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. (Although this is changing!)

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

There's a CZ article about me which I have not edited.  ;-)

<-- you can use this if you want

Status Mon., Jan. 21: I'll be maintaining my to do list on this page.

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

Done High priority items Catch up with e-mail (top top) Restart Editorial Council already... Submit revised resolution Submit stub resolution Then get new Council going After new Council is going, find new E.C. Chair Post call for technical partners See if we can get that minor re-skinning done soon. "Focus group"/weekly call... Continue recruiting for CZ Honorary Board Userinfo System Fix little bug Group status page for workgroups! Centralize discussion some more Discuss evaluation idea: metadata? Evaluation template? Crucial part of editor involvement/workgroup expansion. Re review system, see exec mail of Oct. 10. A page for giving credit to "First Collaborators" Start/test system to credit authors Decide whether to use Flagged Revisions Workgroup launch strategy "Ramp up editor participation" See here and elsewhere for ideas on new approval system. Add editor policy and relevant workgroup templates to all editor pages. De-link inactive accounts Procedure for adding workgroups, including breaking "Hobbies Workgroup" into a zillion subgroups One possible condition: three editors request it, all of them having created at least three articles and having edited five articles. Recruitment Citizendium advocates' guidelines Encourage authors and editors to become advocates and spread the word; feel proud Part of the recruitment ramp-up effort Button to put on blog: "I power the Citizendium" Dispute resolution and governance Add an important distinction: pulling rank in order to resolve a dispute vs. pulling rank in order to win an argument. The former, only, is permitted. -- Add this to CZ:The Editor Role and CZ:Dispute Resolution. Referee/Judicial Board/democratic system discussion: Respond to Gareth and Pat Rethink and discuss various governance improvements, including: Personnel Manager, "job listings," Judicial Board policy, a central "proposals" page, using Craigslist 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 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 Hammer out author demotions policy--long anticipated, never acted on Technical Committee Update tech comm page, to include: desired projects; "bounties" (solicit donations for particular software projects--domystuff.com?) Update CZ:Personnel with data about beginning and end of terms

Policy and help pages Quickly finish usable if not perfect versions of the various instructions home pages, and quickly if not perfectly update our introductory material, it's getting rather outdated Finish work on various policy and instructions pages: Change links to "external" citizendium.org pages (which have been imported to the wiki). Redirect links past CZ:Policy Outline and past CZ:Project Home. Gut CZ:Editor Policy. Write various community home pages. Write (or make sure is written) CZ:The Constable Role. Attempt to wrangle a "Citizendium for Dummies"-type technical introduction--incl. subpages for dummies. Redesign sidebar...again. Rewrite Template:Awelcome and Template:Ewelcome. Revisit CZ:Home and community pages templates Overhaul of subpages narrative 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 via the homepages linked on CZ:Home Assign authority to "manage" certain policy/help pages to certain specific individuals (track these assignments)? Other plans (higher priority) Other quality checklists? Public comments feature - MW plugin? Son of the Big Delete (eeee!) Various specialized workgroup initiatives Other plans (lower priority) Follow up (write policy on and develop) "Cold Storage" "Submit articles" button/address & process? Use wiki pages for public patron program Write policy Write mock-up pages Core Articles + What's Your Article? and What's Your Message? "Pop culture" subpages Proof subpages

Principles for our organizers' group

I've convened a small (six person) group of people who have committed to helping to organize various initiatives and generally "get stuff done." Call them organizers. We're going to talk on a regular basis and together drive a lot of new stuff forward in 2008. For my future reference (and theirs), here are some principles I have proposed for this group.

(1) Above all, what we need is maximum creativity, to achieve two goals: (a) precisely identify specific practical problems that need solving, and (b) propose specific practical solutions to those problems. No project I've ever been involved in has ever made headway without the principals constantly thinking up better practical solutions to practical problems.

(2) More specifically, our job is to organize activity. If we execute everything ourselves (individually or collectively), we are not doing our jobs. Our job is to organize and motivate others to do stuff. No doubt we will have to lead the way, and sometimes work hard in doing so. But we have to feel bold enough to call on others to help. This can be specific other known individuals, but more importantly is the power of "crowdsourcing" that is at the heart of wiki projects like CZ. We prioritize community initiatives and labor: what are the most important problems CZ faces, and needs to solve? I also welcome your help in prioritizing my own work.

(3) Our job is not to debate. Debate is great. Debate is necessary. But it is not our job. Our job is to do. Therefore, if we debate, we should debate only concerning what the best course of practical action should be. But even this debate should be kept to a minimum.

(4) Big important new initiatives do need discussion and approval. But once they're approved, go to town. Steve Ewen was given the green light to organize our image policies and resources, and he went to town--that is a perfect example of what I mean.

(5) We are not the Grand Overseers of the Citizendium. We are not The Cabal. So we do not make policy and we do not pass judgment on individuals. We are doers and organizers. If new policy is required for us to take some action, we consult the community and drive it through the proper bodies (if possible!).

(6) Our proceedings need not be particularly secret, except perhaps in very small cases...we could, if we wanted to, set up a mailing list for our group and make it open to read.

(7) We will report on our work to each other once or twice a week (we can decide later), and give each other advice and encouragement. If you stop acting for a time, you'll be dropped from the group. If some other person particularly distinguishes him or herself and would seem to fit in as a co-organizer, let's get that person into the group.

Userplan experiment