I decide to launch a campaign to promote the skydiving sport in the US by modernizing the selected drop zones' websites using the state-of-the-art technique in information technology and web design. The drop zone owners will have a community based, self-organized and self-growing website with strong functionality for rich multimedia support that attracts strangers to jump in your drop zone and keep on jumping later on.

The campaign will last 100 days start from May 1, 2009. The selected drop zones are those having the most potential to be modernized and the other drop zones are welcome to join. I am expecting some donation for my contribution but I agree to modernize the websites unconditionally for every request with equally high quality. The donation will help me to pay for the demo website, support developing useful modules for the website and accomplish the training of skydiving, hang gliding and scuba diving for myself.

Skydiving is one of the most exciting and fun sport and skydivers attends the drop zone like a big family. This is a typical "community based" scenario in term of web design. Traditional web design treats the website as a static display window that display the same content to the visitors for years. The visitors can not participate in the construction of the website and the updating of any content requires re-coding by the professional web designer. The modernized website will encourage the society, drop zone owners, coaches and jumpers, to participate by writing blogs for their stories and experiences, joining discussions in the forum for skydiving skills and sharing comments on gears, and displaying their excitements using photo galleries and video galleries throw user friendly interface. The manager and the participants can dynamically manage the content of the website as easy as sending an email. The website itself will grow as time goes by, recording the joy and fun once happened on the drop zone. People will be attracted by the rich multimedia content rather than a shining logo, be satisfied by the power of functionality rather than annoying flying windows, and enjoyed by the neat, browseable structure rather than the unstructured design with broken links.

Every drop zone owner who joins this project is risk free. Any web design company will ask for $600 ~ >$1000 for the design for small business like drop zone with functionalities not even close to what I will provide you. I am expecting a donation for my contribution equals to the price of one tandem jump in your drop zone. Even if you refuse to donate, you still have the right to own a modernized website as I promised. Your current website will not be changed until you are satisfied with the demo of your new website and want to substitute the old one with the new one. You have no obligation and pay nothing before you are satisfied with your demo site. Once you decide to use the new one as your main website, I'll help you to do the transformation to the host you picked, get you familiar with the management system by email, online tutor or phone call. You can ask for new functional modules and I'll do the updating once it is available. The root authority will be transferred to the drop zone owner and I'll be remained as an external visitor.

WHAT I WON'T DO:

I won't write the objective, the history, the policy and the story of your drop zone on your website. I'll get them directly from your current website or you need to write by yourself. I won't pay the hosting fee for your website. You need to pay the hosting fee to your own host. The hosting for your demo site, which is under my domain, is free for you to review.

WHAT YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY HAVE:

Everything you have in your demo site or anything you see in the other's demo site upon request. These will include the forum supports multimedia posts, photo galleries, video galleries and hierarchical membership management supporting article submission, calender or work schedule, google map to the drop zone and weather broadcast of the drop zone, and a knowledge base explaining how parachute works.

WHAT YOU WILL PROBABILY HAVE SHORTLY:

A video tutor for each jump leading to get the A license for student jumper. It's about 10 clips and I recommend the participating drop zones provide a segment at their convenience and share among them all. I also plan to design a flash game for AFF and canopy flying that mimic the real procedure of skydiving. The donators name and logo will be on the background. People will know your drop zone when having fun with the free game.

WHAT IS YOUR OBLIGATION:

You promise to cross link other drop zones' website which are in this project as your buddy site. You promise to cross link my personal website as your designer. I appreciate if you'd like to mention this campaign to the other drop zone owners.

THE WORKFLOW OF THE PROJECT:

1. Send me an email to request to join the project informing me your name, website address, phone number, email, and feel free to ask what you expect in the new site. You can already view the demo site here. Register as a guest and try all the functionalities. Inform me how much you intend to donate.

2. I'll assign you a restricted account so that you can see who is participating the project and your position in the priority queue. The queue is sorted on the amount of intended donation and the time the request is provided. The highest intended donation will get the first priority. You can also view other sites under construction. I'll try to limit the developing time to one week for each site and do multiple sites in parallel.
   

3. Once your demo site is done, you will either chose to make the full donation (could be 0) as much as you intended before and take the new design as is, or quit the project and owe me nothing. In either way, you allow me to display your demo site to the other participants before the end of December 31, 2009 (I'll keep the newest demo for a while). Basically, you are not allowed to take the design at a deduced amount of the original intended donation. If you want to have the new design with 0 donation, inform me before hand and I will be glad (oh no, I hate) to offer my design. (I'm kidding, KFC is offering free meal, why couldn't I?)

I am expecting that all of us will benefit from this project and you will be confident to have me as a dependable supporter and will offer me a cup of bear once I drop by, hopefully I already have the A license at that time.

Finally, I, the designer of your new website, am a researcher in multimedia analysis and retrieval bearing a doctoral degree in information technology, a student skydiver, a student hang glider and a student scuba diver. Basically, I am enthusiastic in three dimensional maneuver no mater in the air or in the water.

Click the FAQ for the frequently asked questions for this project.

Clicke http://skydivingcarolina.ilovesky.info/skydivingcarolina to see how your future website could be like, feel free to register and try all the toys.