MiniCD

Project Description

The Cyprus Go Association was formed in September 2003, and has grown from two Go players to a decent Go community. To further spread the game in Cyprus, we were looking for an easy way to introduce people of all ages to the game, particularly youth. One of the challenges was the non-existent Go literature in the Greek language. We created a collection of Go resources and put them on mini-CD's to help us promote Go to as many people as possible in an efficient and effective manner. The collection consists of freeware material and is separated in four sections: "Learn to play Go", "Become stronger", "Extras" and "Internet links". We translated Hiro Mori's tutorial "Interactive Way to Go" to Greek (available from his web site). The learning section of the CD is focused on an offline version of this tutorial because we found it very effective in teaching a complete beginner. The learning section also includes a copy of Igowin, and of course an application to join the Cyprus Go Association. The "Become stronger" section includes Drago sgf editor, GNU Go, Kogo's joseki dictionary, Arno's Fuseki dictionary, and GoGrinder for solving Go problems. These are tools that can help a person explore Go further and develop skill and knowledge. The Extras section for now includes the sunxi go screensaver, and the Links section provides links to a few core Go sites. Of course, the various sections will be periodically updated, building upon feedback and suggestions we receive from people who use the CD as their first introduction to the game.

Mini-CD's are easy to give out to people interested in learning to play Go, and they provide just the right information for someone who wants to learn something about the game before coming to one of our meetings. It also makes it easier for us to help a beginner who has first spent some time to read through the "Interactive Way to Go" tutorial. Furthermore, it is our belief that by circulating the mini-CD's the word about Go will reach people that we might never even meet, just by word of mouth and by sharing/copying the CD.

Objectives

The main objective of our project is to help us spread the word about Go to the whole of Cyprus (and hopefully Greece).

Realisation

The first feedback has been very positive, with cases where people came back to the Go meeting after using the CD and they were excited that they have understood about territory etc. The CD provides a great giveaway for new members, as well as an easy means of sharing the game of Go with friends and strangers alike.

Resources

Human resources: The material was gathered by myself, and I created the web page with advice by Dimitris Regginos (President of the Cyprus Go Association). I then had to burn copies of the CD using my PC. Distribution of the CD's started by the members of the CGA committee and CD's are being made available to members, who are also encouraged to share them with their friends. Financial resources: The costs for buying the mini-CD's and pockets were covered by the Cyprus Go Association. We started with the preparation of 100 mini-CD's. The costs for buying 100 mini-CD's from eBay were minimal.

Possibilities to copy this project

Our project can be implemented in other countries very easily, just by translating the main web page to the country's language. In fact, we believe that in countries or cities where there are not many Go players the mini-CD is an excellent and easy way to introduce people to the game and explain the basics without much effort.