WiserEarth Governance
Rights, Obligations, and Relationships of All WiserEarthlings
This group emerged out of the WiserEarth Partners meeting held on December 13. Our intention is to open this group up to all that join and participate in WiserEarth.
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Dec 17, 2007
Updated: Sep 17, 2009
Membership: Invitation Only
Semi-Private
Topic: Governence Overview
Posts (1 - 15 of 15)
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Flag comment for removal johncoate about 1 year ago
For lack of a better name - I figure it's good to have a spot to post initial progress for now and later we'll see.
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I'm not sure there's much to say about governance right now. I think in this early building stage the focus is on getting the site architecture right. And there aren't that many people using it yet so the issues just haven't much shown up - or have they? I'm not sure if there are any pressing governance issues on the table right now for the management. IF there are I haven't run into them.
Over in the partner reports, Jon posted: Plan of Action: · Create a WE Governance group by Monday, December 17th ((done that)) · Identify and post all documents related to governance. ((I think the idea here was that we would round them up. I can help with that)) · Invite all WiserEarthlings ((not ready yet I think)) · Solicit feedback and input ((ditto - although I will also go over the forums to see what would be pertinent)) · Use the group to discuss and come to resolution on how power, authority, and influence are defined and shared within WE. ((a discussion that will happen at some point, I'm not sure when. Not that pressing probably)) Needs: We need the trust of NCI that their interests will be well represented. ((we need to put some stuff up here like docs and relevant feedback/suggestions to begin that process)) We need to understand what already exists on governance and have access to it. ((someone from staff required to fill that info in)) |
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John, you are amazing. Thanks for staying on top of this. I am hoping that you can come to Seattle in April. I just posted a discussion topic on having a meeting in Seattle on Thursday, April 10.
Lets keep identifying issues surfacing that are related to governance. I agree that it's early and we don't want too much structure too soon. |
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Hi John, Jon,
I'm Bowo, currently helping out to set up the WiserEarth Editors Group. Just wanted to share an issue we had there possibly relating to governance. It's about finding meaningful differentiation of responsibilities between regular users and editors. Currently, (to my knowledge) the only note-worthy differentiation is the ability to edit and delete "protected pages" like the "About Us" page and the portal pages for AoFs. Moreover, any user can seemingly apply to be an editor by simply sending one of the administrators a message on it (without clear requirements to be an editor), help out with edits and content management, but then be inactive for several months. This creates a dilemma where any user can easily be an editor, but then be left with not much to do as an editor, because there's no clear responsibilities attached to the privileges of an editor. So, technically, all users can be editors, and it won't make much of a difference to WiserEarth. Beyond the editorship issue, there's also another issue relating to a sentence in the "WiserEarth Community Roles" page, which states: "We are currently developing additional expectations for administrators and invite the community to participate in this discussion." Check this out @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/14dec18f90fea9d36f9ef6631a38983c Any thoughts on these issues? |
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Hi you guys - sorry i was absent for a bit. Busy looking for a job. Jon I hope I can come up there too - sounds like it will be a wonderful series of events.
Is it really that easy to get editor status - just write and ask and you shall receive? I would expect something akin to a cover letter where one demonstrates some sort of commitment to the project. I like the basic structure of user/editor/admin. You are right though, it says what an editor can do but doesn't say what qualifies you for it. Surely though there must have been some sense of who would qualify and what the expectations would be when it was conceived. Maybe some activity minimum? That isn't the best since it could lead to a bunch of busy work or extra jibber-jabber. Maybe it doesn't actually matter and what does count is the quality of the edits one does, esp in the AoF zone where I assume one wants to ensure accuracy. |
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Actually now that I am part of the editor group I am going through all the stuff over there to get a better sense of what's what.
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Hi John. I'm not sure about the "just write and ask and you shall receive", but I have seen an editor or two with very low level activity in the site, and some more who have been inactive for months.
Anyway, looking forward for your valuable insights in the editors group. |
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At this point I'm not sure it matters much is someone is inactive. I'd be more concerned if someone was consistently inaccurate or something like that. And thanks bowo - I enjoy reading you comments. You really put a lot of thought and work into this.
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Hi John, a small addition for your comment: "I'm not sure it matters much is someone is inactive".
While I agree that if the "someone" is a regular user, inactivity don't matter much, I don't think it's appropriate if that someone is an editor, because, to my knowledge, the editor status have so far been associated with the phrase "taking leadership" within the community. So, while an inactive follower is understandable, an inactive leader is a whole different matter. That's where we again encounter the issue of editor's identity crisis which may be causing the inactivity. And as you will discover after reading through stuff in the editors group, that crisis ended up causing an identity crisis for the editors group as well, which we also need to resolve for the benefit of the group and WiserEarth as a whole. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to do so, especially after having so many experienced people in the group. Thanks for the compliments John, I enjoy putting my mind around this enormously potential tool we have here called WiserEarth. |
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Could you point me to those particular discussions so I can catch up?
Part of where I was coming from on that is to minimize admin work. Maybe there would be some sort of automated way of placing someone who is an inactive editor into some sort of limbo stage or send them an alert telling them they need to participate to keep the status. Also, it is necessary to determine how long a period constitutes enough inactivity to warrant some sort of action. I don't think six months is all that long of a time really. But let me study the history of the talk some more. |
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I think that's an excellent idea to reduce admin work.
The phrase "taking leadership" was actually "leadership role" in the "What's Next" section of the "About Us" page @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/About. The phrase "leadership roles" is hyperlinked to the "WiserEarth Community Roles" page @ http://www.wiserearth.org/index.php/article/14dec18f90fea9d36f9ef6631a38983c/ which contains definitions for user/editor/administrator. To get the general picture, you can read the bulletin board in the homepage of the WiserEarth Editors group @ http://www.wiserearth.org/group/WiserEarthEditors/section/main Here's where the discussion on this editorship issue has been taking place within the WiserEarth Editors group: "(SETUP) Group Vision and Activities" @ http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/df89df7f7bb104fd9af1f944c9819594/group/WiserEarthEditors about the draft of "Group Vision and Activities" document @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/573fb6e40088ed1e6f2ed2b3a8dd727b/group/WiserEarthEditors "(SETUP) Roles and Responsibilities of Editors and Administrators" @ http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/8c0b3b1df27f0f54a90a9b5609d0115c/group/WiserEarthEditors We've added discussions on Privileges/Rights to the "Roles and Responsibilites" as they're of course, inseparable. "(SETUP) Future-Gazing this Group" @ http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/464dd61b0b3648b2eb853d0da9a3e0eb/group/WiserEarthEditors So far, the discussions was mainly done only by me and two other editors who are staffs of NCI (Michael Kwan and Camilla Burg). By the way John, since you're now a member of the WE Editors group, do you mind if I copy paste our discussion here to the "(SETUP) Roles and Responsibilities of Editors and Administrators" thread to enrich the discussion there? You've provided some excellent insight on the issue that can help advance the conversation there. |
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Absolutely. Take anything you like!
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Here's how I sum it up: The bottom-up hive mind will always take us much further than even seems possible. It keeps surprising us in this regard. Given enough time, dumb things can be smarter than we think.
At that same time, the bottom-up hive mind will never take us to our end goal. We are too impatient. So we add design and top down control to get where we want to go. The systems we keep will be hybrid creations. They will have a strong rootstock of peer-to-peer generation, grafted below highly refined strains of controlling functions. Sturdy, robust foundations of user-made content and crowd-sourced innovation will feed very small slivers of leadership agility. Pure plays of 100% smart mobs or 100% smart elites will be rare. The real art of business and organizations in the network economy will not be in harnessing the crowd of "everybody" (simple!) but in finding the appropriate hybrid mix of bottom and top for each niche, at the right time. The mix of control/no-control will shift as a system grows and matures. Judged from where we start, harnessing the dumb power of the hive mind will always take us much further than we can dream. Judged from where we hope to end up, the hive mind is not enough; we need an additional top-down push. |
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(the post below is a partial bit of this post so never mind that one)
Here is a link to a blog post by the always brilliant Kevin Kelly on the idea that bottom-up group endeavors improve faster when they are actually a hybrid between being purely determined by the totality of the users and a smaller group that performs editing and direction functions. He uses Wikipedia as a main example, but I think that his remarks are relevant to Wiser Earth and the goal of turning the whole thing over to the users. http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/02/the_bottom_is_n.php Here is a bit of it: Here's how I sum it up: The bottom-up hive mind will always take us much further than even seems possible. It keeps surprising us in this regard. Given enough time, dumb things can be smarter than we think. At that same time, the bottom-up hive mind will never take us to our end goal. We are too impatient. So we add design and top down control to get where we want to go. The systems we keep will be hybrid creations. They will have a strong rootstock of peer-to-peer generation, grafted below highly refined strains of controlling functions. Sturdy, robust foundations of user-made content and crowd-sourced innovation will feed very small slivers of leadership agility. Pure plays of 100% smart mobs or 100% smart elites will be rare. The real art of business and organizations in the network economy will not be in harnessing the crowd of "everybody" (simple!) but in finding the appropriate hybrid mix of bottom and top for each niche, at the right time. The mix of control/no-control will shift as a system grows and matures. Judged from where we start, harnessing the dumb power of the hive mind will always take us much further than we can dream. Judged from where we hope to end up, the hive mind is not enough; we need an additional top-down push. |
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John, that is indeed an excellent piece of analysis, which I agree too, will be highly relevant to WiserEarth at this "start of the start" (relative to Wikipedia).
However, while Kevin afterward say "it's the hive mind all the way for now" to describe the general situation of wiki and opensource -style collaboration (including Wikipedia), I believe "we" can begin to introduce a more elaborate "design" into the governance and editing process of WiserEarth, though I don't know how it would look like and who will best become that "we" within the limitation of governance tools WiserEarth has at the moment... And while he put it as "we are too impatient [in this internet time]" in his analysis for the phenomena in general, in the context of our struggle toward a just and sustainable world, we've made time stand against our side, so we really need to move swiftly to accelerate the growth and evolution of WiserEarth in helping it to become the platform of support for concerned citizens and NGOs. I don't know enough though, that, maybe the word "acceleration" and "growth" or "evolution" can not be conjoined. But if we can devise a "design", and it looks feasible, why not? Kevin's analysis hints that it can be done, and should be done by "finding the appropriate hybrid mix of bottom and top for each niche, at the right time. The mix of control/no-control will shift as a system grows and matures." Another insight from selected maxim of his book "Out of Control" @ http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol/selected_maxims.php "When everything happens at once, wide and fast moving problems simply route around any central authority. Therefore overall governance must arise from the most humble interdependent acts done locally in parallel, and not from a central command." And how this relates to one of WiserEarth's principles: Community @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/ebae1d9f4f61d194ff3ee0e74f0ce929 "WiserEarth is community-driven and is not centralized, bureaucratic, or turf-based. WiserEarth is about understanding each other, building bridges, creating friendships, and celebrating the rich dimensions contained within the global community." Hope a workable "Democratization" feature planned for WiserEarth can come live soon. http://www.wiserearth.org/article/359a936df45c655b8cd1c6d5bb0fffa8 "Since WiserEarth is a community-driven site, this page has been established to direct the democratization of decision-making on WiserEarth which includes: functions, capabilities and structure." P.S. Now that I've learned of Kevin's "Out of Control", I'll have to find time to read it through... (thankfully, he is wise enough to made it free for everyone to read). Thanks for the lead John :) |
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