CZ:Charter drafting committee/Position statements/Anthony Sebastian

It pleased me that someone nominated me to help formulate and compose Citizendium´s Charter, though I prefer to spend the largest fraction of my Citizendium work-time writing and editing, emphasizing empathy with an imaginary audience of eager knowledge-seekers with a college education who are not necessarily formally educated in the field represented by a given article. I have actively participated in doing that since early in Citizendium´s pilot stage, as editor/author in the Biology Workgroup and in the Health Sciences Workgroup, and have participated as member of the Editorial Council.

Among other things the Charter will lay down rules for structuring Citizendium´s knowledge base as a reliable online encyclopedia of world class quality. My voice on the drafting committee would speak to not permitting so rigid a structure as to discourage creativity in innovation, or discourage authors to join or to remain active. As teachers, Citizendium authors need the flexibility to use their teaching experience in helping readers both to learn and to want to learn more.

We need to make it possible for those who have knowledge to impart, and desire to do so, to do so easily, without necessarily having to learn to use the MediaWiki editor. If we want to grow Citizendium in active authors, we will need to find a way to let them use their traditional methods of writing articles and other methods of getting the message across.

I have no illusions that drafting the Charter will fall trippingly off the cognitive efferents of the members of the committee.