There is a need to update and track content within an area of focus (aof).

A WiserEarth volunteer or intern could be given the task of researching the organizations, resources, events, etc. within an aof to ensure its relevance to the aof, and its quality of content.

While on this project, the aof data manager may draw conclusions about the necessity of certain aofs, or the need to combine aofs together.

The volunteer or intern should have expertise in a WE area of focus.

Hey, all:

Hey, Michael: I think this is an excellent idea! Asking for volunteers from the community would be a great way to involve more who are otherwise not, and would improve the quality and usefulness of the AoFs.

It seems the answer to your question, Wen, is "it depends", although I would offer a "no" to the last choice--"all of them". Asking each person to be responsible for one AoF would be sufficient to start with, and this can be consolidated as things progress. Some AoFs would seem to be low maintenance, while others would require more effort.

Sign me up for AoFs in biological issues or sustainability!

David
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Hey, Michael:

Yeah, I would be a hindrance in many fields but an asset in my own areas of expertise, so passion and knowledge are essential characteristics to be used to divide things up. First in line for volunteers is a time-honored sorting technique, although anyone should be able to make suggestions, and if an assigned AoF is abandoned by its manager, for many reasons valid and otherwise, it should be reassigned.

And, a wikipage for such managers and links between it and the AoFs page is certainly in order. Suggestions for standards and responsibilities and a listing of each AoF and its manager would be appropriate, among anything else deemed worthwhile. I suppose, though, the work on the AoFs and their updating is an earlier step. The page, however, could be used now to recruit help.

I will 'cool my jets' now until we can get this done!

David
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oyeah, please feel free to edit or comment

glad u like it :)

There is now a "Working Groups" box in the Editors group, let's make groups for projects which Editors (or anyone) can work on. This will help us develop the idea further and find people who are interested. I think its too early to say whether this will be "implemented" as an official NCI job. Regardless of NCI's stance, if there is a demand and enthusiasm for the aof manager role, we can at least make it official within the Editors group :)

"Will all AoF Data Manager be assigned the WiserEarth Editor status and privileges to be able to edit the AoF portal pages, or will the portal pages be "unlocked" so all users can edit while the Data Managers oversees the editing process to keep things accurate and unbiased?"
-let's open us this discussion in the group.

I like the idea of creating (a) default Areas of Focus editor/manager/resource role(s). The idea being that users with connections to the greatest number of entities falling within an Area of Focus would automatically become an editor for the Area. Then, users who connect to an Area of Focus perhaps could veto the authority of the default editor by clicking a report editor button (we could write some kind of formula to govern how many negative reports an editor receives.

What do you think of this proposal?

Thanks!

Hey all,

James, I like your idea of automatizing the process of assigning AoF editor role. This would be a good reward mechanism for active users/editors. However, most of the time, I believe the real expert on a particular AoF will be more active outside of WiserEarth than within it, and just may not have the time to get connected or connecting entities within a particular AoF. So, the mechanism could be amended by a more deliberate selection process for the role.

And additional reading for this thread will be the upcoming AoF portal template, especially the "people and groups" tab @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/6014a9b2f8e4681eb4d9c722d323bff5

And a comment posted in the discussion about the roles, privileges and responsibilities of editors @
http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/8c0b3b1df27f0f54a90a9b5609d0115c/group/WiserEarthEditors
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... under the "People and Groups" tab in the "People" section, we have the following division:
- Simply Interested
- Experienced Activists and Workers
- Experts

I'm not sure how the template will actually work to facilitate this division, but I imagined that editing privilege for the "Knowledge" tab should only be given to the latter two (Experienced and Expert), which can be given a WE Editor status, while Simply Interested people (regular WE Users) can put up suggestions to improve the "Knowledge" tab in the "Discussions" tab.

We can also accommodate Simply Interested people to contribute under the "Sub-Topics" tab, which can be made freely editable/add-able by regular users. Selected contents from the "Sub-Topics" can then be further refined by Experienced and Expert people to later on be moved over under the "Knowledge" tab.
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see - http://wiserearth.org/group/aof

current name: Area of Focus Stewards

Hey Molly! That seems cool, but Im concerned about how we decide what data is fed into these aofs, as there might be many sources to choose from. Or in some cases, maybe not many sources we can trust for completely relevant and appropriate information.

I'm leaning towards urging the tech team to just develop the other asked-for features on our site first, so that we could reach that critical mass of editors quicker. As of now, updating the aofs doesnt seem to be high on the demand list, and isn't a place I imagine that many people "check out"...so the site structure needs to direct users towards the aofs too.

Hey, all:

The most obvious observations on the AoFs and the pages for each, have to do with the level of coverage in the texts. Some are very scant and rather too general, and many suffer from a lack of simple expertise. I realize being able to focus great expertise is not easy, and so I mean no criticism. I have edited some of the AoFs on a minor scale to address some of the above weaknesses, but only in the areas where I can bring some expertise, and I would expect others to have the same motive in a wide range of expertise.

For me, updating is not so much of an issue as is the above. Many AoFs are fairly static, but some are subject to changing events, but that distinction can be dealt with as editors step up and take on AoFs.

Isn't the Stewards initiative a means of addressing some of the above issues? As these Stewards/Managers develop much of the concern expressed here should fade away. Am I off-base or ill-informed here? Somebody wanna clue me in?

David
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