Hello team Massachusetts Kosmopolitans , and anyone else who is interested.
I wanted to lob this organizational diary out there for the MassKos group. I thought this could be a group that discusses local candidates, issues, events, travel, anything Mass-related really. I had no specific agenda for this group, except to facilitate conversation and action among my neighbors, with a central clearing house of diaries fed into the hopper. My initial inclination is to just let this run. I don't want to edit/moderate/drive content much--just that it be MA-related somehow.
Groups are organizing around all sorts of themes and topics, and will develop all kinds of organizational strategies. There's an ongoing discussion of follow vs join, and people will develop their own preferences for this. I really don't care what you decide to do. One quick note though: if you join--you are NOT automatically getting the diaries in your stream/feed from this group. You also have to click the ♥ to follow the group.
I have added everyone who asked to join, or who identified as a Mass resident in the roll call diary. Anyone is welcome, though, of course. Just send a message to me or the group, and I'll add you.
Currently the roles for group members are thus, according to management:
Structurally, this is all new. We can work out any organization we want with the tools we have. I'd sorta like to see this just develop, rather than drive it in any directed way. If others had stronger feelings about that--or some other philosophy, let us know.
As founder, I'm Blog Admin. But if you want to have that role as well, just let me know. I'd like someone else involved actually, as I travel for work sometimes.
Everyone else came in as Member. I think that's too limited a role. You can't see group messages then (or you aren't supposed to, there were some initial bugs with that). And I want the message feature more than anything--to alert the locals to important events, dates, diaries, or other crucial things without relying on people to always monitor their diary stream. I thought that the messaging would be almost a sort of bulletin board with announcements and such. Messaging is buggy right now--but after it calms down a bit that was my concept of this. All open for discussion, however.
If you don't like the messages, or the other stuff going on, you could always demote yourself later.
But I don't want group members to feel like they are required to publish diaries either. I have no objection to lurker members.
Some groups are electing to make everyone a Blog Editor. I have no problem with that strategy. It carries some risk though--it means that people can edit diaries published to the group blog, and can tweak the queue. But I'd be willing to take the chance for now, and back off if that is some sort of disaster. (Save a copy of everything you write--good strategy anyway).
What I would like for the local group is to be able to message each other if a relevant diary is up, or important event is scheduled (local meetup, campaign events, rallies, whatever). I would like anyone in the group to publish relevant material to the group, without waiting for an admin. And to monitor and republish if others write something worthwhile.
What do you think about how to organize this? Let's look back to an important local document . Yeah, they were theocratic misogynists and more, but...well, here it is, with some suggested updates for this group:
In the name of God Flying Spaghetti Monster, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James Markos, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, FSM etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith Democratic Party and Honour of our King President and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia the intertubz, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God FSM and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at DK Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 2011 1620.
We can develop a Mayflower Compact II, and whoever comes in as a member is required to agree to our Civil Body Politic before becoming an Editor. It will say stuff like (draft language):
- Don't edit other's diaries without permission or request of the author, unless it's some kind of link/image/typo emergency or something. And even then--if you must--put a [mem from somerville....] sort of note with it to indicate the edit.
- Don't spam message the group. That means commercial stuff, junk, useless trivia, etc. Please message on relevant topics for the group.
- Don't harass or stalk anyone in the message mechanism.
- Keep the political/issue/candidate arguments out of the back-channel. Use messages like a bulletin board for the most part.
Any breaches of those types of things would get your booted. Other points welcomed--mine were just a starting point for discussion.
The group description is also negotiable, of course. I just started with something people would recognize.
I don't expect us to all agree. And we have to keep in mind that issues and primaries can get heated--especially if we are going to lose one of our districts and there's some tension there. But some things are clear: wiscmass has proposed a worthy first goal for the group--show of hands?
I open the discussion. The Roles, the Compact, the Civic Body Politic, the goals, the description. Comment on any or all of it. What do you want to do with this group?
There was a lengthy discussion of the roles and terminology around groups led by Markos here last evening: http://www.dailykos.com/... There's much agita right now about what the terms are and what the functions are. Other groups may make other decisions about who handles what, and what their message systems are for. What we discuss and decide here is ONLY for this group, we are not determining anything about how others will run, nor should we conclude one way is the way right now. We may alter course if this isn't working.