WiserEarth Area of Focus Stewards

Hey, all:

Geez, I hate seeming so harsh, but I have just noticed a lack of clarity in the words used to denote "Areas of Focus". As best I can tell, there are three (3) terms used interchangeably for "Areas of Focus", plus one "Area of Focus" use that benefits from a promotion that only confuses.

The 3 terms I have found are "Areas of Focus", Sub-Areas of Focus" and "Portals". All 3 apply to the 379 AofFs which are currently used here in WE. I keep referring to what I perceive as the global goal of the "nameless movement", and the need to be clear for that goal, since if it ain't clear in English, it will very likely be 'lost in translation'.

The "Sergeant Major General" promotion that confuses is "Main Areas of Focus" Oh, these must be the 379 "MAIN" "Areas of Focus", but no, these are the 46 broader categories or general topics, not really "Areas of Focus". And since you cannot select any of these "Main" AofFs for application to an entry in WE, it is confusing.

Since it appears for the time being we will have two levels in the AofF network (I don't call it a taxonomy)--I suggest we select two distinct terms for these two levels. The term "Area of Focus" should remain as is, for the 379 AofFs, and be used without being interchanged with other confusing terms. Therefore, we need to lose "Sub-Areas"...(unless we actually devise Sub-Areas) and "portals" (oh, just to stay away from the black holes, sci-fi, cyber sort of thing). Both uses refer to "AofFs", so let's use "AofFs". Where "Portals" is now used, how about instead "links to related AofFs"--which is what they are?.

The other task is to call the 46 higher level, broader topics something meaningful and devoid of confusion--such as "General Topics", or "Broad Subjects". Several terms would qualify, as long as they don't contain "Areas" or "Focus".

This discussion isn't exactly Area of Focus Stewards, but it is related, and an important part of improvement.

David
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

Hmm... the word "portal" seems to be used for the mini-website of Main Areas of Focus, and "sub-portal" for the mini-website of Sub Areas of Focus. e.g. the "Human Rights and Social Justice" Main Areas of Focus @ http://www.wiserearth.org/aof/222 (at the right-hand side we have "Sub Portals" section listing Sub Areas of Focus).

So, at present here's how things are organized:
"Comprehensive categorization" or "taxonomy" >>> 46 Main Areas of Focus, each with a mini-websites called "portal" >>> 379 Sub Areas of Focus, each with a mini-website called "sub portal"

The word "taxonomy" has been used extensively since the conception of WiserEarth, thus in media coverage that followed. Using another word in its place may be impractical. And from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy:
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"Originally the term taxonomy referred to the classifying of living organisms (now known as alpha taxonomy); however, the term is now applied in a wider, more general sense and now may refer to a classification of things, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.

Almost anything — animate objects, inanimate objects, places, concepts, events, properties, and relationships — may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.

The term taxonomy may also apply to relationship schemes other than parent-child hierarchies, such as network structures with other types of relationships. Taxonomies may include single children with multi-parents, for example, "Car" might appear with both parents "Vehicle" and "Steel Mechanisms"; to some however, this merely means that 'car' is a part of several different taxonomies.

A taxonomy might also be a simple organization of kinds of things into groups, or even an alphabetical list. However, the term vocabulary is more appropriate for such a list. In current usage within "Knowledge Management", taxonomies are seen as less broad than ontologies as ontologies apply a larger variety of relation types."
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So, if this wikipedia article is accurate or authoritative, we can still use the word "taxonomy" as it also contain the meaning of "network structures" and "a simple organization of kinds of things into groups". The latter seems to be the one that applies to WiserEarth's situation, where the taxonomy is build from the bottom up, that is, by creating a database of organizations, identifying keywords related to the work of each organization, determining areas of activities (areas of focus) that applies to several keywords and across organizations, and grouping them into more the more general "main areas of focus".

Now, we need an agreement to "call things by their right names" (chinese proverb) so we can begin to get wiser (The full proverb is “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names”).

I'll think about the names and abbreviations a bit more.

When the main aofs become portals though, we could then call them for what they really are, portals, not main aofs. That's my preference. I suppose we could start doing this already. Its just that when people visit "portal" pages they're expecting a little more than what's on there currently.

So, will the "portal template" (designed but being put on hold) at http://www.wiserearth.org/article/74e8b37279c057c969dc47f0ee40ac1e
be applied only to what's currently called Main Areas of Focus? and not to all the Sub Areas of Focus? or applied to all (Main and Sub AoF) ?

My guess is that it will/should be applied to all 379 Sub Areas of Focus (but not to the higher level AoF which should remain as categorization/listings of the bottom level AoF).

So, the following naming would be consistent regardless of how the current Sub Areas of Focus will be categorized (in a two tier taxonomy with "Main Areas of Focus", or into a three tier taxonomy with an addition of "Top Level Areas of Focus").

Areas of Focus taxonomy >>> 379 Sub Areas of Focus, each with a portal

I think the "Sub" will need to be removed from the bottom level taxonomy, as in the end they are the ones that can appropriately be associated with the word "Focus" and are "the" Areas of Focus. So, it will be:

Areas of Focus taxonomy >>> 379 Areas of Focus, each with a portal

when abbreviated, will read

AoF taxonomy >>> 379 AoF >>> AoF portal(s)

I think this is simple enough and will remain constant throughout changes to how the categorization in the taxonomy is changed (into three-tier taxonomy or more).

The current "portal" (for Main Areas of Focus) will be rendered unnecessary when we have a better way of displaying all the 379 Sub Areas of Focus (an idea I heard quite a while ago was to use a collapsible/expandable tree-like structure to browse through the taxonomy). This will also remove the need to give a name for the higher level categorization (Main AoF, Top Level AoF, etc.)

Three problems remain:

1. What happen if we decide to make the higher level AoF selectable? (or tag-able?) or should we prevent that?

2. Somehow, there will still be the need to refer to the higher level AoF (in a two, three or more -tier taxonomy). For this I suggest we follow the lines of David's suggestion: "General Topics" or "Broad Subjects" etc. We'll need to agree with one of the alternatives (for now, I'll go with "General Topics")

3. David suggested the abbreviation "AofF" and the plural "AofFs", can you re-elaborate on why you suggested this David? It seems too complicated to me. I prefer the simple to write and spell "AoF", which we can readily attach to any of the 379 (e.g. "Living Wages AoF" to refer to the "AoF", and "Living Waves AoF portal" to refer to the "portal"). When used alone, "AoF" carries the plural "Areas" meaning, but when paired to a name, such as the "Living Wages AoF", it should carry the singular "Area" meaning. When paired with "Steward" or "Stewards", it can mean both singular and plural.

In conclusion, here's my take on how we should name things:

Areas of Focus taxonomy >>> General Topics >>> 379 Areas of Focus, each with a portal, and with Stewards

when abbreviated, will read as follows

AoF taxonomy >>> General Topics >>> 379 AoF >>> AoF portal(s) >>> AoF Steward(s)

The "General Topics" part needs further rewording and changes, as the taxonomy/categorization changes to more than two tiered taxonomy, but the rest can be fixed (remain unchanged despite changes to the categorization).

Thoughts?