CZ:Nomination page/Editorial Council/David Finn

I would like to decline this nomination because I am unsure that anyone who has been on Citizendium as short a time as I could have a good enough understanding of what Citizendium is - I think that nominations should have been restricted to those with x months served, or y thousand edits, and I think that any other candidate who has been here only as long as I should seriously think about whether they are really proficient enough in their Citizendium contributions to run for office.

I would also like to decline because, of everyone here, I probably have the least academic qualifications. With so many verified experts on Citizendium I don't think that anyone with less than a raft of professional qualifications and relevant experience need even consider running for office for some time.

I would like to decline, but someone saw fit to nominate me, and they must have had a reason. I think that reason was that I am interested in the mechanism of Citizendium and am not shy about asking questions, and that I am committed to making an encyclopedia and not just concentrating on one, especially fringe, topic.

These elections have served to highlight a division between single-purpose contributors who concentrate solely on their chosen subject (often their profession and means of making their way in the world) and "knowledge experts" who are willing and capable of contributing to the encyclopedia as a whole. In my view it is the latter that we should be concentrating on, as they are our best resource.

The best way to ensure a comprehensive, representitive encyclopedia is to empower a representitive editorial council. If you were forced to pick seven people to form an editorial council for the world it is statistically unlikely that any of them would be there to respresent only their chosen fringe subject, and probably all of them would be highly educated and familiar with the system within which they should work. I think that all voting Citizens should keep this in mind when casting their ballots.

Regardless of whether or not I am elected (and bearing in mind that I have advised against it) I am now in a position to allocate two hours per day to Citizendium. I look forward to working with you all to improve the global coverage of this encyclopedia.