User:Nabarry/Improvement of Activism Wikia

From Activism

[edit] The Idea

This project could use a lot of work, and on this page I make a number of suggestions. I am interested in attracting authors and editors from several sources:

Current members of this project
Members of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia (Meta-Wiki) projects
Members of other non-WikiMedia wikis
Activists

[edit] A brief overview of the vision

Activism Wikia will serve several purposes. It well be an encyclopedic resource, an advocacy site for social movements, and a how-to guide for the activist or would-be activist.

As a repository of information, it will have information on what each movement is all about, the history of each movement, its membership, important organizations affiliated with it, and its connections to other movements. In this way it is much like the Wikipedia articles on various social movements. I hope, however, that we can attract actual members of each movement, so that the articles will be written by people who have actually participated and thus have first-hand experience.

As an advocacy site, some of the pages for various social movements will argue for the positions held by members of each movement. (Other sections will hold critiques of the movements.) There will be places to cite evidence for all the claims made by the movement. This aspect of the site will, I hope, help various movements to clarify their issues and their message, and figure out where their message is poorly backed up. It may also help far-flung members of movements to connect and communicate.

As a how-to guide, the site will offer practical advice for people who are interested in contributing to a movement, but who may not know quite what to do. It will also be a guide for existing activists, and will help experienced activists pass on their wisdom to others.

[edit] Comparison with Wikipedia/WikiMedia

I have some experience on Wikipedia (WP), and I hope to bring over some other editors and authors from WP, as well, because there are a lot of really great editors there. By that I mean that they are (1) great authors, (2) great technical editors (good at formatting and structuring), and (3) great at dealing with conflicts between people without getting into an angry fight.

But there is one big difference between WP and Activism: WP is supposed to have a neutral point of view (NPOV), while a significant portion of this project is very POV. I think this may put off some WP editors (it even puts me off a little), but I'm sure there are wikipedians who are interested in activism from a more-than-just-scholarly point of view, and who have maybe even been itching to put in some personal opinion. Actually, members of Meta-Wiki (administrators of all the WikiMedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, WikiNews, etc.) may be less put off by this. In their circles, discussion centers not only on what is (NPOV), but also on what should be (POV).

Related to this difference, there will probably be more personal writing (narratives, essays) here than on WP. Once again, there is some of this on Meta-Wiki already, but not as much as there probably will be here. One of the most important aspects of this vision is that the project should become a resource for actual activists. One advantage to having activists on the project is that we can see how things work from the inside of movements. I think that personal narratives from some of these activists would be of interest. (I also think that the scope of such narratives should be somewhat limited...This project shouldn't turn into an online, mass journal. The narratives should be kept in well-defined areas of the site so that uninterested readers can avoid them.)

Another small difference is that Activism will, in a way, be a combination of the encyclopedic aspects of WP and the news aspect of WikiNews, in that it will not only have information about the movements, but also a listing of upcoming events.

[edit] An outline of pages

Each movement will have a main subject page, and be accompanied by a series of other pages that support and build on this page. This structure is somewhat like that used on Wikipedia for complicated, deep issues. If you look at the Jehovah's Witnesses article, for example, you will notice that the Organizational Structure section has only a few paragraphs, and contains a link to an article devoted solely and more deeply to the organizational structure of the Witnesses. This is the basic principle of the outline I have prepared below.

[edit] Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR main subject page - This page is an overview of the CSR movement. It includes a brief articulation of the arguments for and mission of CSR, as well as an abbreviated description of its history, members, identity (which is different from members), goals, tactics, organization, and achievements.
- Arguments and mission of CSR - Here the arguments are fully fleshed out. The page is broken into sections based on different pieces of the argument. There will be, for example, different sections for the moral and economic arguments for corporate social responsibility. In addition, a section of the page will be devoted to critiques of the arguments.
  - Evidence for CSR arguments - Contains evidence used in the arguments, such as reports and studies, graphs, etc.
- How to become involved - This page connects items from multiple sub-pages. It draws from the Members page by discussing what sorts of people usually get involved, and how this affects your interest in involvement. If you don't fall into the typical group of members, you may not have as easy acces to the communication channels and networks of acquaintances that help them participate in the movement. If you are poor, you may not be able to buy Fair Trade coffee, so you will have to pursue other tactics to support the movement. So there is also a clear draw from the Tactics page. Material from the Goals and Arguments pages provides some direction for would-be members of the CSR movement.
- History of CSR - This (and following pages) fills out things left untold by the main subject page. This page should be fairly encyclopedic; it is here to list what has happened and should stick to fact. There can be some commentary and debate woven into this page, but mostly such debate should find a place on other pages. This page will include a special sub-section on the achievements of the movement so far.
- Members of CSR - Not completely encyclopedic. The page should accurately describe the members of the movement, but can also discuss what types of people are wanted in the movement (but may not be well represented in the movement yet), and can have arguments about whether certain types of membership are helpful or harmful to the movement.
- Identity of CSR - Very subjective. This is all about how members of the movement perceive themselves. Do they see themselves as revolutionaries, or do they just want companies to be a little less cut-throat?
  - Personal narratives and essays by CSR members - Someone who wants to learn practical information about the movement and about how to get involved may not want to hear the personal opinions of members. Such material is important, but should be confined, where possible, to certain sections so that those who are uninterested can avoid it.
- Goals of CSR - This page will clearly have a huge dose of NPOV writing and debate.
- Tactics of CSR - Here there will be a discussion not only of what tactics are used, but a consideration of which tactics might be more successful.
- Organization of CSR - Discusses the different organizations associated with CSR, as well as the overall structure of the whole movement. Arguments in support and in critique of this structure will be included.

[edit] Suggested Pages/Page To Do

I'll try to put together the following pages, but of course help from other users will be welcome.

A good contrast between Everyday Heroes vs. The Activist Lifestyle
The Theory of Infinite Struggle needs to be cleaned up a lot

[edit] Contributions from others

If you feel that there are other things that should be included or considered, please leave an explanation here.

Nabarry 87 edits since May 24, 2006