Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Michael D. Thomas" <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>]

> Sure, as long as I, and anyone else here, who doesn't have the time or
> energy or desire to transform a brief splurt of info into an article
> that will live up to some reasonable editorial standard, can decline
to
> make a post into a more polished article, I don't have any objections.
> Go for it.

No particular individual is expected to do anything as part of this
project. The project will succeed b/c people want to do stuff, not b/c
people are somehow made to feel required to do stuff.

If anyone feels that, as part of this project, they are required to do
/anything/, then somewhere there is an error in communication. I know
that I'm not intending to communicate any such message.

> But when the desire to make something more, with help, turns into a
> pressure on someone else to simply deliver /more/ on top of whatever
they
> may already give, don't be surprised if you get some pushback. 

INW has always been very sensitive to this fact. This is why we keep our
costs low and make no requirements of membership. When I say things
like, "INW is going to go for another 5 years," that's because I know
that I can personally commit that time because the costs to run the
organization are so low -- 2 person-hours a month. That's just 120 hours
for another half-decade -- and past experience tells me that others will
be happy to help out along the way.

>From an organizational standpoint, the biggest risk of this project is
that it makes Triangle InterNetWorkers more difficult to run. The
development of the system has nothing to do with that -- development is
a fixed cost. 

This is why I want the system to be as decentralized as possible and the
work to be as distributed as possible. Maybe we'll have some years where
we'll have some great authors and editors and the content will be
fabulous, but we can't plan for that. We can't plan for anyone to ever
contribute at all. What we (the development team) can do is develop it,
have fun developing it, learn some stuff and have a system we can be
proud of. (Now, my intuition tells me that if we do these things and
also listen to the community as we develop, then we'll be widely
successful. But that's just the voices in my head talking...)

I know that I've asked for help and support many times but didn't get
it... that's fine. That just means that those seeds didn't grow.
However, that doesn't mean that seeds shouldn't be planted. When
pushback comes, that just means to me that there was an error in the act
of planting. If planting becomes unpleasant enough -- i.e., every time I
try to plant something a raccoon bites my toe -- then I'll quit planting
and go work in a factory that doesn't have raccoons. (My real hope,
though, is that the government will start paying me not to plant.;-)

Cheers!