WiserEarth Editors
Collaboration in serving the greater WiserEarth community
As active community members, we would like to make this group into a gathering point where we can work together to transform WiserEarth.org into an effective platform of support for the global community of concerned citizens and organizations who are working to create a more just and sustainable world. ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Nov 20, 2007
Updated: Nov 25, 2009
Membership: Invitation Only
Semi-Private
Topic: Roles and responsibilities of Editors. Let's define together.
Posts (1 - 16 of 16)
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2. What specific roles should we create for Editors? (name of these roles, tasks for each role). Here's one editing role that keeps popping up in answers to question #10 in the survey:
We can name this editing role Discussion Moderator. I imagine editors with this role to
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I would be interested in moderating a discussion on development economics, which is currently an academic and practical disaster area. See, for example, Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents. What we could be doing is hinted at in Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen, in the classic Small is Beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher, and in recent work of Jeffrey Sachs, Muhammad Yunus, and others.
My starting point is thinking about the economic, social, and political impact of integrated development, including education, broadband communications, renewable energy, microfinance, health, civil society institutions, and much more. I have been collecting examples of global best practices in each of those areas. The one I concentrate most of my efforts on is One Laptop Per Child. I consider OLPC to be the necessary infrastructure for everything else, in addition to its obvious merits for preparing children to take real jobs, or better still, to start businesses together and create many more jobs for other school graduates.
The end result of this chain of thought is twofold: A way to create a genuine Free Market, and in consequence the End of Poverty at a Profit all around, for the formerly poor most of all. Genuine Free Trade is not the current nonsense where corporations can go anywhere and do anything but people can't. The definition of a competitive free market is that no actor has sufficient market power to set prices or otherwise regulate the behavior of others, so that market forces, aka supply and demand, will tend to set prices as low as possible consistent with paying for providing them. This is what I propose that the billion children of the world aim at in creating their new enterprises, and this is what computer and communications technology can support as nothing before.
I have costed out the entire plan, which is well within the resources that are pledged to development, and I am assembling a team to carry it out. I also need people who can criticize the plan intelligently, not from the armchair, but from the ground, and help us to improve it. Particularly from among the poor, who know what their immediate problems are better than any of us. |
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Thank you Edward for your thoughts. Just want to remind you that this thread is about defining roles for WiserEarth Editors. I would be happy to discuss your ideas in another, more appropriate forum.
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Ok this is two times I've tried to type in replys here and my text has just disappeared...i think we have a bug
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Ok this is two times I've tried to type in replys here and my text has just disappeared...i think we have a bug
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Our comment/reply system is definitely tweeking out right now
my last and final try to make it work:
we should not try to reinvent the wheel re: editing/editors...Jimmy Wales has done an incredible job of facilitating the community's editing process over at wikipedia. We should set up a meeting with Jimmy (I'm happy to call this meeting) to find out ways to collaborate with him/his model.
I found this on their site which is quite interesting especially the list of articles that havent been edited since 2005 and therefore there is certainly room for us at WE to improve the "wheel" that Jimmy has forged http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal |
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Sorry to hear about the trouble with posting your comments Scott. Perhaps you can report it in the Help Desk along with you browser and OS info so we can have the tech team fix it? As a habit, I always copy my comment before posting it anywhere in the web, not just in WE. Just in case anything funny happens.
Regarding the wheel. Yes, we did examine some parts of Wikipedia's model a while back (including the Community Portal), but not thoroughly enough it seems. Would absolutely be great if you can contact Jimmy on this! Gee... wish I can be there in that meeting! Or could you possible get Jimmy in our group? I will be glad to send him an invitation if he's interested (will need his email address).
Two things to keep in mind:
Regardless, I'm sure there are many things that we can learn from Wikipedia (for example, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Quick_directory). Thus, would be great to have Jimmy on board. |
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2. What specific roles should we create for Editors? (name of these roles, tasks for each role).
Here's another possible role we can call Outreach from answers to question #10 in the survey::
Which seems to be what some group members already do. From answers to qustion #16 "If you are interested in helping WiserEarth in other ways, please write your thoughts below":
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Wow, there's a lot of information going on here. Hmm, so far it looks
like 4 roles have been suggested or defined, and those descriptions
seem to be well laid-out already:
I think hours need to be somewhat flexible for the volunteers. There will be some editors who can contribute more hours, and some less. Each editor could state about how many hours they expect to contribute that month to their team (of other editors in that role), and then the work can be divided up accordingly. |
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Great comments Kerry. Summing up what we have to this point under the original questions:
1. What general role and tasks for every Editor? In other words, what will differentiate Editors from general users? (some of you have answered this in the survey) "I think the main distinction with editors thus far is not that they are so much more talented or skilled than the non-editor user, but that they have decided to devote a certain amount of time towards Wiser." (Kerry in a discussion with me via WE internal messaging system. Hope you don't mind me quoting this Kerry)
2. What specific roles should we create for Editors? (name of these roles, tasks for each role). AoF Editor, Directory Editor, Moderator, Outreach (see preceeding discussion and WE Editors job page for more details)
3. How many hours per week or per month should each Editor commit to their chosen role? Based on answers to Q15 in the survey, it seems that a commitment between one to five hours a week is reasonable. Kerry's idea to ask editors in advance of time availability for the following month is great.
4. Can an Editor have more than one role? If yes, should there be limits? Yes. They may want to focus on their chosen role(s) but can be flexible when time and resources permits to help out Editors with other roles. Up to three roles seems reasonable.
5. How would Editors with the same role team up? By creating a discussion, wiki and create a list of weekly tasks around each role, categorized by time needed to accomplish tasks (the discussion can happen in the comment section of the wiki). This should be done in this group. Once things are concluded, Editors with the same role can proceed to manage relevant working groups of the Editors group, or create new ones as needed.
How does this sound? |
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Here are some other possible roles based on the answers to question #10 in the survey
Network Connector (Networker? Organizer?) - Create, grow, and manage groups around specific issues - Connect users who share similar interest and work - Connect groups wih similar focus
Community Support (Support?) - Welcome/mentor new users. Provide help, guidance and coaching for users and group admins - Maintain FAQ pages, tutorials and other help articles
Platform Developer (Developer?) - Investigate ways to make the platform more usable and useful to the community. - Help create technical-specification / mockups / code to add functions or fix bugs in the future |
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Its been touched on a bit, but following on steering members to constructive (rather than destructive) contributions, I could image the case where a member has made repeated violations of the Community Guidelines / Values. Should the Editors, as guardians of the community, have the decision making authority (presumably collectively) to ask an Administrator to remove a member? I'm not talking here about spammers but more members who contribute but in such a way that they damage the sense of community on WiserEarth through personal attacks on other members etc and despite being given guidance do not change their behavior.
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@Angus: Yes, I think Editors should be granted that authority. We'll need to define specific procedures for that (e.g. How to start the deliberation process? Should all Editors agree on the decision? Etc.)
In fact, we may as well create an Editor role for that:
Mediator - Help mediate user conflicts - Steering members to contribute constructively - Recommend new / changes to policies and guidelines related to community interaction
How does this sound?
More roles in relation to WiserEarth intention to go truly global.
Language Support - Translate WiserEarth's interface into different languages - Translate key contents (About Us page, etc.) into different languages - Facilitate cross-language communication between users
Regional Coordinator - Spearhead outreach and localization effort for a country - Create, grow and manage regional/national group - Gather and entry region-specific entities (orgs, events, resources...) - Develop regional portals (wikipages)
Another role to help with outreach and community engagement:
Community Journalist - Gather interesting news and development within and about WiserEarth - Conduct interviews with active / prominent community members. - Create and distribute a WiserEarth newsletter for distribution
Also, one role that needs to be mentioned
Staff - Editors whose job is to develop and grow WiserEarth - Staff of the Natural Capital Institute
So, it seems that we have defined a good amount of specific Editor roles relating to content, community and platform.
Content: Directory Editor, AoF Editor
Community: Moderator, Networker, Outreach, Regional Coordinator, Support, Journalist, Mediator
Platform: Developer, Language Support
Feel free to comment further on these roles and associated responsibilities/tasks for each role. I've also listed these roles in the WiserEarth Editors and Administrators wiki. |
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Is there a document that I am missing that relates to editors and what AOF they watch? Without some list to know if editors are covering the portals adequately, won't some portals will get loved and rubbed and others languish and be sad?
I don't like the idea of portals wasting away for lack of attention. Let me know what I am missing!
~h |
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There is a document for that which we'll need to revise in light of recent changes and upcoming work to better organize the process of updating AoF portals. Here it is: Area of Focus - List of Editors It's part of our working group WiserEarth Area of Focus Editors (which also needs updating and reactivating). Feel free to throw in any idea you have to make that page more intuitive and useful. |
Hello everyone,
Thanks for all of you who've participated in the recent survey for group members on being an Editor. For a summary of the results, click here.
From answers to question #10, have emerged some very good thinking on what role(s) Editors should play in WiserEarth. I propose that we discuss this here further and establish 'official' roles for Editors to then incorporate into the WiserEarth Editor job posting.
Quoting Mike's (MichaelK) comment in the past on this topic, "As WiserEarth evolves, I imagine many of us will be able to specialize more on specific tasks. More of us will team up on the same role. Fewer of us will be spread out over the site being involved in every discussion and task," ....these roles should help Editors focus on improving specific aspects of WiserEarth's platform, content and community
Here are some questions to help with our discussion here:
1. What general role and tasks for every Editor? In other words, what will differentiate Editors from general users? (some of you have answered this in the survey)
2. What specific roles should we create for Editors? (name of these roles, tasks for each role).
3. How many hours per week or per month should each Editor commit to their chosen role?
4. Can an Editor have more than one role? If yes, should there be limits?
5. How would Editors with the same role team up?
You can throw in your thoughts freely, or by quoting and answering each question. You can also propose another question for others to elaborate upon. Consider reading through answers to question #10 in the survey and the WiserEarth Community Roles page before proceeding.
And here's one answer from a respondent in the survey to keep in mind:
"It should be easy for an editor to help out, but not put very much obligation or expect much from them because they are volunteers."
Thoughts?