[TAG] LG - what's next?

[Ben Okopnik]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 03:10:40PM +1000, Henry Grebler wrote:
> 
> I've gone through the emails on this subject. Here's a summary of who
> offered to do what. 

[snip]

Henry, that's terrific (and Joey, good on ya for the initial spark. :) I
was waiting with bated breath [1] for someone to move ahead on the
actual coordination; producing that list is a great first step.

[1] Darn it, now I can't find the unbater. Guess I'll just have to keep
walking around like that.
 
> I've probably missed a whole lot of people and stuff, but I guess the
> above is a start.

Well, part of my stepping down has meant more than just not producing
the content; there's a lot of invisible LG-related stuff that always
goes on in the background. E.g., I've got email in my inbox from someone
volunteering to be a proofreader as well as someone else who wants to
head up a Chinese translation team for LG; both of these are awaiting
response. So is an offer to do an "App of the month" column. So are, at
this point, several articles that need to be vetted, etc.

Taking over a running "business" always means jumping in with both feet
(this I know from experience) - and LG, despite not being a
profit-making entity, definitely qualifies.
 
> To this list I'll add myself:
> 
> Henry Grebler
> 	proofreading
> 	coordinating
> 	willing to write articles
> 
> Obviously, I can't let my volunteering pass without comment. I'm going
> to do a much better job of proofreading if I get articles earlier in
> the cycle rather than later.

This is what the deadlines are supposed to be about - giving time to
proofreaders and editors to work with the stuff.

> I guess what I'm doing now counts as
> coordinating; I'm not sure what other tasks are required in
> coordinating. Basically I put up my hand to satisfy Rene's request for
> 3 coordinators.

Given that three people _have_ volunteered to coordinate (which, to me,
means that LG gets to go forward), and that all three have expressed
some version of "...but my time is limited", I'll shyly half-raise a
hand and offer to fill in the missing bits. :) I'll be happy to advise
on whatever running matters or processes are necessary, etc.
 
This probably means that we need a coordination list, which I can easily
set up in Mailman. Henry, Steve, René - do comment, please, if you have
a better approach.

> In the final analysis, the only thing I really really want to do is
> write articles.
 
Ah. A reluctant coordinator. :) The best kind, from a certain
perspective; Cincinnatus was always one of my favorite characters in
history.
 
> I've just realised that there's one more thing that I'm very happy to
> do. Call it style guidance.

Yay - final pre-publication review! This is indeed a good thing, since
 - at least in my minority opinion - some *one* hand to set the style
throughout is a necessity (and, may I diffidently suggest, makes for
a good _social_ dynamic as well.)

> I guess 8 people working together should be able to do a lot of work.

In the end, it all comes down to people being willing to commit the time
and the effort, and to put enough of a priority on that commitment, to
do the work and keep doing it. LG isn't a sprint, or even a marathon,
and thinking in terms of those just leads to burning out and giving up,
sooner or later.
 
> So here's the above list turned the other way, ie by task.

[snip]

> other
> 
> 	Rares Aioanei
> 	Joey Prestia
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The above list is perhaps a little unrepresentative. A number of
> people offered to help in unspecified ways. I've put them under
> "other". Perhaps I should know what these people have done in the
> past.
 
Rares has been a very reliable proofreader and a trustworthy backstop
man: anytime some LG service is down, he's always been one of the first
people to email me and let me know, which is just wonderful. Joey has
been the LG mirror list maintainer, making sure that the
mirror/translator database is current; he was also of tremendous,
invaluable help with setting up the new LG server. Just like during the
days when he was producing his column for LG, Joey is also a rock-solid
resource; when he says he'll be there, you can stake your bank account
on it.

While I'm thinking about it, and because I often forget to say so at the
time: it has been my great privilege to work closely with both of you
gentlemen. Thank you both for the experience.
 
> Here are some tasks which no one seems to have mentioned.
> 
> Article acceptance (editor)
> 
> 	Someone has to decide if an article is fit to print. Without
> 	this, whatever is published will not maintain the high
> 	standards set by Ben in the past.

Another thing I'd be willing to lend a hand with. (Perhaps I'm
cherry-picking here, but I'm being careful to restrict my volunteering
to things that I can reliably do - which means some degree of fun as
well as a sense of easy familiarity with the task, rather than something
I have to struggle with or "get through".)
 
> 	I'm know there are some high quality blogs. But there is also
> 	a lot of material that would fail on matters of quality,
> 	accuracy and relevance. (These are some of the reasons why Ben
> 	has sent my articles back to me - and rightly so.)

I may not be the best model to emulate in this regard, though. I operate
on an odd sort of system with this: I'm much more demanding of good
writers like yourself than I am of poor ones. :)
 
> And, of course, I haven't even mentioned the elephant.

Perhaps I'm just too preoccupied by this big pillar I see in front of
me. :) Which thing, or category of thing (to do justice to the metaphor)
are you seeing as the elephant?


Ben
-- 
                       OKOPNIK CONSULTING
        Custom Computing Solutions For Your Business
Expert-led Training | Dynamic, vital websites | Custom programming
  443-250-7895   http://okopnik.com   http://twitter.com/okopnik