At zanimum's request, a new domain name for Wikijunior was discussed at a Wikimedia meeting (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_meeting_agendas) on September 18 (which was attended by the board, people with official positions, and local chapter reps).
I asked at that whether Wikijunior should move to its own domain name. Anthere said that she does not consider it the board's decision alone and suggested the Wikibooks community should decide this, thinking a new domain meant a new project. I felt the project was already approved (since it's running on Wikibooks and we have a grant for it), and said that I didn't see the move to a new domain as a huge issue.
Jimmy clarified that the proposal is for Wikijunior be a place to put 'finished' work, with Wikibooks still being the development community, so it would be a 'view' on the work, not a new project per se. I asked whether there had been any objection to it moving, but this wasn't clear. Jimmy proposed that we notify the Wikibooks community that we're saying yes to this, but giving a week or two for people to voice objections, and if there are none then we can approve it and let the Wikibooks community work out how to proceed.
So, if there are any objections to moving the finished Wikijunior texts to Wikijunior.org and keeping the editing processes on Wikibooks.org, please raise those, either here, or at the Wikibooks Staff lounge (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Staff_lounge).
Angela.
Angela wrote:
So, if there are any objections to moving the finished Wikijunior texts to Wikijunior.org and keeping the editing processes on Wikibooks.org, please raise those, either here, or at the Wikibooks Staff lounge (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Staff_lounge).
Angela.
I think both are a poor place to request comments from Wikijunior authors, but I don't know of many better places to make such a request either. More generally, the Wikijunior talk page on both Meta and Wikibooks are slightly better places to request information, as is the talk pages for each major project (especially Wikijunior Solar System) that do seem to get quite a bit more attention lately, especially from current Wikijunior participants that don't seem to be regular participants at the general Wikibooks Staff Lounge. This mailing list is mainly old-timers and a few poor souls who have wandered in aimlessly by mistake. Still, it does get a little bit of attention and a small amount of bandwidth, which is why I still read and respond to comments on this list.
A week or two of notification is also clearly not enough time to get community input from the Wikijunior participants, in part due to the nature of the way things get accomplished on Wikibooks. You need to be quite a bit more patient on Wikibooks than comparible proposals on Wikipedia, for instance.
On the whole, I don't think we are anywhere close to having any content "moved" to a Wikijunior.org website at the moment. There is an organized effort to try and get the Wikijunior Solar System brought up to some higher standards, and there are a couple of sections that are perhaps "ready" for a public display on a seperate website. The rest of the Wikijunior pages are not nearly ready for anything like that, unless you are ready to make it a full editable wiki domain instead as a full Wikimedia sister project. I don't think that is the purpose of what you are proposing either.
In this proposal, I also don't see any discussion over the mechanics of how content is going to be nominated to get moved over, who is going to maintain the new website, and how the navigation of the content on that website is going to be done. These are not trivial requests or points either, and from this alone I think the proposal is incomplete. Having admins from Wikibooks be in charge of this new Wikijunior site might be useful, but I'm not convinced that is a good idea either. The current navigation and layout of Wikijunior is designed to encourage participation and editing, as well as provides tools and resources for people who are adding content. Certainly that needs a major overhaul if we move to a seperate website.
I also don't like the proposal that this turns into "Wikipedia-Junior" where all of the articles from the seperate Wikijunior projects are merged together into a general encyclopedia format. That is not the way they were written, and I would personally perfer the "Wikiproject" portal format instead at the very least, with sub-page naming conventions. This is yet another issue that needs to be debated and thought out in detail before this wikijunior site goes "live."
In short, this is not a proposal that has had anywhere near general community input and some major details need to be filled in before this proposal is accepted.
Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Angela wrote:
So, if there are any objections to moving the finished Wikijunior texts to Wikijunior.org and keeping the editing processes on Wikibooks.org, please raise those, either here, or at the Wikibooks Staff lounge (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Staff_lounge).
Angela.
I think both are a poor place to request comments from Wikijunior authors, but I don't know of many better places to make such a request either. More generally, the Wikijunior talk page on both Meta and Wikibooks are slightly better places to request information, as is the talk pages for each major project (especially Wikijunior Solar System) that do seem to get quite a bit more attention lately, especially from current Wikijunior participants that don't seem to be regular participants at the general Wikibooks Staff Lounge. This mailing list is mainly old-timers and a few poor souls who have wandered in aimlessly by mistake. Still, it does get a little bit of attention and a small amount of bandwidth, which is why I still read and respond to comments on this list. A week or two of notification is also clearly not enough time to get community input from the Wikijunior participants, in part due to the nature of the way things get accomplished on Wikibooks. You need to be quite a bit more patient on Wikibooks than comparible proposals on Wikipedia, for instance.
On the whole, I don't think we are anywhere close to having any content "moved" to a Wikijunior.org website at the moment. There is an organized effort to try and get the Wikijunior Solar System brought up to some higher standards, and there are a couple of sections that are perhaps "ready" for a public display on a seperate website. The rest of the Wikijunior pages are not nearly ready for anything like that, unless you are ready to make it a full editable wiki domain instead as a full Wikimedia sister project. I don't think that is the purpose of what you are proposing either.
In this proposal, I also don't see any discussion over the mechanics of how content is going to be nominated to get moved over, who is going to maintain the new website, and how the navigation of the content on that website is going to be done. These are not trivial requests or points either, and from this alone I think the proposal is incomplete. Having admins from Wikibooks be in charge of this new Wikijunior site might be useful, but I'm not convinced that is a good idea either. The current navigation and layout of Wikijunior is designed to encourage participation and editing, as well as provides tools and resources for people who are adding content. Certainly that needs a major overhaul if we move to a seperate website.
I also don't like the proposal that this turns into "Wikipedia-Junior" where all of the articles from the seperate Wikijunior projects are merged together into a general encyclopedia format. That is not the way they were written, and I would personally perfer the "Wikiproject" portal format instead at the very least, with sub-page naming conventions. This is yet another issue that needs to be debated and thought out in detail before this wikijunior site goes "live."
In short, this is not a proposal that has had anywhere near general community input and some major details need to be filled in before this proposal is accepted.
Hi
If so, may I asked why this request was written some time ago on the board agenda ?
Anthere
Anthere wrote:
In short, this is not a proposal that has had anywhere near general community input and some major details need to be filled in before this proposal is accepted.
Hi
If so, may I asked why this request was written some time ago on the board agenda ?
Anthere
I don't know. I thought this was something that the board itself wanted for some reason, or something being pushed by just one user. Certainly it has not had "community" input or is something that many people who are actually adding content are pushing for right now. The big push right now is to bring the Wikijunior Solar System up to publishable standards and get it ready to send to the schools affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita on the U.S. Gulf Coast region when they reopen. If the Beck Foundation falls through, there are a couple of other companies and foundations that may come through instead for funding, so I think this is a good push. As for the website, I don't know what the big push is, although as a long-term goal it may be something worth while.
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