[Foundation-l] strategic planning IRC office hours

[Samuel Klein]

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Eugene Eric Kim <eekim at blueoxen.com>wrote:
>
>
> We'll start seeding Meta with what we know (and probably quite a bit
> of what we don't) today, and I'll look forward to reading other
> people's thoughts.
>

That will be great.


> There's a tradeoff between starting with a blank slate and the need to
> re-establish a community and a set of norms. My gut tells me that a
> blank slate is better for this project, but I'm open to other
> feedback.
>

Can you say more about your gut feelings here?  What is the tradeoff
specifically, and the purpose of the blank slate? (how would the first
hundred pages be populated, for instance?)  I am particularly concerned that
the planning discussions not be launched only in english, or expected to be
in english with sporadic other communication... and Meta is likely the best
place to get hundreds of translators watching new pages and updates.


> Please take my Chandler calendar with a grain of salt. We're just
> getting started, and it's incomplete. My main task right now is
> listening, and that hasn't necessarily been articulated on my
> calendar.
>

Cool, and many thanks for sharing your calendar!  We should all do that.  I
was wondering about versioning - a pity it's not supported.  A wiki list and
bugzilla project should work as well.  Someone just needs to write the
eek-chand-to-wiki script :)


> The best way existing community members can help with this process is
> to engage, be patient, and be open. It's a bit easier for me, because
> I'm not a complete outsider, and I've been part of the Wiki community
> for a long time.


Our community isn't limited to editors.  Everyone involved in the strategic
planning process, including the BS team, are community members -- presumably
that's part of why they got involved with such a non-traditional effort.
But if people don't see themselves as part of the community - don't
communicate the way the community does with one another b/c they feel like
outsiders - it's harder to collaborate.


> For others, wrapping their heads around transparency
> and large-scale engagement might be a bit of a shock to their system.

Understand that this is a learning process for _all_ of us,


Absolutely.


> and embrace this as a learning process for yourselves as well.
>

It's not 'us' and 'you'... we're all trying to get a grip on an interesting
and wholly unsolved problem, with lots of information, processes, and ideas
to internalize.

I would like to learn a great many things - about what BS does as an
organization, what strategic planning processes are like (in variety, scope,
and detail), what the Foundation (with the institutional experience in its
staff) thinks makes for a good roadmap and timeline for different phases of
dicsussion and planning, how to differentiate between short, medium and
long-term planning within a fixed timeframe, what organizations BS or others
consider similar enough that one should take lessons from their own
historical strategic planning processes.

The editing community has one advantage over the rest of the community : the
scalability of their work, knowledge, and ideas.  They collaborate with one
another in their daily work and debate in a way that allows others to engage
them instantly and simply, without waiting for specific meeting times,
polished drafts, or sporadic private interactions.  I hope this is one of
the first lessons shared.

SJ