User:Christine Bush/ElectionJune2014/Nominations/Council/Christine Bush

It is a dark time for The Republic...

I want to thank John Stephenson for his unexpected nomination of me for an Author seat in the soon-upon-us 2014 election. I wish there were much more competition for this and all the seats. I encourage your participation.

I have corresponded with John Stephenson a bit in recent days in order to try and get a sense of the political topography of CZ. I was not surprised that he identifies FUNDRAISING and PARTICIPATION as two pressing concerns forming a coordinate system in which all CZ issues can be found.

I also see two other issues as being important fault lines in the project. The first fault line I see is lack of clarity regarding migration of CZ to a modern, scalable, less expensive HOSTING context (such as AWS). I believe this really needs to be prioritized and more support provided to those doing the work of the migration. (I have some background in this area and will strive to seek out opportunities to become involved in making this a reality.)

The second fault line is that CZ is not an actual legal entity. I think this is a source of instability both organizationally and financially. Without taking the step to become a non-proft organization we have a constantly contested CORE IDENTITY and this results in well-intentioned but ineffective fundraising. I can't help but believe that many newcomers or WP refugees or other WikiWonks are hesitant to financially support something which is literally "just a web site." I both applaud and appreciate Hayford Peirce's administration of the PayPal account for CZ, but I would feel much better if my monthly donations were to a legal entity with the name Citizendium(tm), Inc.

These are a few of my late night thoughts on CZ. If they resonate with or engage you, I invite you to reach out to me. I appreciate your vote and the opportunity at hand.

Cheers, Christine Bush 04:47, 13 June 2014 (UTC)