Our launch plan
I posted a launch plan a little while ago:
We’re going to launch quite soon. No date is set, but a few weeks from now–as soon as possible.
As you may know, we have been putting off our launch (i.e., allowing the public to view the Citizendium) until we obtained the servers we need to handle the traffic. Well, we’ve decided to go ahead and obtain four servers, for a total of five (two of these, and installation, kindly donated to the cause by Steadfast). These should be installed this week, which means that launch is going to happen soon.
Beyond server work, there isn’t a lot of other technical work that we absolutely need to do in order to launch. …
Also, if we can manage to do it before launch, I’d like to get the semi-automated application hand-approval system written and working, i.e., the system that will allow people to submit their registration on a Web form, and let constables get them into the system by pressing a button. Even if we don’t finish this before launch, we’re already using a new method for getting people on board within a day (usually), via e-mail. Thanks bunches to our constables for making that happen!
…
Other things I want to do before launch involve decisionmaking, organizing, writing, and wiki work–in other words, non-technical stuff. This is all hard work, by the way. Anyone who says that online projects grow “organically” really doesn’t know anything about it. Even Wikipedia didn’t grow “organically”: it grew exactly to the extent that lots of individuals did various bits of very hard work, from writing articles, to debating policy, to formatting help pages, and so forth. There is no substitute for our doing the same thing, if we want to make this thing happen.
And, by golly, it is going to happen–or rather, it is already happening!