Website setup

From espians

There are several people who are thinking of restructuring the website... We need to act on this quickly... Let's describe our suggestions initially, see if they are compatible, and then forge ahead!

David Pinto

My idea is not to use the wiki as a resource of facts (which is fairly easy), but to use it as a primary means of enabling the co-ordination of collaborators. We put people first, which means, the central part of the wiki are the user-pages, (see peoplepage for a list). We want to get as close to what people are doing as possible without the mode of recording/documentation hindering people's actual participation; eg at a glance, we can see what everyone's intentions/achievements are. Although a little clunky, because the wiki is not designed for this, all members of 24weeks can use this system until the first espra platform has been designed in three-four weeks.

It takes a little to get one's head around how to use it in this way. Forget projects, forget agreement, forget facts. Think projections, intentions, subjective accounts. The idea is, if we trial it properly for a week, we will have experience on how to improve etc, and this will also inform the design of the first espra platform. It is participation, testing it, using it daily, which is the experiment. It is not something which is going to happen by itself. It will be a bit clunky... but the principle might become clear... and the practical use become evident. Here's a log of a discussion with sbp to show how tricky it is... and mamading is using it, and jeffarch has improved upon it already...

The idea is to create a non-managed collaboration! We cut the dross, the constant chasing-up of what people are doing. Instead we have simple ways of keeping abreast of what everyone is doing, generating trust, and creating the opportunities for mutual confluence in the future. BLaaaa... try it!