[Textop] New proposal for an executive committee (please read)

[Larry Sanger]

Dear members of the Textop Advisory Committee, and the Textop community at
large,

I would like a large amount of feedback on the following *important*,
*project-changing* proposal.  Please read, with these questions in mind: do
you think this is a good idea generally?  Is it something we should do soon,
or defer until, say, the pilot project is further along?  Can you think of a
useful "twist" on the approach I've suggested?  Do you have any comments on
the details of the proposal?

I will not act on this, e.g., make any calls for applications, for *at
least* one week.  Please give me your feedback by next Wednesday, August 9,
anyway.


=========
RATIONALE

It seems to me that we could be doing so much more.  I am a firm believer in
motivating by conferring responsibility.  That is why collaborative and
self-publishing projects online are thriving: the individual is empowered
through responsibility.  Well, it occurred to me that we just need to define
the right framework for empowering individuals, one in which responsibility
is shared among like-minded peers.


=======================
THE PROPOSAL IN SUMMARY

So here is what I propose: I will appoint, with feedback/approval by the
Textop Advisory Committee, a number of people who are given *very broad*
authority to work on different aspects of Textop.  They become full
stakeholders in and essentially co-founders of the project, and become a new
Executive Committee.  Work then proceeds in parallel on a number of fronts.


===================================
GENERAL FEATURES OF EXECUTIVE ROLES

The general requirements and features of these roles would be as follows:

* This is a nonprofit, knowledge-oriented project.  Our brief is to
enlighten the world.  This should not be expected to be a lucrative hobby.
So, while we will attempt to do some innovative kinds of fundraising, these
will probably be volunteer positions for the foreseeable future.  We ought
to consider our involvement as an important hobby, much as the volunteers at
work on the Gutenberg Project or Wikipedia do.  I assure you that (unlike
Wikipedia!) I would still be working on Textop in my spare time even if I
didn't get the plum support deal with my employer (thanks Joe).

* You agree to commit some significant amount of time to the project, on the
order of at least five hours per week.  You also agree to let me (or
whatever person or body is so designated) replace you if you drop the ball.

* In the not-distant future, the governance of Textop will be settled and
defined by a Charter, that provides that *all* positions of responsibility,
yours and my own included, become electable and governable "by law" so to
speak.  You will be bound by the requirements of that Charter when it is
adopted.

* The Charter will include items to the following effect:

	- The main products of Textop are and will always be *open content*,
and the project will always remain under the control of a noncommercial and
nonprofit entity.  (Just forget about Textop being your personal vehicle to
wealth.  We are creating something for the world to share.)

	- Decisionmaking about significant matters of content will be left
to subject matter experts.  They will not *drive* and *assign* work, but we
all agree to respect their authority to *oversee* it.

	- Nonetheless, the project will adhere to a broad principle of
collaboration, i.e., distributed, asynchronous effort, in which all people
*who can make a positive contribution* (given the different requirements of
different tasks) are enabled to do so.  This is a "big tent"; it is "open";
it is generally "flat."  Textop is and always will be aggressively opposed
to unnecessary, irrational, and/or closed bureaucracy, and strongly in favor
of supporting individual initiative.

* These positions are "executive" positions in the sense that you will be
expected to make plans proactively, get approval for them, and put them into
effect.  You will also be leaders of workgroups that will have more or less
open membership.  As with subject matter editors, you will be expected to
let work in your area be as "bottom-up" as possible.  Your job is *not* to
give orders, but to herd cats!  Leadership and bold proposing is essential
to our success, but tendency to become dictatorial and peremptory will be
grounds for dismissal.

* These positions will also serve on an Executive Committee that will
probably have a fairly regular conference call and/or its own (open archive,
exclusive subscription) mailing list, in which *only* the most important
decisions affecting the entire project will be vetted.  The Executive
Committee Will Not Be A Bottleneck!  Initially, I will serve as the chair of
the Executive Committee, but this will be a temporary, not permanent
arrangement, subject to the decision of the committee itself.

* Henceforth I will always refer to myself as a "co-founder" of Textop and
you will share the billing with me.  The project in a very real sense
becomes *our* project, and no longer in any meaningful sense *my* project.

I'm inclined to call these people "Directors," but tell me if you would
prefer another moniker.


=======================
SOME POSSIBLE POSITIONS

I propose next to recruit for the following positions, to begin with.

* Director of Website and Wiki Design.  This person is given broad authority
to organize the writing, design, and other features of textop.org and the
textop wiki.  Main brief is to solicit, upload, update, and otherwise manage
the documents and other media of Textop.  I'll give you a login to the web
space and permit you to give logins to others, as necessary.

* Director of the Collation Project.  This is what I've been doing.  I will
continue to do this.

* Director of the Analytical Dictionary Project.  Plans, prototypes,
recruits for, and otherwise manages the nascent Analytical Dictionary
Project.

* Director of the Debate Guide Project.  Plans, prototypes, recruits for,
and otherwise manages the nascent Debate Guide Project.

* Director of the Event Summary Project.  Plans, prototypes, recruits for,
and otherwise manages the nascent the Event Summary Project.

* Director of Software Development.  Plans and directs the OSS needed to
support the various Textop subprojects.

* Director of Oversight.  Has two complementary roles: (1) keeps track of a
project log, reporting on the latest developments on behalf of everyone; and
(2) ensures that work is proceeding apace and according to the plans
developed by the other directors on all fronts.  Eliminates unnecessary
bureaucracy and other such silliness.  In other words, a low-key COO.

* Director of Innovation.  The local solver of deep problems.  Drives and
moderates a mailing list on which new Textop projects, or radical
innovations to existing projects, are discussed.  Represents the community
that participates in the discussion to the Executive Committee, which vets
proposals.

* Director of Recruitment.  Works with other Directors to determine the most
pressing needs for volunteers, and crafts and implements a creative plan to
get volunteers on board.  Posts on mailing lists, does research into
possible volunteers, drafts press releases, does networking, etc.
Eventually might help organize a conference.

* Director of Finance.  Crafts and implements innovative fundraising plans;
directs grantwriting as and when appropriate; receives and prioritizes
reimbursement and grant requests from project staff.

* Architect of the Text Outline Project Charter.  A temporary position,
devoted solely to crafting Textop's Charter, leading a broadbased discussion
of the Charter, and articulating the result to the Executive Committee.
This person should be a mature and respected philosopher, political
scientist, policy analyst, legal scholar, historian, or other intellectual
who can think very deeply about a huge range of issues.  (My current
thinking is that the Charter is officially adopted after *both* the Advisory
Committee *and* the Executive Committee adopt it.)

Any other positions you can think of?

To be embarrassingly honest, I'm amazed that I was actually considering
trying to do all this myself for any length of time at all.  Obviously, I
should have delegated this sort of managerial authority from the very start.
I don't even *want* to do some of this stuff; mainly, I want to work on the
Collation Project.  And, clearly, there are people out there who would love
to step into positions like this.  Live and learn.  Clearly, if Textop is to
get anywhere, we have to view this project not as Larry's project but as
**our** project.


=====================================
HOW TO LAUNCH THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

While there are strong candidates for many of these positions already with
us, I doubt that we will be able to get a full complement of suitable
directors.  So I want to cast our net widely.  I propose to do a press
release announcing that we are building an Executive Committee for the Text
Outline Project, and that we hope to interest some people who want to lead
the construction of some radically innovative new reference works.  I would
distribute this press release very widely, and encourage you to do the same.
(Other ideas about how to get the word out?)


=========
FEEDBACK?

Well, what do you think?  If you want to discuss it with others, do so on
the [Textop] list.  Otherwise, just e-mail me, and I will summarize the
results sometime after next Friday.  If anyone wants to upload this proposal
to the wiki, feel free to do so.

--Larry