WREG, channel 3 in Memphis, was the first to do reporting about WatchKnow. They covered the launch event which was held at the house of the project funder. Excellent positive coverage, we’re very happy about it!
UPDATE: another Memphis-area news source covered WatchKnow: “Web site a directory for learners, teachers alike” (Desoto Times Tribune)
The new site makes educational videos for kids ridiculously easy to find. We are launching with over 10,000 videos placed in over 2,000 categories, arranged in a very handy directory. The site is a new kind of wiki: working together, contributors can edit video information, and they can also edit the directory by drag and drop, which will make building the resource truly “wikiwiki” — fast. While the project is wide open and easy to get involved with (even anonymously), the project engages teachers to act as community moderators. It is non-profit and generously supported by an anonymous donor through the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. See how to edit the site in this screencast video:
We decided to get the word out on the grassroots level — in other words, virally — before we do a press release in a couple days (maybe next week). So please, please, tweet about WatchKnow, blog about it, talk about it with your friends, etc. — and start working on the site! This is one Web 2.0 project that really has the potential to change the world in great ways, so it needs your support. If you love WatchKnow, say so and spread the word!
We now have an officially empanelled Charter Drafting Committee (below).
A gmail account was used to collect the votes, and Hayford Peirce did the tallying. He says a few other people had access to the account. Hayford then (today) gave me access to the account as well as the worksheet he used to tally the vote. Just a while ago, I did a separate tally of the vote on my own spreadsheet. (I.e., I didn’t simply compare the e-mailed votes to the spreadsheet, I actually made a whole new spreadsheet.) I caught two clerical errors that made absolutely no difference to the results. In fact, the number of votes (200) and the number of Citizens who voted for each of 5, 4, 3, or 2 candidates is exactly as Hayford has it. This experience has given me renewed appreciation for our volunteer election workers.
An “Advisory Board” was to be named by me, according to our current governing document, the Citizendium Statement of Fundamental Policies, which would adopt a Charter. As promised I would earlier on the forum, I hereby appoint this group of people as a temporary Advisory Board for that purpose.
Listed alphabetically, not in order of number of votes received, the Committee is:
Martin Baldwin-Edwards
Howard Berkowitz
Shamira Gelbman
Matt Innis
Meg Ireland
Russell Jones
Daniel Mietchen
Joe Quick
Congratulations to everyone!
Anyone who wants to see the votes each candidate received may write to Hayford Peirce for that information.
Further information about where the Charter itself will begin being drafted should be available via http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Charter_drafting_committee That page also states the rules of the committee.
I posted the above on Citizendium-L and other project lists. But I want to add here, for the benefit of people outside the project, that this group strikes me as being very representative of the project as a whole. There are 6 men, 2 women. Most of the people elected have been with the project for well over a year, but one is a relatively recent arrival, and one left last year (and is, evidently, back now). Four or five of the eight have Ph.D.’s, two are in their 20s (I think), I guess most are youngish to middle-aged. They all have one thing in common, however: they are all very smart.
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