Bidbook version 5.3.2012By Marco de Groen

Dutch student at CMD Breda

SHARE, INTERACT, RESPECT GET FAMILIAR WITH ALL CULTURES AND THEIR TREASURES

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

How did I get to this idea and why?

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

How does this whole platform work?

STAKEHOLDERS AND ADDED VALUE

Who are the stakeholders and what are the benefits?

WHY THIS BIDBOOK AND QUESTIONS

Why did I make this bidbook?

CONTACT ME

How can you contact me?

INTRODUCTIONThe whole concept in short

Cultural Treasures is an online platform that allows users to post and share manners of their own and of other cultures with users from all over the world. It can be useful to know about manners when you are travelling, doing business abroad or are researching different cultures. The platform transcends existing references on manners because it does not only describe manners generi-cally. It gives deep insights in the contexts and practical use of manners and related manners. Therefore by using this platform you will never act inappropriate when dealing with other cultures.

Scope and target group

The platform will be a cross media tool that allows people worldwide to understand each other better but also to get more interaction between each other. For this project my focus lies on Chinese and Dutch people and their manners. This because I have a strong personal bond with these cultures since my wife is Chinese and I therefore have easy access to both sides.

Main question

How to get Chinese and Dutch people to look through each other’s eyes and really see each other’s cultures?

Introduction

An online platform that will open a door to information that has never been seen or published before! There are no books, online websites or applications yet that are able to get the insight information about manners worldwide the way this website could. People from countries all over the world will fill in the content themselves on this website and will provide us with unique informa-tion about their cultural treasures. This information will be stored in a way that it can eventually be moulded easily into several mediums like a book or an application. This thanks to the way each post is tagged with information provided by each user. Because of the community on this platform users from the same or from a different cultures can interact with each other. Thanks to this interaction the users will get more respect and understanding for each other. And last but certainly not least, users will be able to find and build up a network for both personal and business use.

Why?

Manners from different cultures have never been shared along with the interesting insights about their appropriate use in different contexts. These details are only known by people who are very familiar with the culture or even brought up within a certain culture. There is a strong need for more deeper and detailed information about manners. In order to find out the specific details of each manner you need to consider many key factors like: Country, Region, Ethnic group, Religion, Job function and age. All these key factors make it very hard to map and list the manners in a linear way. Furthermore there seems to be a strong need for a community where people can interact with each other about these manners in order to gain more understanding and respect for different cultures. This platform could help to find people for your network in both the business and the private sector.

Conceptual model

On the next page you will see the conceptual model that I have made for this platform. This model shows what the platform does, who’s involved en how it works. Please take a look. The page after the conceptual model will be used to explain the whole flow in text.

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CONCEPTUAL MODEL

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

A USER POSTS A MESSAGE ABOUT MANNERS

Post/Type message Message must be manneror tradition related

Selected by himselffrom his own background

or someone else his background

CULTURE

-Country-Region-Ethnicity-Religion

Traditionsand

Manners

Connected to Family and friends

Join or helpto create

community

BY POSTING

COMMUNITY/GROUP

Have the opportunity for:

-Interaction-Network-Content

Find and connect toother users of different

cultures or the same

User uses... For the post

-Stories-Experiences-Education-Way he is raised

-Learn-Share-Comment-Discuss

Understandingand

Respect

-Contacts-Work-Opportunities-Insight information

-Unique information-Heritage of culture-Valuable information

Insight information

Cultural interested peopleStudentsBusiness peopleTouristsExpertsInvestors

Usefull and usable for

DATA TAGS/INFO

Post may consist ofText, Photo’s or Video’s

FILLED IN BY USER

-Username-Age-Job function-Country-Region-Ethnic group-Religion-Catagory

Info connectedto user profile

Data connected to each post

In useraccountand each

post

Catagory subjects

-Eating-Greeting-Entering House-Manners-Etc.

CRUCIALNEEDEDDATA

Consistsof

Will structure and map posts

CONTEXTCONTENT-Culture-Time-History-Location-Circumstances-Language

Is connected to

-Actions-Language-Objects-Job function-Behavior

Might include

All combined together =Unique data and information

-Gathered-Ranked-Shared-Discussed-Feedback-Mapped-Structured-Tagged

A bookAn applicationA websiteArticlesE-mailsSocial Media

Data can be resharedin different new shapes like:

Thanks to usersand community

Stakeholders

Post needscontent and context

Register/Log inFIRST

Register/Log inFIRST

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What is the use of this platform?

• Give essential insights from each others cultural treasures• Make people aware of the power and use that are connected to manners, traditions and etiquettes• Change peoples insights and state of mind towards each other• Improve communication, respect and understanding for each other• Lower the wall for discussing each others cultural treasures and make it more common to talk about• Enrich people with the knowledge of each others cultural treasures• Let people know the history and meaning behind manners and traditions• Make a cross media tool to make it more accessible for people all over the world• Make a cultural legacy for the younger generation• Find people with the same interests• Link and map every manner by country, region, ethnic group and religion• Create content that is reliable since it comes from the people itself

Stakeholders of the platform intern and extern

Extern:

• Sponsors and investors• People with interest for their culture and others• Students that follow studies connected to cultures• Business people who have and need connections in other cultures• Tourists who travel to other countries• Experts and representatives of ethnic groups, religions and countries

Intern:

• Myself, I am the creator and want to make a successful platform• A possible partner, to help me realize the platform• My school, to judge my platform and let me graduate

Stakeholder benefits

Thanks to the extern stakeholders (also called users) there will be a great amount of benefits

• Unique content supplied, ranked, shared and discussed by the users themselves (for all)• Tagged and mapped content which makes it very easy to use the content (for all)• Content with a very high amusement factor but also easy to learn and understand (for all)• One central point where people can share and gather for manners (for all)• Respect and understanding between different cultures (for all)• Enrich themselves (for all)• Build up a network with contacts (students and business people)• Advertise and sponsor the content on the platform (sponsors and investors)• Get content which is reliable (students and business people)• Create a cultural heritage for themselves and other generations (experts and interested people)• Be able to create new products like books, applications and articles with the content (sponsors)

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STAKEHOLDERS AND ADDED VALUEHow does it work? The cross media platform addresses ‘manners in context’ as valuable Cultural Treasures. Therefore the platform will be referred to as CT. A CT-user posts a message about a manner on the platform.

Each user has his own cultural background with the following key factors: Country, Region, Ethnic group and Religion. These key factors are very important so each post can be mapped and structured well with the right tags. Linked to these key factors are manners and traditions from the culture that the user has. These manners and traditions are shared and related to family and friends of the user.

Each user also has the possibility to connect to the community on the platform. In this community users can interact with each other, build a network or place content in it.Interaction with users from the same culture or from other cultures will make people able to learn, share, discuss and comment on each other.

A network will lead to new contacts and these new contacts can provide the users with work, inside information (that only they know) or other opportunities. Finally a community will lead to content, but content that consists of unique information. But also this content will be a cultural heritage of each users culture. Eventually all of this content is valuable information.

This information is extremely useful for all sorts of users like: cultural interested people, students who are doing a study related to this information, business people who like to get new connections or understand a culture better for business matters, tourists who like to travel to a certain country, experts who want to represent their culture and finally investors who would like to invest in this useful data for profitable purpose. All these people together are the stakeholders of this platform.

When a user posts a message this message needs to have the following tags: Username, Age, Job function, Country, Region, Ethnic group, Religion and Category. This data is crucial, because it will help to map and structure the content on the platform. And thanks to the users on this platform this data will be: Gathered, Ranked, Shared, Discussed, Consist of feedback, Mapped, Structured and tagged.

In the end this data can be used and reshared to the world in many different and profitable shapes like: A book, an application, another website, Articles, e-mail and off course social media! Stakeholders and their added value in short

Suppliers of content: Business people, Students, Experts, Tourists, People who want to share Added value: Information, Network, Community, Products, Work

Consumers of the platform: Business people, Students, Experts, Tourists, People, (Social) Media Added value: Information, Mapped and ranked, Product, Understanding, Amusement

Producers: Me (Marco de Groen), Partner, Sponsor Added value: Content generated by users, platform, eyecatcher, unique formula

Investors: Sponsors, Partners, Business People, Experts Added value: Network, Community, Respect, Information/data, Exposure worldwide

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

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QUESTIONSPlease go to this link below (or mail me) and help me answer these questions in order to make this great platform a success. The questions I have are:

• What is your job function and background?• Are you interested in this project?• Would you like to participate in this platform? (post and share on this platform)• Are you, or do you know someone who could help me with this platform (sponsor, building, etc)• What is the best way to reach Chinese people for this website? Where to promote it?• What makes this platform attractive/interesting for you?• Do you recognize the situation that is explained in this bidbook?• Do you feel free enough to post on this platform why yes or no? And would you post? Why?• Is there any other remark or feedback that you would like to give me?

Survey can be viewed and answered here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dC1uM0xNUm1lSzdKdldfMEhEVlVUN0E6MQ

THANK YOU!

WHY THIS BIDBOOK?Why this bidbook? And what do I ask from its reader?

Off course there is a raison why I made this bidbook. I am hoping that you as a reader are willing to give me some precious feedback and your opinion on this whole concept. The more feedback and comments I get, the more I can turn this concept into a success. Also I am hoping to find someone who could help me to build this platform. All help is welcome and I hope that after reading this bidbook you are more willing to help me. For now I want to thank you for your time, and I hope there is still some time left for you to answer a few questions I have.

CONTACTPlease feel free to contact me if you have any questions or remarks that you would like to give me. I’m open for everything and will be very happy with every comment made on this concept. I’m still looking for someone to create this website with, interested? Contact me.

My contact details are:

Marco de Groen Graphic Designer / Multimedia Designer info@marcodegroen.com Mobile number: (+31) 06 50 49 53 31 Website: www.marcodegroen.com

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