This is the proposal I made for my graduation project. Please read it and help to give me some precious feedback. Thank you!

1. SHARE, INTERACT, RESPECT
GET FAMILIAR WITH ALL CULTURES AND THEIR TREASURES
Bidbook version 5.3.2012
By Marco de Groen
Dutch student at CMD Breda

2. CONTENT INTRODUCTION
The whole concept in short
Cultural Treasures is an online platform that allows users to post and share manners of their own
INTRODUCTION Blz.1 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
How did I get to this idea and why? 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.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL Blz.2-4 Scope and target group
How does this whole platform work? 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
STAKEHOLDERS AND ADDED VALUE Blz.5 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.
Who are the stakeholders and what are the benefits?
Main question
WHY THIS BIDBOOK AND QUESTIONS How to get Chinese and Dutch people to look through each other’s eyes and really see each
Blz.6
other’s cultures?
Why did I make this bidbook?
Introduction
An online platform that will open a door to information that has never been seen or published
CONTACT ME Blz.7 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
How can you contact me? 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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3. CONCEPTUAL MODEL
A USER POSTS A MESSAGE ABOUT MANNERS
CONCEPTUAL MODEL
Post/Type message Message must be manner
or tradition related
User uses... For the post
Selected by himself -Stories Post needs
from his own background
-Experiences content and context
Connected to or someone else his background
Family and friends -Education Is connected to
-Way he is raised Consists
Might include
of
LTURE N T ENT
CU CO NTEXT
Register/Log in
Info connected
FIRST
CO
Register/Log in Post may consist of -Actions
to user profile
-Culture
-Country FIRST Text, Photo’s or Video’s -Language -Time
Traditions -Region Join or help
FILLED IN BY USER -Objects -History
and to create
Manners -Ethnicity community -Job function -Location
-Religion Data connected to
-Behavior -Circumstances
BY POSTING
each post -Language
Will structure
and map posts
AGS/ I
-Learn
Find and connect to
other users of different
AT
T -Username N
U N I T Y / GR
DA
cultures or the same
-Share
FO
Understanding
and
-Age
-Comment
M
Respect
-Discuss -Job function
M
Have the opportunity for:
-Country In user
OU
CRUCIAL
CO
-Region account NEEDED
-Contacts -Interaction and each
P
-Ethnic group DATA
-Work post All combined together =
-Network -Religion
-Opportunities Unique data and information
-Catagory
-Insight information
Insight information
-Content
-Eating
-Greeting
-Unique information -Entering House Data can be reshared
-Gathered
Usefull and
-Heritage of culture usable for Catagory subjects
-Manners in different new shapes like:
-Valuable information Cultural interested people -Etc. -Ranked
Students -Shared A book
Business people An application
Tourists Stakeholders Thanks to users -Discussed
Experts and community -Feedback A website
Investors -Mapped Articles
-Structured E-mails
-Tagged Social Media
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4. CONCEPTUAL MODEL STAKEHOLDERS AND ADDED VALUE
How does it work? What is the use of this platform?
The cross media platform addresses ‘manners in context’ as valuable Cultural Treasures. • Give essential insights from each others cultural treasures
Therefore the platform will be referred to as CT. A CT-user posts a message about a manner on • Make people aware of the power and use that are connected to manners, traditions and
the platform. etiquettes
• Change peoples insights and state of mind towards each other
Each user has his own cultural background with the following key factors: Country, Region, Ethnic • Improve communication, respect and understanding for each other
group and Religion. These key factors are very important so each post can be mapped and • Lower the wall for discussing each others cultural treasures and make it more common to talk
structured well with the right tags. Linked to these key factors are manners and traditions from about
the culture that the user has. These manners and traditions are shared and related to family and • Enrich people with the knowledge of each others cultural treasures
friends of the user. • 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
Each user also has the possibility to connect to the community on the platform. In this community • Make a cultural legacy for the younger generation
users can interact with each other, build a network or place content in it. • Find people with the same interests
Interaction with users from the same culture or from other cultures will make people able to learn, • Link and map every manner by country, region, ethnic group and religion
share, discuss and comment on each other. • Create content that is reliable since it comes from the people itself
A network will lead to new contacts and these new contacts can provide the users with work, Stakeholders of the platform intern and extern
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 Extern:
this content will be a cultural heritage of each users culture. Eventually all of this content is
valuable information. • Sponsors and investors
• People with interest for their culture and others
This information is extremely useful for all sorts of users like: cultural interested people, students • Students that follow studies connected to cultures
who are doing a study related to this information, business people who like to get new connections • Business people who have and need connections in other cultures
or understand a culture better for business matters, tourists who like to travel to a certain country, • Tourists who travel to other countries
experts who want to represent their culture and finally investors who would like to invest in this • Experts and representatives of ethnic groups, religions and countries
useful data for profitable purpose. All these people together are the stakeholders of this platform.
Intern:
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 • Myself, I am the creator and want to make a successful platform
will help to map and structure the content on the platform. • A possible partner, to help me realize the platform
And thanks to the users on this platform this data will be: Gathered, Ranked, Shared, Discussed, • My school, to judge my platform and let me graduate
Consist of feedback, Mapped, Structured and tagged.
Stakeholder benefits
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! Thanks to the extern stakeholders (also called users) there will be a great amount of benefits
Stakeholders and their added value in short • 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)
Suppliers of content: Business people, Students, Experts, Tourists, People who want to share • Content with a very high amusement factor but also easy to learn and understand (for all)
Added value: Information, Network, Community, Products, Work • One central point where people can share and gather for manners (for all)
• Respect and understanding between different cultures (for all)
Consumers of the platform: Business people, Students, Experts, Tourists, People, (Social) Media • Enrich themselves (for all)
Added value: Information, Mapped and ranked, Product, Understanding, Amusement • Build up a network with contacts (students and business people)
• Advertise and sponsor the content on the platform (sponsors and investors)
Producers: Me (Marco de Groen), Partner, Sponsor • Get content which is reliable (students and business people)
Added value: Content generated by users, platform, eyecatcher, unique formula • 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)
Investors: Sponsors, Partners, Business People, Experts
Added value: Network, Community, Respect, Information/data, Exposure worldwide
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5. WHY THIS BIDBOOK? CONTACT
Why this bidbook? And what do I ask from its reader? Please 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
Off course there is a raison why I made this bidbook. I am hoping that you as a reader are willing concept. I’m still looking for someone to create this website with, interested? Contact me.
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. My contact details are:
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.
QUESTIONS
Marco de Groen
Please go to this link below (or mail me) and help me answer these questions in order to make this Graphic Designer / Multimedia Designer
great platform a success. The questions I have are: info@marcodegroen.com
• What is your job function and background? Mobile number: (+31) 06 50 49 53 31
• Are you interested in this project? Website: www.marcodegroen.com
• 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=dC1uM0xNUm1lSzdKdldfMEhEVlVUN0E
6MQ
THANK YOU!
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