Hello Martin,
On 9/22/06, Martin Walker <walkerma(a)potsdam.edu> wrote:
The English Wikipedia is littered with many "big
ideas" and longterm plans
that have evoked lively debate and high emotion at the time, but most of
these ideas die out when it becomes apparent that they lead nowhere.
"becomes apparent" doesn't mean that they couldn't have lead somewhere
with the right specificity, leadership by example, scalability, and
listening (to list your points below). Some excellent ideas may have
been discarded as unworkable.
it's just that we need to have processes to bring
ideas forward into reality.
<thread connvergence : recalling a recent Process Essay>
Let's consider one of the old chestnuts, article
assessment. One year ago,
I've added a section for model wikiprojects to the 'parallels' page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Parallels#Wikiproject_models
1. Set some specific goals
2. These goals should visibly lead to a larger goal in the medium term
3. Lead by example: You can't expect others to do work for you
4. Find a way to scale it up
5. Listen to others: I think sometimes we're so busy pushing our own big
ideas we don't bother to listen to others. Often we can put several big
ideas together to make one big idea that works. Then you have a core of
people with ownership of the idea who can get the idea started.
I've added this to the parallels page as well. The last point is
especially important. Frequently people who care deeply about the
same thing struggle more with one another than with the apathy of the
wider community.
So by all means let us dream some dreams, but
let's then
carefully design some targeted projects with real, tangible goals, and get
to work!
In other words, revision 2 of "dreams, goals, and milestones", after
reprioritization by profs. Whitesides and Walker, should be
"milestones, goals, and dreams" ...
--SJ