On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:33 AM,
Brian<Brian.Mingus(a)colorado.edu> wrote:
I propose expanding the notion of the Wikimedia
Incubator to include
entirely new projects that are very, very easy to create. They don't need to
be approved by the WMF - they just need to demonstrate their value by
attracting a community and creating great content. This would be more like
the Apache Incubator, but even more open. This gives people an easy way to
prototype their ideas for new projects, to advertise them, and over time
will give an overview of what kinds of projects and approaches to projects
are likely to succeed and likely to fail.
Brilliant idea.
Currently new projects proposed on meta have buckley's chance of ever
starting. Wikiversity wasn't a new project - it was split from
wikibooks.
We would need a bit of infrastructure around new concepts before they
land on the incubator, such as a detailed description of the purpose,
and an experienced admin willing to monitor that area of the
incubator.
This sounds like a good idea to me. One difference is immediately
obvious from the way the incubator works presently, though. Rather than
having these projects move out of the incubator based on the decision of
the language committee, that issue would have to be considered by the
board directly in consultation with the broader community.
--Michael Snow