CZ Talk:Become a Partner

You know that the Library of Congress has begun hosting certain of its images on flickr, and inviting contributors to fill in details about them. They don't know about them so they are trying to garner "the wisdom of the crowds". If CZ did this with the LOC--this could be an enormous opportunity for CZ...but not yet, as there simply are not enough experts willing to add data about the photos. Stephen Ewen 01:09, 9 February 2008 (CST)

You could add another page, Steve: ideas for specific partnerships. --Larry Sanger 01:22, 9 February 2008 (CST)

I fear that a potential Yahoo-Microsoft might impact this project (as Yahoo is Flickr's parent company) --Robert W King 06:50, 9 February 2008 (CST)

I saw on the news tonight that Yahoo is going to turn Microsoft down. --Todd Coles 21:09, 10 February 2008 (CST)

Promotion and tenure credit

I like this idea. I think as some point, it needs tweaking. I doubt a P&T committee would be willing to take the initiative to go over someone's CZ edits, but if CZ could output a report that the author could add to the P&T packet. The report could summarize the amount of edits, the number of sources cited, and then some statement that this CZ suggests this author has done the equivalent of x.x number of review articles. Then the report would include some representative edits (or a link to all of the edits) so the committee could judge the quality of the faculty member's work.

If authors knew of this, it seems it would both motivate more edits and higher quality edits.

These are initial ideas, does anyone have suggestions to improve this? - Robert Badgett 20:07, 10 February 2008 (CST)

Great minds think alike...this is exactly what I was thinking. The question is what the contents of this letter should be, who should write it, whether we should simply use a neat template, and what info should be on the template. I would love it if you (or someone) would think all that through. --Larry Sanger 21:36, 10 February 2008 (CST)

One suggestion

I have one suggestion. It seems to me that the two unique growth areas for CZ are among students, thanks to Eduzendium initiative, and among retirees. Permit me to explain. I've noticed we have a number of very active retired or semi-retired experts in their fields, who obviously feel that CZ is superior to the hurly-burly trolling and snarking of life at WP (and as someone who's due to turn 50 next year, I agree). A lot of seniors are online. A lot have knowledge and expertise to pass on. Perhaps we could include blogs and organizations for seniors in this CZ outreach, emphasizing how our process is different and more respectful? As Larry has aptly written, a wiki for grown ups? Shawn Goldwater 21:31, 10 February 2008 (CST)

Fantastic idea! But how to give it teeth, exactly? --Larry Sanger 21:38, 10 February 2008 (CST)

Well, I realized after posting it that this is probably on the wrong Talk page. What you're discussing here is organizational partners, which is great. I guess what I'm talking about is a more targeted outreach to seniors, individually, via organizations -- like AARP. So I wonder if any of our members are actually AARP members, and if so, if they could suggest ways to spread the word through the organization's network? Shawn Goldwater 21:43, 10 February 2008 (CST)

Right, as a method of recruitment, the discussion/development of the idea would go on CZ:Recruitment. As a proposal for a specific partnership, though, with the aim of recruitment, it could go on a new CZ:Ideas for specific partnerships page...or even on CZ:Proposals... --Larry Sanger 21:50, 10 February 2008 (CST)

I think I could write a powerful ad for the AARP mag. Stephen Ewen 22:16, 10 February 2008 (CST)

I'd like to bring up a concern in that retired experts are not very flexible on their positions sometimes and can be entirely insistent; sometimes this is a good thing when the subject is about something that is fixed and known (with no variation--it is how it is), but as humans get older, we tend to be "set in our ways". Not all retirees are like this I understand, but there are some who are. --Robert W King 08:52, 11 February 2008 (CST)

Right and I see you begin your User page description with "I am a young man working in the field of..." There are several active authors on this project that are self-described as "retirees" who are doing wonderful work. Is there something wrong with the excellent contributions they've made? Yes, one or two older authors might be "set in their ways." Younger authors might be jerks. But these are all hypotheticals. I have a big problem with discriminating against the fastest growing segment of society -- with a wealth of experience -- because some of them might be difficult. Shawn Goldwater 11:29, 11 February 2008 (CST)