Topic: Ways to Steward WiserEarth's Areas of Focus
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Nice. Let's definitely start with step 1 of 1. Its funny how we have to work around the green activity bar, that needs to be fixed..haha.
On making groups for aofs, I think Im in favor of this..it could work very well as a way to consolidate "favorite" material from each aof. Or to just group material that we know for sure is applicable to that aof. But if we do start it, lets only create the groups that people are interested in, because there are so many! If people do choose to create them though, at least they can be a place for discussions, which as Im sure you've noticed , is good to build a group for...(peak oil, sustainable gardeners) I also think when the aof portals are improved in the future, it could make the use of the aof groups obsolete. Let's experiment with some aofs before going all out. Great observations overall, and on how the groups can be used to identify users who can receive editor status. |
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Yep, let's do that. But before doing so, maybe we should invite other active users to share the task with, and then decide who gets to add what based on the order of AoFs in the list on the browse AoF page. (e.g. user A will add from "Sustainable Agriculture" down to "Responsible Business Practices", user B will add from "..." down to "...", etc.). This sure is funny how we need to work around the green activity bar... :D
And I agree that we need to experiment with several working groups first before going all out. We can start with the most popular and the least popular AoFs. This should enable us to see what will be needed in stewarding both kind of AoFs. But before that, we'll need to finish all agreed steps in No.1. |
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I should add, I actually dont think we should add all the aofs at this point since I don't think all of them will really have stewards. We should at least list the ones which people express interest in. If we ourselves begin listing aofs we're stewarding, others I think will understand the model and do the same.
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Good idea that is, to let the stewarding process grow organically.
I would however suggest to add an "intentional" process into it by asking/messaging community members who've edited each AoF page to consider being AoF stewards and join this group--any time they see convenient. They after all have stewarded those pages prior to the usage of the title "AoF Steward". We should also make a master list of all AoF and the willing stewards for each. This is for mapping and referencing purpose, so that we know who's stewarding which, and can encourge timely updating and improvements of each AoF page. I'll see what I can do for this. |
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There definitely needs to be outreach to invite members to join these aof groups. Inviting members who've already edited a aof portal is definitely a wise first move. We could also work on a master list of orgs, websites, blogs etc to be invited.
A master list of all aofs + willing stewards for eachis a possibility, I just am fearful it will be an exhausting thing to handle. Lets keep this in mind. A separate list for each aof is more feasible. How about we work on a master list, but not include all the willing stewards, just the names of the aofs linked to the separate lists of willing stewards. I imagine these separate aof master lists could include additional information about the aof, like "aof descriptions" which would be editable by anyone, unlike the current portal aofs. |
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Good thinking. A separate list for each aof with those additional info does seems more feasible. The idea of including a kind of "how would you change this aof page" (like the "aof descriptions") is a good one too.
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For further discussion on stewarding ideas, please see here: http://wiserearth.org/article/3984e77bc18f09774f7ceb2a6c20658c
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The full discussion from the following comment section of the "Area of Focus Stewards" article @ http://wiserearth.org/article/3984e77bc18f09774f7ceb2a6c20658c
has been copy-pasted below. Further comments should be posted in this thread to avoid fragmentation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ~~~ bowo: >> David: "ARRRGH!! How do we create such parallel discussions?! More importantly, how do WE reduce and minimize them? WE need have to have a mechanism by which editors can move, redirect, or delete redundant or disjointed comments and the discussions that they produce. There is an almost identical thread (and the same cast of characters!) in the Discussion Forums! This mechanism needs to support continuity." Yeah, this is a problem indeed as John Coate mentioned a few times earlier (in various threads!). Here's a rather old thread in the Editors group on ideas to solve this problem: http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/68402e8890ae9aa0e8edd46dafba0121/group/WiserEarthEditors Maybe you (and others) can repost your comment in this thread there David, to add to the discussion. (by the way, another trick I'm using at the moment, is to direct readers of a wikipage/article I created to post comments in a discussion thread I created beforehand to discuss about the wikipage/article. I do this by posting some directions and link to the discussion thread at the beginning and the end of the wikipage/article.) As an effort to consolidate the two different thread on this subject, I've copied our whole conversation here into the link I provided before in the AoF Stewards group: http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/2f789feac329270c953783b46b525bcc/group/aof I've also responded further there, and I encourage others participating and reading the discussion here to do the same. ~~~ SustainableDavid: Hey, all: Hey, Deborah: Oops, it is I who should apologize, since I was not directing my "tirade" at you. Indeed, I paint myself with the same broad brush! And I share with you the same problem getting around the site--the fact that I just saw this thread is evidence of that. So it is definitely not a problem unique to you. By the way, call me David. It seems part of the problem is that practically every page has a Comment opportunity and the potential for threads, and no way (visible to me at least) to manage the overlap except the kinds of linking efforts that Michael and Bowo (and others certainly) carry out. I would do that, too, but I have difficulty with the mechanics. With regard to the subject of AofFs, one of the things WE seems to lack on the whole is the two-way interchange between WE and members. I get emails every day from Grist, Avaaz, MoveOn, Union of Concerned Scientists, plus several others weekly, and still others ad hoc, as examples of two-way interchange. If more recruitment was actively used, WE would have more volunteers, beyond just signing up on the site. Many of these would be happy to help steward the AofFs. I do agree it helps to experience the AofFs as stewards. My own experience, as I mentioned in the other thread, with editing AofFs, causes me to lean more toward Tags, but this is not a full solution, since the AofF pages and text do provide a very helpful resource. If the Tags were tied to the equivalent appropriate AofF, both benefit. And, Deborah, I think your idea of recruiting students as stewards is a very good one (wherever the idea is! Hah!) since it serves several purposes--and done on the broadest scale, i.e., global--it has great potential. Global should not be an issue from an organizational standpoint, since the same college student in India or Indonesia, or Ivory Coast have much the same interests and needs (and computer) as one in Illinois, or Indiana, Iowa, Idaho.... David Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun! ~~~ MichaelK: Hi boatsie, I'm really glad to hear you're passionate about this idea and I definitely welcome hearing your proposal. Thanks for taking this on! Feel free to post it both in the AOF stewards group and in the Editors group. The thread which bowo referred to, gives an idea of how we want to setup some foundations of the aof stewards group: http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/2f789feac329270c953783b46b525bcc/group/aof I posted this discussion's link on that thread too. David, right now all we can do is make sure we share related links with each other, which bowo does a great job with. My main point of concern is making the role of "AOF Steward" an exciting one. Before we initiate the program, I think we need some of us to experiment a little bit and actually be stewards so that it would be near-crystal clear how to best steward an aof. Perhaps, I am thinking too far down the line, and that it will be quite easy to integrate people in. But I'd just like to feel a little more comfortable though before an aof program is launched... because the AOF stewards group is just beginning to get organized. As for an IT intern idea, so far NCI has not hired any. I'd be interested in seeing a proposal but I would not be too hopeful of this happening, as the tech team has its hands full with projects. ~~~ boatsie: bowo , i'd like to take this up with NCI ... so I post the idea in Editors group or should I write a short proposal offering my services to handle the contacts, etc so we can expedite making this happen? ~~~ boatsie: SD, i feel this is directed 'direcctly' to me because I am just feeling my way around here and not always able to locate my postings .. and so I post similar topics in different sections ... sorry. but on the other hand, I have mentioned elsewhere that I find the UI difficult, not intuitive enough, and groups keep popping up. this if it is a problem and not just my conception (learning curve) should not be difficult to adddress. ~~~ SustainableDavid Hey, all: I apologize, but this is going to be off topic, for reasons which will be apparent: ARRRGH!! How do we create such parallel discussions?! More importantly, how do WE reduce and minimize them? WE need have to have a mechanism by which editors can move, redirect, or delete redundant or disjointed comments and the discussions that they produce. There is an almost identical thread (and the same cast of characters!) in the Discussion Forums! This mechanism needs to support continuity. This works in every direction, by the way. I want to read and understand what others provide, and I want to have some confidence others have a full opportunity to read and understand what I offer. Of course, this is a situation where it can be said, "Editor, heal thyself!" since we as more or less responsible participants started it. Organizing knowledge is essential to knowledge itself. Organic and 'from the bottom up' is great and everything, but time is not on our side. Can WE get a little better organized? David Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun! ~~~ RogerEaton: This interns idea is a winner all around. Deborah's idea of starting with three AoF's and connecting with university internship programs to fill those AoF Stewardships seems almost easy. Maybe it actually *is* easy! WiserEarth has enough cachet to make it a most attractive prospect for both universities and for the actual interns. Is it possible to ask Gen to check in here and give us her thoughts? Bowo, do Indonesian universities have internship programs? ~~~ bowo: Deborah, WiserEarth is a projcet of the Natural Capital Institute, so you might want to contact one of their staff (most are WiserEarth editors) to explore the possibility of collaboration with universities in the form of "internships to steward WiserEarth's AoF". And as I've said in another thread, ideas to integrate the "online" world of WiserEarth with the "onlife" world of concerned citizens are most welcomed and very much needed to help WiserEarth be the site it was intended to be. Prototyping ways to steward an AoF is one of our main priorities (IMO) and we sure could use an extra set of hands. Anyone reading this comment are also welcomed to join the discussion at http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/2f789feac329270c953783b46b525bcc/group/aof ~~~ boatsie: bowo, that's why I think the idea of from the governance or 'founders'? principles? (don't know; who is actually the person in charge of official WE business, we consider contacting various schools about offering an internship. How would WE be able to enter into alliances with universities to provide 'credit' for Independent Study? If We could determine, prioritize say 3 areas of focus, determine/design a working template for prototype, then 'hire' 3 interns who are studying in that area to 'fill in the blanks' and develop the actual content/connections/interactivities. To "own' the AofF... Also, there are several programs obviously in areas such as ITEC where WE could have interns working on implementing the suggestions which are prioritized in a more timely basis ... I'd love to volunteer to work on this idea ... Ive supervised apprentices and interns before ... ~~~ bowo: Getting students into the fold is an excellent idea. Getting the "mentors" however, is still a little bit further down the road, and as Michael said "we've barely touched the water". I think we first need to get more users to be knowledgable about, and actively involved in improving WiserEarth. However, I think many undergraduate level students are passionate and knowledgeable enough about the issues in the areas of focus that, they can be stewards without any mentors, or better yet, they can be mentors for incoming stewards. And they tend to have one big advantage that older WiserEarth users don't... time! Finding these students (not just from North America) and help them become active users is another challenge though. ~~~ MichaelK: Glad you love this idea! Im working with our student intern coordinator, Gen, to see how WiserEarth Interns could integrate this into their workload, in addition to other content-related tasks on the site. I think that if this idea expands enough among volunteers and casual users, we'd see an official intern position for the sole purpose of "aof stewardship". With more participants I figure we can get more ideas so that we have a successful and efficient model on how to be a steward...right now I feel we've barely touched the water. ~~~ boatsie: I just love this idea and I think that if we promoted the opportunities for college students to serve as 'interns' as stewards of these areas we might be quite successful. Has WE registerted with any colleges offering internship opps. For example, while in the MA program at SFSU, the ITEC department was always searching for internships for its grad students. Similarly, my daugther recently graduated from University of Oregon, International Relations. WE could offer internships through many college departments ... we would have to have a group of people here volunteering to serve as 'mentors' ; ie, to be the person in charge of each internship or a group of internships. Wow, could we get a lot done! |
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>> David: "And, Deborah, I think your idea of recruiting students as stewards is a very good one (wherever the idea is! Hah!) since it serves several purposes--and done on the broadest scale, i.e., global--it has great potential. Global should not be an issue from an organizational standpoint, since the same college student in India or Indonesia, or Ivory Coast have much the same interests and needs (and computer) as one in Illinois, or Indiana, Iowa, Idaho...."
>> Roger: "Bowo, do Indonesian universities have internship programs?" Yes we have them, but I'm not sure how many, as compared to universities in more advanced countries like the US. In regards to the "AoF steward internship" idea, language would probably be a major problem, as not that many students are fluent enough in english. If they're fluent enough, most would use the advantage for more financially-rewarding jobs I guess, as opposed to volunteering/interning for a non-profit endeavour like WiserEarth. But I remain optimistic, as more and more people are waking up to the real problems the world has, and take up work in the non-profit sector as a worthy and rewarding challenge. So, I guess, the effort to take the AoF stewardship global would go hand-in-hand with the effort to translate WiserEarth into various languages and building national/regional communities of WiserEarth users (a goal of the "WiserEarth Global Communities" working group, with the brilliant motto David came up with "Think on Every Scale, Act in Every Locality". For more, or to help out, go to http://www.wiserearth.org/group/gcs) |
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Deborah, you might try contacting Genevieve Logan. http://wiserearth.org/user/genlogan She is NCI intern / volunteer coordinator - a member of WE since January this year. She might very well welcome your input.
How long do typical internships run? If they are only two or three months, as I think they may be typically, then it is not just a matter of getting an intern for an AoF, but rather of partnering with an internship program to arrange a steady supply of interns for a particular AoF Stewardship. |
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I agree that perhaps step ! would be for us to actually develop a few stewardships and develop a few AofFs before actually 'hiring' interns.
So 1. Im more than willing to take on a stewardship (Im in ICT afficianados with Michael but he is the steward so I am willing to take on a different one as my own and then work with other stewards so we can develop consistency in the model we follow . 2. I also think Roger's suggestion that I contaCT GENEVIEVE is a good one. so I will work up a small proposal and send to her. 3. Typiically, internships through Universities run for 10-16 weeks, depending on whether the school is on quarter or semester 4. Again, I would like to ask (and this may have been answered elsewehere) if there is any connection yet between WE and Global Voices Online http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/ "Our international team of volunteer authors, regional blogger-editors and translators are your guides to the global blogosphere. These amazing people are bloggers who live in various countries around the world. We have invited them as contributors or hired them as editors because they understand the context and relevance of information, views, and analysis being posted every day from their countries and regions on blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, videoblogs - and other kinds of online citizen media. They are helping us to make sense of it all, and to highlight things that bloggers are saying which mainstream media may not be reporting." a. read about this Lingua project: "Project Lingua seeks to amplify Global Voices in languages other than English with the help of volunteer translators. It will open lines of communication with non-english speaking bloggers and readers of GV by translating main GV site content into other languages." http://globalvoicesonline.org/lingua b. Take a look at their advisors and sponsors:http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/about/advisors c. Perhaps NCI could 'partner' with GVO and share resources ... |
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Hey Deborah, just wanted to make clear, that I think youre more than welcome to take on a steward role in ICT, because I know its a passion of yours. I think there's more than enough space to have a few stewards working together on one aof consistently, from teamwork maybe there's something we can learn. If you'd like to take on another aof, I'd gladly support you to take that on as well.
Gen would welcome your proposal. I'll definitely take a close look at it as wlel. As of yet there is no formal connection between WE and Global Voices. They are definitely a site that we'd learn from, and would complement ours. I'll bring them up with our directors again. |
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michael,
i submitted my proposal earlier today... hope you get a chance to read and comment.... I'd really like to work with you on ICT ... and as I can gather right now. we are still in the midst of figuring out a 'template' for AofFs.... ? Yes? Am I missing somewhere where this conv is going on? |
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Hey boatsie, unfortunately I was little busy today getting prepared to launch the Editors group (and as a result all of the working groups within it), so I'll get to it tomorrow.
The template re-design is being put on hold, I wouldn't focus on it now, but if you ever have ideas on it you want to share feel free to. |
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Hi Deborah.
The 'template' for areas of focus portals is this one (has not been updated for a while, maybe because it's being put on hold): http://www.wiserearth.org/article/74e8b37279c057c969dc47f0ee40ac1e If you have ideas on how to improve it, go here: http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/627682beb3dcba1fdcc89ff68b2c22f2 Note for readers of this thread: Deborah's (boatsie) proposal for the "AoF steward internship" is posted int the file library of http://www.wiserearth.org/article/3984e77bc18f09774f7ceb2a6c20658c/group/aof |
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Hi Deborah,
Please keep us posted on the progress of your excellent proposal at http://www.wiserearth.org/article/3984e77bc18f09774f7ceb2a6c20658c/group/aof I guess if I were NCI/We whoever it is that decides these things, I would want to know if the stipends are paid by the University or by WE. If the latter, then that may be too high a hurdle. Do you know the answer? Would WE be out of pocket to enlist these interns? The second point, and this is also key, is that a clear program must be provided for the interns. Neither WE nor the Universities nor the interns would benefit from just spinning their wheels. They need to get some traction so they can feel they are propelling WE forward. I am hoping Gen will also respond here. I take it she was the one you submitted your proposal to? |
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Hi Everybody,
Just wanted you all to know that I have just discovered this discussion and I have briefly looked over Deborah's proposal. We just posted our summer internship opportunities so I have been flooded with applications and scheduling interviews. Overall I think this could be a good idea and I will definitely look over the proposal more carefully once we hire our summer interns and have some free time. Thanks! |
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I was just thinking over ways to manage AoF from this AoF Stewards group with the following assumptions:
- Without handing out the WiserEarth Editor status to users beyond necessity (based on our discussion @ http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/8c0b3b1df27f0f54a90a9b5609d0115c, which is not the official stance of WE admins or NCI by the way)
- Try to involve as many users as possible in the process
Here's two of the ways I came up with:
1. Stewarding only within this group:
- Listing all AoF portal pages in this group's "Wikipages" section so we can monitor changes made to them and discover which pages have not been updated in a while. The task of adding the AoF should be divided evenly among current Stewards to prevent the "green line" (activity level below the avatar) from being dominated by one steward. We now have 5 stewards and 46 Main AoF + 379 Sub AoF (= 225 pages). So each steward need to add 45 pages.
- Invite interested and "qualified" users to volunteer as stewards for their chose AoF and list them in a wikipage.
- Create discussion threads for each AoF portal page and encourage stewards (users and editors) to put forth ideas on how to improve or update it. Appropriate suggestions can be implemented by Stewards with WE Editor status.
- Post the link to the discussion thread in respective AoF pages and invite users to participate with suggestions (edits and content addition/update).
- Create a "user generated content" tab for each AoF page, mimicing the "Sub-topics" tab of the upcoming portal design by adam @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/74e8b37279c057c969dc47f0ee40ac1e (while putting a notice that contents under that tab are "unapproved"/"unmoderated"). Contents in this tab can readily be transferred to the new portal design when it's ready.
- Also create a "discussion" tab that links to the respective thread mentioned above (and yes, ignoring the "Suggestions for this page" and "Questions for this page" links on the right hand side of the page)
- Recruit potential stewards for each AoF.
2. Stewarding with "working groups" for each AoF
- Create a "working group" for each AoF page
- Facilitate and manage the mentioned steps in suggestion No.1 above with more flexibility (more discussion topics, more easily monitor updates and manage pages for the "user generated content"/"Sub-topic" without cluttering the wikipages section of the main Stewards group.
- As we identify active, "expert" and trusted users for each AoF, they can be made the admin for the working group, given the WE Editor status, to then recruit more AoF stewards by themselves (perhaps a bit risky).
- If done well, can very much ease the transition to the upcoming portal pages since there already will be "Simply interested", "Activists and workers" and "Experts" from each working group for the "People and Groups" tab of the upcoming portal design @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/6014a9b2f8e4681eb4d9c722d323bff5
- The creation of working groups should also be split even among current Stewards to prevent the green line thing mentioned in No.1.
I guess, we can start with No.1, and if things goes well, we can move to implementing step No.2. And when the upcoming portal design is ready, we can transition/link/connect the stewarding process there (somehow).
Thoughts?
Bowo