Contributors/Guiding principles

In the Contributors Team, our mission is that "We build collaborative, inclusive tools for creating and editing free knowledge". But what does that mean in terms of outcomes? Which outcomes are we most focussed on, and why? What are our priorities? Which outcomes will be de-prioritise below, or even sacrifice for, other ones, and why?

Possible outcome areas

Editors

• Quantity — We want there to be more editors volunteering to work on our content sites
• Diversity of background — We want a set of active editors from a wide range of backgrounds – demographically, geographically, socio-economically, politically, …
• Diversity of interest — We want a set of active editors who are interested in all manner of topics – politics, history, science, business, society, fiction, beliefs, art, thought, …

• Freshness — We want there to be a steady stream of new editors joining our content sites and adding new ideas, angles and concepts to our whole
• Engagement — We want there to be editors working on our content sites at a range of levels of time, effort and emotional commitment and activity
• Happiness — We want the editors of our content to care about our mission, the parts they play in it, and to feel happy about their editing work

Content

• Breadth of interest — We want the pages on our content sites to cover all manner of topics, that would be of interest to all manner of people
• Quality of coverage — We want the topics covered on our content sites to be of high quality – referenced, correct, informative, illustrated, organised, up-to-date, explained, consistent, meaningful, coherent, re-usable, …
• Depth of interest — We want the topics covered on our content sites to provide all manner of people with as much information as they might want
• Language breadth — We want the topics covered on our content sites to be available across as many languages as possible
• Accessibility — We want the topics covered on our content sites to be as accessible to as many people as possible – technologically, cognitively, culturally, lingually, …

Possible principles

These are principals that guide how we make decisions.

• Quantity shouldn't sacrifice quality
  • Ultimately we are focused on increasing the amount of knowledge that is contributed, not just information. (See DIKW PyramidDIKW Pyramid)