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 22, 2009
Membership: Invitation Only
Semi-Private
Topic: Simplifying / merging editor roles
Posts (1 - 12 of 12)
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i like the idea of simplification, but also like the idea of making use of subject matter experts ... and the idea of regional coordinators ... hey, i'd like to be one for the SF Bay Area if that is not already taken ....
I think that the responsibility that comes along with managing a particular area of expertise would then include the establishment of a group of people in that area and that this group would then ensure that the content was updated, maintained, moderated, mediated.
If we could somehow find the editors who would be interested in/qualified to take over active content areas and really polish them ... (perhaps find a way to divide into 5 major categories (active), pass by editors which category they are interested in (or looking at our editor now and seeing where their expertise and talents lie ... discussing the assigning of roles relative to these interests, passsions, fluencies....
Then as there territory starts to shine, the role of the journalist or networker or blog or newsletter or whatever we do decide about this is to shine a light on that territory, find the news there, perhaps solicit an article from there....
I also think an interesting idea would be some sort of article on "my life as a WE Editor: a process of learning.... and we follow a WE editor as they work in their area. This would kind of mean that perhaps right now we take a look at Water, see what has been done. what problems there are. HOW CAN WE MAKE WATER THE PROTOTYPE FOR what EACH active WE community strives for , almost a step by step guide ... (this also fits into how does a group admiistrator get people to not just join the group but USE the group.
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I like the idea of calling/renaming the editors - facilitators
(see Feedback on Peggys notes from the 1st Meeting http://www.wiserearth.org/article/74bf0462bb91a5d4bd2153e0ef3d4e98 - for some reason I cant add the file to my network and I cant link it???)
I endorse the creation of 3, 4 or even 5 major areas of interest for editor/facilitators and suggest the following, (which is pretty much what Bowo has already suggested):
* Area 1: Content Moderation (? - not sure about the term moderation, given its meaning in other platforms, where comments and text are moderated, seems a bit nanny state like to me, but a word that encapsulates the overseeing of content in WE could be useful), this could include subject/AoF coordinators
* Area 2 : Networking
* Area 3 : WE Community Support
* Area 4 : Regional Coordinators |
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I like your suggestions Celeste. Here are my thoughts:
Area 1) Content Moderation/Creation Area 2) Community support: helping people on how to use WiserEarth, respond to questions on Help Desk Area 3) Networking: connecting people to others who share their passion through people/group connection
As for the Regional Coordinators, I am not sure what you had in mind Celeste. Right now, Camilla is leading the WiserTuesday effort which intends to complement WiserEarth with more Face to Face. If this is what you have in mind, I woudl suggest it is part of WiserTuesday, and not the Editor's group |
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There might be another way to think about this, the needs of WE and the needs of the people that join WE. Is the purpose of WE to help this community understand the interrelationships of a WiserEarth? If so, how do the editors/facilitators help make that possible? Are the e/f's the carries or are they the pushers? Or maybe, with all information if it’s not shared change can’t be accomplished. Is WiserEarth fundamentally away to share information about everything concerning the earth – if so that's a very big task.
If that's true, how do e/f's define their roles? Maybe that should be left up to everyone of the e/f's to define their roles for themselves? |
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@Frank: Increasingly I see WiserEarth more focused in terms of its content - basically on 'Sustainability'. This is what can be seen from the content that is being created and the AOF tagging used.
But back to Deborah and Celeste's comments about content matter and location experts: inevitably there will be Editors with certain interest areas which will inform the type of content they moderate / create and the type of networking they perform. I tried in the past to interest Editors to 'claim' responsibility for specific content areas but that was a flop. I think we can assume that this will be more informal. Perhaps we actively go out and recruit in areas of weakness where we have limited coverage.To be honest our greatest weaknesses going forward will probably be in new languages, not so much new content areas. As for geographies, I fully agree that we need to have a good geographic representation amongst the editors but also think that the WiserTuesday network of face-to-face gatherings with Camilla supporting local coordinators is a more scalable approach. So I would fall back on three facets to an editor (which don't have to be equally balanced):
Content moderation Supporting members in how to use WE Networking members to each other, groups, orgs etc.
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Angus, But do you think that once the UI becomes more user friendly, we might attract individuals who are eager to bring their expertise to bear on an area of focus or a region.
I agree with the WiserTuesdays approach and just mentined that either last night on Kerry's blog post or else in a response to Celeste this AM.
And FRANK, FRANK.... IS THAT YOU????? Is that really you?
I think we are going to have great success in recruiting in AofFs we have gaps in .... and other than our discussion at the meeting re Eric and Frank and water and The Middle East group.... Which other areas can we pick out as models and what examples can we take from these.....
Right now, for example, I am doing a lot of writing on EcoJustice .... and I would definitely be intertested in building out that area here at WE. I would also be interested in working on a WiserBayArea meeting where we could network with editors, WE members, NetSquared (which is right here in SF) ....
I'd love to help with any of these areas.
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Yes, that's me at age 17, 1957; nowhere is it posted that the picture has to be current.
Language, if WE can tackle that problem and figure out how
to make interactive multi-language work, that's more than enough for We to
have accomplished. That in itself is a full plate.
Sustainability, is that the use of something that can be used again? Or is it more than that - like limits, recycling of energy and water? How would an editor/facilator work under that umbrella in relationship to their specific concerns? For me that would be easy with my interest in water, population - yes that would work, education - the commons of education and sustainability, OK a sustainable education system. Seems to work.
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It seems to me that "regional coordinators" is part of the 'networking' role. If a WiserTuesdays organizer decides to be more active on the WE site itself and engage more with the community here, I would consider offering the editor status.
One thing for sure is that there's a tendency that editors are people who do all three tasks (content moderation, community support and networking) with each giving different focus.
As for playing the editor role in interest areas / specific expertise (e.g. water, population, eco-justice), the three roles mentioned seems relevant to me:
The UI improvement and multilingual feature would help in all areas:
So it seems that all we need is just the word 'editor' or whatever we choose to replace it with, and the three roles mentioned above with each editor investing more in one role over the others depending on what one does best or what one is more interested at.
There was also an idea to include "expertise / issue areas" in the listing page of editors. This would be useful to see who would be good to point a new / potential member to or to see who would be good to consult with regarding content around specific issue area.
I like Deborah's idea. Should we explore further in a separate thread? This could be stories from editors doing the three roles/activities above.
"I also think an interesting idea would be some sort of article on "my life as a WE Editor: a process of learning.... and we follow a WE editor as they work in their area. This would kind of mean that perhaps right now we take a look at Water, see what has been done. what problems there are. HOW CAN WE MAKE WATER THE PROTOTYPE FOR what EACH active WE community strives for , almost a step by step guide ... (this also fits into how does a group admiistrator get people to not just join the group but USE the group." |
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so for the newly defined soon to be newly named community newsletter, an editor profiled..... who wants to volunteer? I have some ideas on who to contact ....
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So it seems that what we may want here is a paragraph defining what editors are and what they do, and allowing each editor to specialize in certain tasks or areas of focus.
This is my comment on this in the "Do we need to change the word 'editor'?" thread:
It appears that there are three things discussed here:
1. Which general word to use in describing our work: editor / facilitator / steward / etc. It seems that we are swinging toward "WiserEarth Steward"?
2. What type of work do we do Mainly three: content moderation(?), community support, networking and outreach.
3. The more specific interest / expertise / tasks we perform which should be in line with no. 1 and 2 above. My suggestion is to keep this free-form but make sure that we list them in the editors / admins listing page (and if you want, on your profile page too).
So for example, this could be how things look like when we conclude our discussions on these:
For no. 1 and 2 above, the result should be a new word and definition. Something like:
WiserEarth Stewards are community members committed to growing content, nurturing the community, spreading the word, and improving WiserEarth as a whole through their ongoing participation, additions, edits, comments, messages, suggestions, bug reports, invites, sharing and networking on the site (and beyond). They are people all over the world who are working to make WiserEarth an effective collaboration platform for people and organizations working toward a just and sustainable world.
For no. 3 above, it should result in a short bio. Something like:
Deborah Phelan's expertise and passion is in doing journalistic work. In WiserEarth she stewards the Community Newsletter. She enjoys hopping from one discussion to the next too, thereby doing cross-pollinating of ideas across the site. Feel free to contact her about ways to bring your onlife community online in WiserEarth. She's doing that with her Transition Mill Valley community.
Frank Patton's passion is water. In WiserEarth, he regularly adds water-related content and get acquainted with people working in water conservation. He also enjoys connecting people through his Global Water Commons group. But above all, he loves to share his findings about progress made (or not) in the water world in and beyond WiserEarth. Feel free to contact him if you want to find out about ways to effectively use WiserEarth as a place to host and disseminate information related to your work and passion.
Should we proceed on finalizing the one paragraph to describe 'editor' or whatever we may end up calling it?
If yes, fire away with your ideas, and later on you can describe your (more specific) work as an editor based on this one paragraph description.
If not, then what? |
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Thank you all for the content and such thought on this, I have been quite absent for a number of months based on personal and work related issues , yet have been following the threads. A few comments on this one...
It is very important to look at the naming and language so it is so great this is being addressed, I would add that certain words also have different definitions and culture context. Being an editor is that you are doing that, edting content and resources as well as compiling. Facilitator is also a great term of one who is guiding, A steward is also a great term to use I just wonder if in translation it becomes confusing? I have been here in Africa for the last 3 weeks and notice that the simplier then better, so is editor really needing to be changed? I do see the reasons, just pitching in my perspective.
Also having the bios is a great idea and in someway would be good for all users to post on their profile.That way a quick search could pull up people based on key words in their bio.
Great idea to define what we do, or what we plan on doing, it is crucial to devise good strategies to reach our desired outcomes, which are?
The main function of WISER earth, World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility, is just that, an index that has evolved into an amazing community building tool, I would love to help as an editor/facilitator/steward with how to link up the usability for slow speed connections, so those in developing nations don't get boggered down with all the content. and can navigate. I have been in Malawi with some amazing permaculture projects trying to get on line and use the site with lots of trouble, so how to resolve this I think would be time well spent, and would like to contribute here.
thanks again and look forward to being back in the states soon. in best practice benjammin |
Hello everyone,
One of the topic that emerges from yesterday's meetup is about the editor roles being too many and complex. We now have twelve roles (see details for each role here):
Related to content:
Related to platform:
We're thinking that basically, editors' roles revolve around three key aspects:
Should we simplify from twelve roles to about three or four roles? If so, what should those roles be? How should we name them and use them.
Or should we just eliminate "editor roles" entirely and just describe editors as WE members with special content moderation privileges that spend time on a regular basis to do either or all three activities above?
Looking forward to hear your thoughts.
Many thanks,
Bowo