[Foundation-l] Proposing New Projects (was Proposal for a new project: Wikisomething)

Sun Sep 25 19:51:29 UTC 2005

Robert Scott Horning wrote:

> My reply is:  What are the specific issues that need to be addressed?  
> I think the problems are more social than technical.  In other words, 
> it is not the technical difficulty of trying to turn on a wiki portal 
> for a particular project but rather the social aspect of trying to get 
> people organized to help support the projects.  Some of these 
> projects, like Wikibooks or Wiktionary are still tyring to recruit 
> people to join the project and get a critical mass necessary to get 
> the project running smoothly.  In terms of what is needed to get some 
> technically inclined people to help write the necessary specialized 
> software needed for each project, that will come in time.  

I agree that the problem is more social than technical.  That being 
said, it seems pointless to have technical people running around 
developing software when you aren't sure what you want that software to do.

> I'm not saying that there are any organized efforts on the part of 
> developers, but when people are saying that we need to "wait a year" 
> (I've seen that repeated over and over again elsewhere) before 
> starting any new project, I would like to know what kind of technical 
> issue is a problem.  In the case of Wikiversity, is 125 people a 
> sufficient kernel of support to get it going?  Is that not enough 
> people that would be able to form a good stable community?  From the 
> stand point of those who are objecting to new projects being started, 
> I don't thing 1000 people supporting a new project is going to be 
> sufficient in terms of people willing to do the heavy lifting to get 
> the new project started. 

It's not a question of the number of supporters.

> Of course, this is up to the board to decide on their own, and the 
> polling is just a way to attempt to guage general community sentiment. 
> They are free to do whatever they want (the board), but there 
> certainly are a bunch of people who are shooting down every proposal, 
> no matter how well thought out and how much support it may have.  When 
> objections describe technical issues may be a problem, they seem to be 
> speaking on behalf of the developers even if that may not be the case.

One thing that would help to convince me that this is a well thought out 
proposal would be to see a single course in ANY subject, with the 
equivalent of one semester's duration, presented and brought to its 
logical conclusions.  With that experience to guide us we would be in a 
much better position to evaluate what we need to take the idea further.  
Without it the entire project is nothing more than an adventure in 
wishful thinking.
.
Ec