---
# System prepended metadata

title: EI2030 Website Language
tags: [EI2030]

---

---
date: "2020-04-30"
title: "EI2030 Website Language"
tags: EI2030
---
## Authors: 
- Alexander Soto
- Yousef Tehrani
- Tom Phillips

## Resources
- [Markdown Tutorial](https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/)

## Text
The goal of EI2030 is to promote healthier computing practices, particularly the use of non-emissive displays such as e-ink and connecting people who are interested in learning and discussion, thereby facilitating the exchange of ideas and collaboration. Our community is open to everyone and consists of a broad mix of hardware hackers, health-tech enthusiasts, productivity hackers, gadget lovers, and entrepreneurs. 

Recently at EI2030, we’ve launched our Community Built E-Ink Laptop Project. The project’s objective is to build a proof of concept of an e-ink laptop, and as a community, we pool our resources, knowledge, and expertise. To achieve our objective, we are organized into working groups.

## General thoughts on revamp (Yousef)
- My first thought as I look at ei2030.org is that it's very cluttered. It's hard to read the topmost text, "Heads up, LED/LCD." The images/graphics are jarring and aren't very e-ink friendly (my Boox Max has trouble displaying the page at all). 
    - There's also a lot of text--- too much, I think, and dense
- My instinct for the website would be to really pare it down a lot, especially the home page. A really simple, clear graphic or two (like an image of someone squinting at a bright LED screen--graphics that basically suggest in the simplest way what the problem is that we're addressing. Obviously this is too stock image-like but it's in the ballpark: https://images.app.goo.gl/FAc1QMXQuUEkcP4EA) 
    - Then simplify the text too, e.g. "Screens hurt" (header).
    - Then some really simple text, with clear headers for each section
e.g. The problem: Standard displays are like giant light bulbs...(can draft in more detail later--but brief)
The solution: ...
About us:...(here might be the place for that paragraph from above: The goal of EI2030 is to...)

## Questions for Alex related to EI2030
- Who is the audience for the website?
- How can people get involved--say, people who don't necessarily have a tech background?
-  We're talking about three concepts here that most people are unfamiliar with:
    1. emissive vs non-emissive displays
        - Maybe we want to have a general resources/educational section:
            - History of e-ink/non-emissive displays
            - How they work and why they're different
            - an overview of all the companies that make e-ink products and where to buy and read reviews
            - Possibly part of this section or possibly in another section: barriers to wider e-ink adoption
    2. open source 
        -  Doing things in an open-source way also seems to be important to you, and you may need to have another section devoted just to explaining that, and/or linking to other resources on it.
    3. tech and social justice
        -  The connection to equity, accessibility, social justice needs explanation. Again, perhaps another section. 
- There may also be a fourth concept: the connection to healthier computing practices in general (which extends beyond the issue of emissive vs non-emissive displays)
- all this info should be separate, I think, from the laptop project so that the background for non-tech folks is not mixed up with tech stuff that will be gibberish to most people. 
- In general, I think technical stuff should be in distinct sections and not mixed in with other sections that are aimed at a non-technical audience. As it is, on your blog, they're kind of mixed together. I'm happy to try to extract the non-technical stuff and try to write out some of those more public-facing sections.
- At some point we may want to think about SEO
- I do think we need to think more about what the overall goals of this organization are so we can make that clear to people who visit. What do we mean "promote" e-ink? Promote it how? We want to make an open-source laptop--what does that even mean (see notes above)? Does that mean no profit? 
    -    Do we want any of these ideas/prototypes to be picked up by major manufacturers? This would seem to suggest that yes, we do:
            -    *There is still the bootstrapping problem of creating enough demand to satisfy a manufacturer’s ‘MOQ’ (minimum order quantity) such that they will actually produce such displays. If enough of us get together & show interest, there may be a way to solve this chicken & egg problem by getting a manufacturer to bite in making tablet/monitor-sized RLCDs or another non-emissive display.*
            - If so, for those who are not able to contribute direclty to the building of this laptop, how do they "show interest"? How does one go about building momentum to persuade a manufacturer to pick up an idea? Are there any past initiatives that can be a model for us? 
            - How can an open-source, social justice ethos coexist with this goal of getting major manufacturers to produce devices with non-emissive displays (beyond e-readers)?
- Is there a concise term we can use to refer to devices that have emissive displays but are NOT just e-readers? e.g. tablets, external monitors, phones, laptops, desktops with non-emissive displays...
Becuse there are plenty of e-readers on the market. We are trying to promote non-emissive displays BEYOND e-readers. 



## Text from redesign mockup (@tom)


### Home screen


EI 2030 - open source eink community

An open community dedicated to healthier computing through non-emissive screens. Currently building an eink laptop.

get involved(button)


#### Menu page

- vision + mission - healthier computing via non-emissive screens
- community - open to everyone, structured into working groups
- progress - building our open-source eink laptop
- our working groups - see what they’re working on
- core team - who’s in it?
- blog - where we post updates every now and then

<br/>

#### Our vision of healthier computing

Non-emissive screens (think amazon kindle) are like a piece of paper - illuminated by reflected light from the environment. This means they **are easy on the eyes**, blend into the background and don’t pull on our attention. 
> [name=Yousef Tehrani] Just think we might want to mention eye strain here. 

We believe non-emissive screens can enable calmer computers which help us think - concentrate, create and focus on the things that matter. 

<br/>

#### Our open community making it happen

Non-emissive screens have been around since the 90s, but they haven’t reached scale outside of e-readers.

EI2030 exists to to speed up their progress - we’re creating an open-source eink laptop.

Our community is open to everyone! Together we pool resources, knowledge, and expertise. Whoever you are, whatever your level of experience we’d love for you to join us! 

We are organized into working groups, each is focused on a different part of the project (e.g., hardware, software, website, UX, **publicity?**).
> [name=Yousef Tehrani] In the final version I'd advocate for spelling out acronyms, at least the first time e.g. UX. I guess I am thinking that we want to be inviting to non-technical people--also making sure they feel they can contribute (i.e. publicity)


- join our mission (button)
- our working groups (button)


<br/>

#### Our progress - Project Archer

We’ve been making progress building Archer, a laptop with an eink screen, LCD secondary screen, custom motherboard & 3D printed chassis. 
> [name=Yousef Tehrani] Is this our only goal/project? Like can we add "promoting e-ink" or something (and, if so, better define/describe that?)
<br/>

#### Subscribe to our newsletter if you want to receive updates every and now and then :)

email address. subsribe.









### Join our mission screen

Join our mission!

Whoever you are, whatever your level of experience we’d love for you to join us!

Click the link to join our Zulip channel, or you can email alex: contact@alexsoto.dev

Join our zulip (button)


### Support/Donate screen

Support our mission!

EI2030 is self-funded and staffed entirely by volunteers!

If you want to support our mission you can do so via the link on the right. We are really grateful for your contribution!

Contributions typically go towards ___

Buy us a coffee (button)



### Our working groups screen

These are our current working groups. You can find out more about each by following the links on the right.