The same thought occurred to me, but having no "place" in any decision
making, I hesitated to make the suggestion.  I was involved way back in
1996 - 98 in the startup of the USGenWeb Project - www.usgenweb.com which
is made up entirely of volunteers for Genealogy, so I have a background in
the organization of such a volunteer organization.  I will be happy to
provide my expertise.

John Rigdon
www.researchonline.net



> David, I was just thinking that some kind of committee/group/community
> could be formed to manage the OL decisions, so your WMF example here is
> very opportune. A project like OL succeeds only inasmuch as it has an
> active community, and that is what we are struggling with now.  At a
> recent conference I met with library techies who are interested in OL
> and some of whom use its APIs rather heavily. They, too, have a strong
> interest in the direction of OL. So there seems to be a potential
> community (or a confluence of potential communities).
>
> Note that there are IA activities that are very intertwined with OL, in
> particular the library lending program. However, I'm not sure what the
> exact relationship will be after the transition is done, so that's a bit
> of information that I'm missing. For me it brings up the question of the
> degree to which OL can change independently of IA.
>
> I think we need a meeting with IA folk. I'm not sure I can make that
> happen, but I'll make the first overture and report back.
>
> kc
>
> On 2/26/13 6:51 AM, David Cuenca wrote:
>> Karen,
>> Thank you very much for your insightful message. I was wondering who I
>> should contact for a possible project to make Wikisource's public domain
>> works available through OL.
>> I know there is the option to create a bot to add materials, but it is
>> hard to know if that would be acceptable if there is no one to ask or no
>> decision-making procedures...
>>
>> Is OL going to be under IA administration or is it supposed to be
>> managed together with the community? As an example of the second, he WMF
>> has a model where the foundation sets the general vision and
>> infrastructure and the community democratically elects representatives
>> and seeks consensus on site policies.
>>
>> David
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 9:34 AM, Karen Coyle <[email protected]
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>
>>     Ben,
>>
>>     At the moment there is no project lead on OL. So although Anand can
>> make
>>     the technical changes, I'm not sure that there is a way to make
>>     *decisions* about OL.
>>
>>     I just wanted to make it clear that Anand is not shirking his duty
>> but
>>     is actually taking on extra duties at times because he's about the
>> only
>>     one working on OL right now. I think we need to find a way to have a
>>     discussion with Brewster about the future of OL and how it will be
>> able
>>     to respond to user needs. Brewster may be more interested in talking
>>     about that after the transition to the IA platform is completed --
>> that
>>     seems to be foremost in his mind at the moment.
>>
>>     kc
>>
>>     On 2/26/13 5:36 AM, Anand Chitipothu wrote:
>>      > Hi Ben,
>>      >
>>      > Currently only admins can edit those pages.  I'm thinking of ways
>> to
>>      > enable allowing editing to super users  without making them
>> admins.
>>      >
>>      > Anand
>>      >
>>      > On 26-Feb-2013, at 2:53 PM, Ben Companjen wrote:
>>      >
>>      >> Anand, could you please also address the main question that I
>>     started
>>      >> this thread with?
>>      >> Thanks!
>>      >>
>>      >> Ben
>>      >>
>>      >> On Feb 26, 2013 9:18 AM, "Anand Chitipothu" <[email protected]
>>     <mailto:[email protected]>
>>      >> <mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>> wrote:
>>      >>
>>      >>     Thanks for the pointing the issue John. I've fixed it now.
>>      >>
>>      >>     Anand
>>      >>
>>      >>     On 26-Feb-2013, at 7:14 AM, John Shutt wrote:
>>      >>
>>      >>>     Hey all,
>>      >>>
>>      >>>     I'm also curious about this. For my own part, I ran into
>> some
>>      >>>     outdated info on the Bots
>>     <http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bots>
>>      >>>     page, which linked to the openlibrary/openlibrary Github
>> repo
>>      >>>
>>     
>> <https://github.com/openlibrary/openlibrary/blob/master/openlibrary/api.py>,
>>      >>>     where it should probably link to the
>>     internetarchive/openlibrary
>>      >>>     Github repo
>>      >>>
>>     
>> <https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary/blob/master/openlibrary/api.py>.
>>      >>>
>>      >>>     John
>>      >>>
>>      >>>     On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 10:42 AM, Ben Companjen
>>      >>>     <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>     <mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>>
>> wrote:
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         Hi Anand, other Internet Archivists,
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         This has been asked before, I'm sure, but if there was
>> ever
>>      >>>         an answer,
>>      >>>         it probably wasn't satisfactory to some (including me).
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         Why are so many pages with information about Open
>> Library
>>      >>>         locked up
>>      >>>         for normal users?
>>      >>>         I see so many pages that start with "this page is
>>     really really
>>      >>>         outdated", or the specification of the contents of dump
>>     files
>>      >>>         (":TODO:
>>      >>>         :TODO: :TODO:"), but clicking Edit always returns
>>     "Permission
>>      >>>         denied".
>>      >>>         That is not really user friendly, especially when
>>      >>> openlibrary.org/help <http://openlibrary.org/help>
>>     <http://openlibrary.org/help>
>>      >>>         says: 'You are welcome to edit/correct any errors or
>>      >>>         omissions you see
>>      >>>         on openlibrary.org <http://openlibrary.org>
>>     <http://openlibrary.org/> - it's an open,
>>      >>>         editable wiki. (Just look for the
>>      >>>         "EDIT" button.)'.
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         And speaking of /help: coincidentally I noticed that it
>>     was just
>>      >>>         edited by Jessamyn West, who doesn't seem to have any
>>      >>>         relationship
>>      >>>         with the Internet Archive [1]. There must be a policy
>> for
>>      >>>         selecting
>>      >>>         people who are given the rights to edit.
>>      >>>         I'd like that policy to be clear, preferably via /help.
>>      >>>         May I suggest to add to the policy that people who
>>     would like
>>      >>>         rights
>>      >>>         to edit, introduce themselves on the ol-discussion list
>>     (this
>>      >>>         list)
>>      >>>         and are then given that permission when there is no
>>     suspicion of
>>      >>>         planned vandalism? It could also have the effect of
>>     creation of a
>>      >>>         community (and a way to address editors). Although
>>     there seem
>>      >>>         to be
>>      >>>         plenty of book editors and new members, I think it
>> would
>>      >>>         benefit Open
>>      >>>         Library to have more than a couple of people who know
>> how
>>      >>>         things work
>>      >>>         around OL and who also interact via email.
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         Thanks for your reply!
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         Regards,
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         Ben
>>      >>>
>>      >>>         [1] Bios of (former) IA employees:
>>      >>>         <http://archive.org/about/bios.php>
>>      >>>         _______________________________________________
>>      >>>         Ol-tech mailing list
>>      >>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>     <mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>      >>> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-tech
>>      >>>         To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to
>>      >>> [email protected]
>>     <mailto:[email protected]>
>>      >>>         <mailto:[email protected]
>>     <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>      >>>
>>      >>>
>>      >>>     _______________________________________________
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>>      >>> [email protected]
>>     <mailto:[email protected]>
>>      >>>     <mailto:[email protected]
>>     <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>      >>
>>      >>
>>      >>     _______________________________________________
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>>     <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>      >>
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>>      >
>>      >
>>      > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>     --
>>     Karen Coyle
>>     [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://kcoyle.net
>>     ph: 1-510-540-7596 <tel:1-510-540-7596>
>>     m: 1-510-435-8234 <tel:1-510-435-8234>
>>     skype: kcoylenet
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     Ol-tech mailing list
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>>     [email protected]
>> <mailto:[email protected]>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Etiamsi omnes, ego non
>>
>
> --
> Karen Coyle
> [email protected] http://kcoyle.net
> ph: 1-510-540-7596
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet
> _______________________________________________
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> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-tech
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