Archive:Recruitment drive
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This is a community log and organizational center for any recruitment efforts we make.
It's time to get the word out!
Our nascent recruitment drive, logged below, has been successful, for the modest amount of work done so far. In the first 48 hours of the recruitment drive, we created over 30 new accounts. That's the result of calls for participation to 7-8 mailing lists, a couple of blog posts, and even some paper flyers. Activity on the wiki has jumped up recently as well.
Please, let's keep this up! In fact, we can do even better, particularly when we hit some really big lists. Please, post announcements on big discussion lists, or professional announcement venues you contribute to, or faculty lists--whatever you can finagle. If there's any question, of course, ask for moderator/editor permission first. But most people don't mind a call for participation.
Please log all your recruitment activity on this page, below (most recent first). This page (CZ:Recruitment) is easy to find. Find it via the "Home" link in the left sidebar (CZ:Home). It's under Initiatives.
If you're wondering why we didn't do this before, the explanation is simple. We now have an automated account approval system. Before, it was really hard for constables to get new people on board. Now, they can do it with a click of a button. Our constables are now underworked. We need more applications!
How to draft an announcement
- Use your own voice, but feel free to adapt text from other people's announcements, linked below.
- Be upbeat, be positive. You should explain why CZ is necessary even though Wikipedia already exists, but don't bash Wikipedia too much.
- Appeal to the specific interests and concerns of your audience. E.g., when soliciting philosophers, I (Larry Sanger) explained why CZ is different from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and what advantages it has.
- Points to emphasize: (1) what Citizendium is, what its main features are (most people haven't heard of us!); (2) why it's needed; (3) brag! say how we've grown nicely and have an excellent future ahead of us; (4) why contribute (tailored to your audience!); and (5) specially point out the relevant CZ:Core Articles section and specifically invite people to help fill that out. All of these points are addressed in this mail.
Mailing list posts
See CZ:Mailing List Outreach for a list of lists.
- IRTRAD-L
- Who and when: Larry Sanger 21:45, 23 October 2007 (CDT)
- Made another version of my recruitment letter, sent to the main Irish traditional music list. Not sure how many subscribers, 500 maybe?
- ARNOVA-L
- Who and When: User:Roger Lohmann 15:38, 17 October (EDT)
- Adapted and quoted Larry's memo to PHILOS-L for the 1,200 subscribers to this list who are interested in all facets of civil society, nonprofit organizations and related topics.
- Balkan Academic News (balkans@yahoogroups)
- Who and when: --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 21:09, 18 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: circulated 21 Oct 07, to mailing list of 5,751 members
- LINGUIST LIST
- Who and when: John Stephenson 00:13, 18 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: First mailed back in April; sending a follow-up.
- Stagecraft mailing list
- Who and when: Steven Santos 23:23, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: call to high level technical theater / stagecraft folks from around the world
- Clown Newsletter
- Who and when: Steven Santos 23:12, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: call to high level circus folks from around the world
- ClownsRUS
- Who and when: Steven Santos 22:27, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: call to high level circus folks from around the world
- CircusVern
- Who and when: Steven Santos 22:27, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: call to high level circus folks from around the world
- PHILOSOP
- Who and when: Larry Sanger 21:13, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: explained why philosophers should get involved with CZ, despite the existence of Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Here's a copy of the mail.
- PHILOS-L
- Who and when: Larry Sanger 21:13, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Notes: explained why philosophers should get involved with CZ, despite the existence of Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Here's a copy of the mail.
- CARING
- Who and when: Aric S. Campling 07:35, 2 July, 2007 (EDT)
- Notes: call to professional nurses and nursing informatics specialists to help start and flesh out the Nursing category and related topics. (Backdated, since that is when I Sent the actual email.)
Blog posts
- Citizendium looking for circus experts (CircusNews.com)
- This was posted to the CircusNews.com website to try and recruit more circus experts. Steven Santos 22:25, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
- Dear Philosophers (Citizendium blog)
- This is my kick-off mail for our new recruitment effort, sent to PHILOSOP and PHILOS-L. It explains why philosophers should get involved with CZ, despite the existence of Wikipedia, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Feel free to forward it to philosophers! --Larry Sanger 21:23, 16 October 2007 (CDT)
Social networking
Social networking sites allow friends, alumni, employees and so on to link up online, often via shared interests.
- Some Citizendium contributors are members of a Facebook group, where updates are posted and discussion is possible. Facebook is geared towards people in the 20's and up, so is particularly suitable for recruitment, whereas sites like MySpace often cater to younger users. Several posts have been made here by various people. John Stephenson 02:09, 2 November 2007 (CDT)
- Saga Zone
- A recent new social networking site (for the over-50s) is Saga Zone. Can someone 'mature' join and see if recruiment is possible? John Stephenson 02:09, 2 November 2007 (CDT)
Offline Recruiting
- Distributable flier for CZ Recruiting around your community, campus, or other social bulletin board.
- Created by Robert King as a part to bolster non-digital real world recruitment efforts. (Available in PDF by request)
Recruitment requests
Have a subject about which you think we need more editors and authors? Would you like someone to go out and round up some more people in that area? Then please list the topic here!
- Classics (i.e., ancient Greece and Rome), especially classical literature - requested by Larry Sanger
- We are in need of more engineering and mathematics authors, after that perhaps also more editors - requested by Hendra
- Earth sciences (climatologists, hydrologists, and glaciologists are in great demand!) - requested by Benjamin Seghers
Personnel interested in recruitment
If you are open to modest assignments, write: (assignable). If you prefer to direct yourself, you needn't write anything.
- Larry Sanger
- Steven Santos
- Stephen Ewen (assignable)