecting the depth or quality of thought found in the Mises Institute media archives – but as an entertainment producer, I know that it’s costing us all influence over the broader public by ignoring how we present all of this wonderful media.
And that’s all unnecessary, in my opinion, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. There’s no reason to lose the search functionality for those who already know what they want to find, but if that’s all we have, visitors who have no familiarity with the ideas of the Austrian School are stuck finding only what they randomly click on (assuming they are even interested enough to do that) – and that has no guarantee of presenting them with the best, most intriguing & influential arguments. So yes, we need to make sure everyone can find the old stuff they know and love, but the more important thing here is that we present material to new visitors that reflects the best, most entertaining, most welcoming and strongest material the Austrian School has to offer.
I aim to move the direction in such a way that can help bring the ideas we all care about into a more publicly accessible view. We can have both a well-organized, easily searchable library AND a media homepage that is modern, easy-to-use and presents the best of what we offer to the general public.
My favorite recording has always been Hoppe’s 10-lecture series. Great ground-up introduction to ancap.
@Renegade Division (off-topic):
The way to prevent the display bug from occurring is to separate paragraphs (and blockquotes) with two carriage returns instead of one. I’ve revised your comment above to reflect the display behavior when this is done. (The issue is not with the CSS, but rather with the software.) Thanks for pointing this out.
Most likely to bring new visitors –
I think Tom Woods and Thomas DiLorenzo are great speakers and endlessly intersting. DiLorenzos videos turned me into a daily reader of Mises.org. One reason why I think these two are good for this purpose is because each spends a lot of tme debunking myths still taught in school, like the “fact” my 6th grade teacher told me, that Hoover was a free market guy and he caused the depression by not letting the govt do anything.
I like the audio books best, although the seminars and conferences are also very good.
I like the audio books best, although the seminars and conferences are also very good.
I remember in one of the layouts, the site was very sectioned. Can you make those sections collapsable/foldable?
1.Which are your favorite Ludwig von Mises Institute media recordings, and why?
Anything by Rothbard and Hoppe, simply for the quality of material they consistently deliver. I love the lecture series, especially Raico’s.
2. Which of your favorites do you think are the most likely to draw in new guests and get people interested & familiarized with the Austrian School of economics & philosophy of liberty?
Accessibility is key, so Tom Woods is an obvious choice to give extra space to. Also Bob Murphy seems a good choice here.
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