Citizendium Blog

There are no fewer than four important pieces of news about Citizendium management.

According to plan, the Ad Hoc Steering Committee will disband in a few days, because its mission has been fulfilled–i.e., help get the Citizendium pilot project off the ground. I want to thank this really fine group of people for stepping in to do stuff I simply didn’t have time to do, and for acting as an excellent sounding board. The best sounding boards, however, are still Citizendium-L and the Citizendium Forums.

I’m sorry to report that David Marshall has resigned as Managing Editor, citing family issues. As I’ve told him, I’m grateful that he spent the large amounts of time that he did on the project. He did, of course, move the ball toward the goal, and I’ll always be grateful for that. Several members of the Ad Hoc Steering Committee have complained that they feel under the spotlight and are actually quite nervous as a result of all of the press coverage CZ has gotten. The pressure’s on! But personally I think we have many excellent reasons to be optimistic at this point.

To help fill the gap left by both the Ad Hoc Steering Committee and David Marshall, I am going to convene an Executive Committee. I need a responsible group of clear thinkers to help me steer through some tricky waters ahead. I have been approached by well over a dozen prominent foundations, companies, government representatives, and individuals, who are offering a variety of opportunities we would be foolish not to think hard about. The problem, of course, is that it is hard to think about those opportunities and also get the project off the ground. Similarly, there are various initiatives, such as a recruitment drive, that require someone saying “OK, let’s get this started.” Basically, I’m going to ask the smartest, ablest, and (last but definitely not least) the most motivated people to join me on this Executive Committee so that I’m not the only one actually initiating things.

Finally, Citizendium-Editors is going to launch this week–probably tomorrow. First on this list’s docket will be two crucial issues: (1) what the canonical list of editorial workgroups should be, and (2) how workgroups are run. The result will be a much tightened-up and fleshed-out Citizendium Policy Outline–the sections about editors and editorial workgroups anyway. CZ-Editors will not be responsible for setting policy that does not exclusively affect editors.