User:Larry Sanger

Hi there! Larry Sanger here. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of the Citizendium. I am also currently, and temporarily, serving as Chair of the Editorial Council. If you have a question, I'll try to answer, but you might want to try the Forums first if I don't answer instantly. I'm happy to report that I'm extremely busy! You can join my shameful backlog of e-mail at sanger <at> citizendium <dot> org.

You can read more about me at my personal home page. I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Ohio State and a passion for Irish traditional music. I was born in the Seattle area and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska.

I do not claim any sort of editorship other than being Editor-in-Chief, I'm afraid, not even in philosophy or the Internet. I am too long out of doing any serious research.

I've worked on many articles, but I wrote significant parts (or all) of: John Doherty (fiddler), philosophy, Ship of Theseus problem. None are done yet!

Status Thursday, August 2: yesterday's inaugural Write-a-Thon was great fun and a success, I think. Today, I have been hard at work on a proposal to dispose, finally, of endless talk page warring. Please have a look. Could be a big change. I think we should pilot the proposal. Let me know what you think. View the post linked above and the one following that. If interested, for background, you can read the previous four or five posts from me.  ;-) It's what I've been working on for much of the day. Still many brands in the fire, but top priority should still be rewriting help/policy pages. Will be completely away from the wiki for 48 hours or possibly more this weekend. A real break! What a thought!

Suggestion Box Got a suggestion for me personally? I mean, you can use the Forums to make any suggestion, but if there is some big sweeping change or project or idea that probably ain't gonna happen if I don't get behind it, please let me know at Suggestion Box.

Sanger's Dashboard

New project planning Done Subpage/subproject stuff: Actually prepare a subpage proposal for the Editorial Council Policy/help page rewriting: Rewrite help pages so that it is perfectly clear how starting a new article is changed Completely rework (or help others rework): CZ:Policy Outline Main Page CZ:ArticleOTWeek and COTW CZ:Project Home A new "how to get started" page for editors CZ:How to get started as an author Do general overhaul/rethink of policy and help pages. The goal here is to simplify, clarify, and make more inviting. First step: thoroughly critique these pages. Place templates & categories on all policy and help pages Write up some guidelines for editing policy documents: which details go in the document and which go on more specialized policy pages, who needs to be informed of changes, and that we should be linking to all (yes, all) policy pages from the Policy Outline Other stuff: Use wiki pages for public patron program Write policy Write mock-up pages Planning for the Big Invite See User talk:Larry Sanger/Approved in pagehist; discuss here. Expand the Article Checklist Governance policymaking Write policy affecting the Personnel Manager Write policy regarding "job listings" Craft Judicial Board policy Get feedback & confirmation of this policy from Editorial Council & Constabulary Finish drafting policy regarding entrance and exit from Constabulary (an element of sortition here?) Hammer out policy about how new Constabulary policy is created Discuss with the Council: open up Chair actions to all Council members? Start a general debate about sortition Pass a resolution about how to get new people on (and off) the Council; also, address the issue of term limits and total number of members; and about how to get authors on the Council Write Executive Committee rules into Policy Outline Write various Editor-in-Chief powers and constraints into rules Veto power Minor policymaking power (must be exercised before Council & Const.) Ask Editorial Council and Constabulary to vet the rules about Editor-in-Chief powers and constraints Start a central "proposals" page? Hammer out author demotions policy--long anticipated, never acted on Recruitment Step 1 Create "one-off" job board Request resignations from inactive members of Executive Committee, Constabulary, and Editorial Council Follow up to nonreplies after a week (set reminder) Actually remove people from various wiki lists and mailing lists Accomplish separation of powers Compile list of people who serve on more than one group Send mail to all of them asking them to choose which group they want to remain on Follow up to nonreplies after a week (set reminder) Make decisions for any laggards (set reminder) Actually remove people from various wiki lists and mailing lists Do big management recruitment push Create "job listings" page E-mail lists when ready "Jobs" to list include (be sure to specify which positions are pending approval): Chair of the Editorial Council Constables (6-10 new recruits) Executive Committee (6-10 new recruits) Executive Committee Secretary Editorial Personnel Administrators (8-12 new recruits) Chair of the Editorial Personnel Committee Judicial Board members (3) Personnel Manager Project Coordinators: annotated Web links; annotated (non-Web) bibliography; categories (subtopics, supertopics, related topics); catalogs (almanac-type information in tabular form; see e.g. catalog of religions); gallery/multimedia; expert (curated) articles with bylines; debate guide; news summary; tutorials Update CZ:Personnel with data about beginning and end of terms Follow up on old volunteer offers

Recruitment Step 2 If possible, find a Personnel Manager first; work with this person to complete Step 2 Begin matching jobs to persons when applications begin dropping off Work with current constables and Chief Constable to get new constables on board Do the sortition to get new editors and authors on board Select new Executive Committee members (from within set of general volunteers, and possibly others) If necessary, use Craigslist and/or other sites for recruitment Find new E.C. Chair Solicit from within Council If there are no replies (set reminder), solicit from outside Council Create coder wiki page, to include: desired projects; "bounties" (solicit donations for particular software projects--domystuff.com?) Assign authority to edit certain pages to certain specific individuals; track these assignments on CZ:Policy Outline Implementation The Big Subpage Move Son of the Big Delete (eeee!) Start the Big Invite Nominate new Editorial Council members Create new workgroups, finally Add rules about the Editorial Personnel Committee and its Chair Do "training" of new positions When finished, make self rank-and-file member of Council & remove self from Constabulary Establish Execute Committee meetings (conference call) Settle upon technology Settle upon time Ask whether anyone will serve as Secretary Set up new Executive Committee wiki page, containing reports/minutes Decide whether to post these meeting reports to Citizendium-L Other Tasks Create Board of Advisors Ask for nominations from Citizendium-L, Citizendium-Editors, Executive Committee, as well as the blog Create criteria Do further research into possible invitees Make a master list of possible invitees Approach each personally Follow up on eBay thing "Submit articles" button/address & process? Reannounce discipline mailing lists Follow up (write policy on and develop) "Cold Storage" Purdue thing Neutrality review process/checklist? Other quality checklists? Open up stubs? Start up weekly focus days? -- New article day, edit someone else's article day... Put editor names on talk (or info) pages? Edit warring Popovers