FORwiki:Active Projects

A FORwiki Project is a place for a group of members of the FORwiki Community to coordinate works on a specific topic. The discussion pages attached to a project are often used to coordinate changes that take place across articles.

How to initiate a project?
Once you have determined that you will create a new FORwiki Project, you must create a base page for it. The naming convention for FORwiki Project is "Project Name of project". In general, a new Project page should be kept as simple as possible, and should be permitted to grow organically. An excessively complex structure can discourage potential new members—particularly if they're joining their first Project! It is recommended that Project page should include: For instance, to promote system thinking for foresight. For instance, all the pages related to the work of Ozcan Saritas.
 * Goals.
 * Scope
 * Members
 * Open tasks
 * Workshops
 * Categories
 * Related projects

Ask the Administrator to list the project on this page!

One of the most basic aspects of keeping a Project active is recruiting editors. A Project must recruit new members to make up for attrition; any project that fails to do this will eventually collapse. The most effective method to recruit new members is through the use of a project banner template. The project's initiator should create a banner using simple contents and introducing them at the beginning of relevant FORwiki pages. For instance,

which will create this:

What kind of work should be done?
The simplest approach to focusing the attention of project members on particular articles is the creation of a central list of open tasks. There are a number of different items which are usually included on project task lists: General announcements of important discussions and major tasks being undertaken. Requests for peer reviews of FORwiki articles. Articles which do not yet exist, but which should be created.
 * Announcements
 * Peer reviews
 * Requested articles
 * Cleanup and expansion requests

Which auxiliary facilities should you develop?
The number of articles and contributors might grow over time. Growth can itself be a problem, however, as the greater number of members and articles reduces the likelihood for individual group members to have contact with each other, and could potentially lead to factions within a project. For this reason, and others, projects are encouraged to develop a variety of regular communications. These might include newsletters, meet-ups, active conversation between members working in the same area of the project, and the like. Collaborations can also serve as an effective way to try to bring unity to the members, if they are successful.

One way of getting news to everyone is to put all the news on one page, and then ask people to either include the page on their own user page, or add it to their watchlist. Also, project members are encouraged to develop workshops dedicated to the project's topic and list them in the portal Current events.

How can a project fail?
The most critical task for a new project is figuring out how to work together. As part of this, members need to learn how to edit articles together, which involves identifying both content and language skills. Members also need to learn to communicate with each other on the project's talk page. But trying to solve every problem at once leads to fragmentation of effort and leaves editors feeling isolated. Taking on complicated tasks results in members feeling like they have failed. Taking on enormous or lengthy projects leads members to conclude that the project is unable to complete anything.

Common reason for the failure of FORwiki project might include:
 * Having an overly narrow scope;
 * Not recruiting enough members;
 * Depending too much on a few members;
 * Internal conflicts;
 * Violating policies and guidelines.

Projects aimed at modifying the Foresight Wiki
Acording to the 20 Commandments of the FORwiki Covenant, the FORwiki Policies and Guidelines may be modified only by the platform’s Administrator, and only if he/she takes notice of a consensus among the Members in favor of change in a particular policy or guideline. The fact is that the Foresight Wiki and the FORwiki community are also subject to change; hence, one policy or guideline might become obsolete. The same thing goes for the software that supports the platform, which might need an upgrade at some point. In order to address such problems the proper way is to initiate a FORwiki Project.

FORwiki policies & guidelines
Changing policies and guidelines necessitates consensus among community's members. Achieving this is not easy, and a project that generates dialogue on the respective topic is needed. Once the project is initiated, the Administrator will place the project's banner on the policy's page. The members will be invited to state their point of view on the Discussion page during a certain interval of time. Ultimately, it is up to the Committee for arbitration to make the final call. The Administrator will implement the Committee's decision.

FORwiki software
The procedure for upgrading the software is similar. The project's banner will be placed on the Foresight_Wiki page. Again, The members will be invited to state their point of view on the Discussion page during a certain interval of time. The Administrator may also participate to the dialogue, and provide an expert point of view on technical feasibility of the project. But, ultimately it is up to the Committee for arbitration to make the final call.

List of active projects
This is the place where the Administrator lists all the active projects.