CZ:Topic Partners

This is a proposal to be vetted by the Editorial Council and the Executive Committee. --Larry Sanger 16:21, 14 May 2007 (CDT)

Since first announcing the Citizendium, we have often been contacted by potential content partners--often, however, just a single person at these organizations. You'd be surprised, in fact, at the names, including two major government agencies and three household-name corporations. But we have never been able to take these potential partnerships to the next level, because when it comes down to making a partnership operational, we have simply said, "When you want to sit down to talk, we can hash out the details." But things then slip through the cracks, because we, and the people we're talking to, don't have time to "hash out the details."

There may be a better way. I propose a Citizendium Topic Partner Program. Its aim is to offer a uniform framework in which the Citizendium can partner with organizations that either want to manage or fund work about a certain topic, or in a certain area.

Summary

We anticipate two different sorts of Topic Partner relationships: (1) content and (2) funding.

(1) The Citizendium Foundation enters into and announces an agreement with an organization. The organization has a wiki page in the "CZ" namespace, which they manage and which they use to organize their efforts. Citizendium can also set up a forum or mailing list for the organization, if desired. The Citizendium Editorial Personnel Administrators decide whether a person selected by the organization can serve as Chief Editor for a given topic. We then set up a workgroup (if none already exists) for that topic. While the organization is not the sole managing organization of the topic--which is probably contrary to neutrality policy--they do have certain privileges, such as the right to hold official Citizendium meetings, to which they invite others in their field.

(2) The Citizendium Foundation receives a donation earmarked for the development of information on a particular topic. This money can be used in various mutually compatible ways. (a) A special group of editors then hires the person, who becomes Chief Editor of the topic. (b) The money is given as a small stipend to many different editors, or professional writers, in a given area.