Comments (28)

• Pierre

  It looks great Mr. Tucker! It would be great if y'all added a sidebar like the one on youtube with "more media from the same author" and "related media".
  

  Published: October 22, 2009 1:22 PM

• Roger

  The mockup is much better than the current page. I say "Go for it!".

  Published: October 22, 2009 1:28 PM

• Slim934

  You may want to organize Mises University talks and Seminars as their own category, and then make it so that you can choose presentations that were at one of the seminars.

  So like you would start with Mises Institute Seminars --> October 21 Salamanca: Birthplace of Economics--> Then choose which talk you want to listen to.

  Published: October 22, 2009 1:30 PM

• DD

  Consider Changing "The Austrian School" To "Austrian Economics"

  There is not enough indication that Economic Science is being studied here. People make a distinction between Economics and Philosophy. People who want to learn about economics should feel they are getting economics and not just philosophy.

  Published: October 22, 2009 1:36 PM

• Orlando

  Very nice (and, yes, long overdue!).

  Published: October 22, 2009 2:05 PM

• Konstantin

  Looks good. I would also suggest creating "sets" of video/audio and book lists for people new and unfamiliar to Austrian economics to get them started. The material available on the Mises site is greatly appreciated but can be overwhelming without some suggestions.

  Published: October 22, 2009 2:14 PM

• Steven

  The vision looks quite good. Might I suggest a means whereby an individual could queue up several items? I have found myself looking into several different arenas on a similar topic and the aforementioned lends itself to develop personalized study.

  Keep up the good work.

  LPUK Scotland Party Secretary

  Published: October 22, 2009 2:15 PM

• Steven

  The mockup certainly has a more modern look to it, but finding material appears to be more difficult than before. It seems fair that Mises gets his own tab, but I would change the others - if they are kept - to (Austrian) Economics and Philosophy.

  The mockup appears to largely cast aside the existing Category navigation, which I find very useful. It might also be worth giving users who consume most of the media as it is released (that must be quite a significant percentage!) an easy way to access new material.

  Published: October 22, 2009 2:30 PM

• Shed Plant

  The media page should retain the same style (colour, size, font) scheme as the rest of the site. That doesn't seem to be the case in the mock picture.

  Published: October 22, 2009 3:39 PM

• Robert Brager

  Zip files would be nice. What's the word on that?

  Published: October 22, 2009 3:42 PM

• Sean A

  I liked the full course section that was taken down.

  Published: October 22, 2009 4:07 PM

• AJ Witoslawski

  The mockup looks really good, but remember that sometimes there is a trade-off between functionality and coolness. The primary goal of Mises.org should be to make those vast resources available to as many people as possible. So don't go overboard with graphics; just make sure it will be easy for everyone to view.

  Published: October 22, 2009 4:32 PM

• Ryan

  Wow.. Very nice. I like that a video is highlighted on the front of the page.

  Published: October 22, 2009 4:33 PM

• Sean W. Malone

  Hey everyone, I'm glad most of you view this as an improvement... I just wanted to chime in real quick and let you know that my designs above (I am doing the reorganization & redesign project) are just a quick mock-up and that of course fonts and styles will all match on the final product.

  All criticism is welcome, but it would be mostly helpful to me to read critiques of the tabs/menus being suggested and and any special features you might think would be worth while. And please understand that the final product cannot accommodate every possible desire, but the goal will be to make the site attractive and informative to new-comers as well as retain the search functionality of the existing system. Don't worry about losing the ability to find the old media you need, once my reorganization has been completed, it should be easier and more practical than ever before.

  Thanks for the input,
  Sean

  Published: October 22, 2009 5:31 PM

• Art Carden

  I've always liked the "courses" section, and I think that would be a useful tab. I know they're currently categorized, but can the lectures be tagged by topic?

  Published: October 22, 2009 6:50 PM

• Charles Hanes

  I think it is fine to spiff up this section, and promote items of interest to new visitors, but make certain it is easy to browse the various media collections if you already know what you want.

  I sometimes wish to quickly go pick up a chapter of one of the audio books, or one of the lectures in a course. It seems that the search function would have to be used to find the right items in this approach.
  

  Published: October 22, 2009 7:15 PM

• David C

  I have a better recommendation for a template: http://google.com

  See how it's nice, simple, uncluttered, and lets people get to the meat fast. KISS.

  Published: October 22, 2009 8:15 PM

• Sean W. Malone

  Art:

  I am in the process of tagging the lectures by topic as I reorganize everything. It's a lot of media for me to sift through, so it will take a while, please bear with me.

  And again, do not worry - searching through the files will be much easier than it currently is once we're done. I suspect many regular visitors are unaware of the vastness of the resources available already, because most of the old media is currently devoid of any kind of subject tags or searchable descriptions and thus is excluded from current searches.

  Again, please bear with me on the organization and do not fear - by the end, it will only be easier to find what you want. In fact, with some of the big chunks or reorganization already done, you may find it easier already to click through categories and find what you want.

  Thank you all again...

  Published: October 22, 2009 8:47 PM

• Sean W. Malone

  Also... David C:

  Google is wonderful... IF you already know what you want to find.

  The search feature isn't going anywhere. What I'm trying to do instead, however, is create a multimedia component to the LvMI site that will draw in new users and people who have no a priori knowledge of what the Mises Institute is all about.

  Published: October 22, 2009 9:03 PM

• Alexander S. Peak

  Some sort of cross referencing is important. I should be able to find For a New Liberty in both a Rothbard file and in an audiobooks file, for example.

  (And, as a random side-note, I never understood why you got Dr. Lilley to read "I, Pencil" when a recording exists of Leonard Read reading "I, Pencil" himself. Would FEE not grant you permission to upload their audiofile to Mises.org?)

  Yours,
  Alex Peak

  Published: October 22, 2009 9:07 PM

• Rick

  Will you ever be putting higher quility files up of some of the older audio presentations?

  Were many of the older lectures you have as audio only files taped to video? It would be really cool to view the video versions if any of the older seminars were video taped.

  Published: October 22, 2009 9:10 PM

• Jeremiah Dyke

  Not that this is immediate but,

  It would be nice to have more description of what the audio is about, including a quick 60-sec preview clip

  It would also be nice to have the option to pull up the written text while your listening to, say, an audio book or audio article without bringing up two webpage’s and conducting two separate searches.

  I would also be nice if the website remembered what files you listened to previously by your login

  A further reading section for book/paper/article suggestions would be nice based on the lecture.

  A playlist would be good
  

  Published: October 22, 2009 9:42 PM

• Jeremiah Dyke

  It would also be nice if one could make comments after listening to an audio. To ask questions for clarification or to even post a disagreement.

  Published: October 22, 2009 9:44 PM

• Tracy Saboe

  I don't know about the media section.

  But on the blog I miss being able to look at archives.

  I mean, now if I want to look at archives, all I can see are the titles. It used to be when you looked at archives, Mises blog showed the entire posts of all the posts for the past month. I hate the constant clicking on each title that I have to do now, if I'm trying to catch up. At least have the archive page show the abstracts.

  Most blogs have a way to show "previous" and then show the previous 20 abstracts or whatever. I like that better then the way it is now.

  Tracy

  Published: October 23, 2009 1:03 AM

• Tracy Saboe

  I see a lot of people asking for high quality or high def versions of stuff.

  Frankly, I'd like to have the option to view LOW QUALITY versions of videos already on the site. Currently I have to hit play and then wait for it to load a third of the way if I don't want my conputer to hiccup.

  Not everybody has 3 Gigs of ram. Some people have computers that are 8 years old - because we're not Keynesian and don't go out and spend all our money and depreciating upgrades.

  Personally I cringe when I see people asking for Hi Def, because I'm afraid you'll stop the regular def.

  I don't know how difficult it would be to have different options like that (a low def, regular, and high def) but if it's possible I would really appreciate it.

  Published: October 23, 2009 1:09 AM

• DixieFlatline

  Definitely don't like the splash page within the site look. It doesn't look very modern. It's also very dark.

  Also the tabbing seems a little redundant. There is already a lot of nav on the page. Featuring a particular video doesn't seem to be a good use of the media page. Featured videos and media could go on the front of the site. 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 use the media section all of the time.

  I want these things in particular which are under-served now.

  I want a comprehensive author list
  I want an alphabetical title list
  I want a chronological list
  I want a topic list
  I want a list sorted by media
  And I want a list of what is newest

  (all vertical please, the tag cloud format is annoying to use, it doesn't cater to discriminating searchers, it caters to people who have no idea what to click on)

  Now that is navigation which means something to someone trying to find material in the media section.

  I realize the design might be far down the road, but a better use of whitespace could be the sort of treatment that will still look good two years from now.

  Published: October 23, 2009 3:34 AM

• Jay

  I echo the sentiment of the others that enjoy the current category navigation and the lack of mention of economic science.

  I am also wondering how all of the Media would be separated into only three tabs of Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School, and Philosophy of Liberty.

  What happens to the critiques of Keynes, the history seminars, the interviews, the political science, the plethora of subjects and media that do not fall into those three narrow views?

  Published: October 23, 2009 4:56 AM

• keijo

  A beginners guide to austrian economics would be great. Something like the article collections that you have on the bailout and the healthcare reform.

  At this moment the site is useful only to people with extensive prior knowledge about economics. A newcomer who stumbles upon a very complicated daily article or just a regular longer one will never revisit this site because it goes over the top. A link in full view on the front page with a title like "Austrian school beginners reader" will solve this problem and attract new people to this site.

  After all to my understanding this site is not just about advancing austrian economics but also about advancing freedom. For this purpose you need to attract the masses who have little prior understanding about economics.

  Published: October 24, 2009 9:52 AM