Workgroup:WikiEducator Workgroups

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This document is a charter that was approved by a WikiEducator Workgroup as detailed below. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect group consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Charter

A proposal to the WikiEducator community in May 2009, suggested the use of workgroups "to contribute towards the collective objective of improving how we work"[1]. WikiEducator Workgroups, a workgroup to define Community Workgroups in WikiEducator, is an outcome of this suggestion. This charter documents the group's purpose and outcomes, process for accomplishing these objectives, and participants. The charter that follows is modeled on the workgroup charter boilerplate.

Purpose



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Objectives
The purpose of this Community Workgroup is to:
  • Develop a set of guidelines for use by members of the WikiEducator community to assist with the establishment of Community Workgroups whose mission is to create policy, guidelines, tools, processes, etc., that impact the whole WikiEducator community.
  • Suggest procedures for listing active Community Workgroups in the wiki, inviting participation from the community and communicating progress on Community Workgroup activities.
  • Develop a boilerplate which future workgroups can use for developing charters to assist with the planning and functioning of the workgroup. The boilerplate will be accessible and relevant for use by an WikiEducator working group.
  • Consider guidelines for approval of the outputs of different Community Workgroups by the WikiEducator Community Council.
  • Present these guidelines to WikiEducator Community Council for consideration.


Alignment with core WikiEducator values

Wikieducators value:

diversity, freedom, innovation, transparency, equality, inclusivity, empowerment, human dignity, wellbeing and sustainability.

[2]

Specified outputs

  1. A boilerplate for future workgroups to use for developing a charter to assist with the group's planning and functioning. The charter boilerplate should be created such that it is relevant for use by any WikiEducator working group.
  2. A policy and supporting guidelines for the establishment and support of Community Workgroups whose mission is to create policy, guidelines, tools, processes, etc that impact the whole WikiEducator community. The guidelines will
    • define a simple process for the establishment of Community Workgroups, including endorsement by the WikiEducator Community Council
    • encourage the creation of Community Workgroups
    • encourage the participation of WikiEducator members in Community Workgroups
    • include support mechanisms to help sustain Community Workgroups once they are established
    • not deter other kinds of working groups from self-organizing for their own purposes
    • be drafted at Workgroup:WikiEducator_Workgroups/Guidelines

Leadership style

WikiEducator Workgroups has assigned a convenor and co-convenor with the following responsibilities:

  • Convene and facilitate workgroup discussions
  • Ensure the development of a charter in accordance with the guidelines and recommended criteria
  • Take responsibility for regular updates on the main list
  • Take proactive initiative to ensure that volunteers are kept up to date (e.g., personal email, reminders of deadlines, etc.)
  • Prepare final submission of WikiEducator Workgroups' outputs for approval by the WikiEducator Community Council.

Required Workgroup skills and experience

To achieve its objectives, WikiEducator Workgroups requires the following skills and experience of its participants, taken as a group:

  • At least two members of the WikiEducator Community Council: to help with consideration of what role the Council will have in forming and supporting Community Workgroups
  • General management and leadership experience
  • Leadership experience in open wiki communities with reference to developing guidelines, polices etc.
  • Members with experience of working and developing educational content in WikiEducator
  • Editing experience
  • Geographic spread

Workgroup participants

Any registered member of WikiEducator may join WikiEducator Workgroups by including a link to their userpage and a brief description of their relevant skills and knowledge in the member section below, In addition, any member is welcome to contribute on an ad hoc basis.

Note: This charter applies to all members participating in this WikiEducator Workgroups (whether or not they appear in the member section).

Member responsibilities

Members of WikiEducator Workgroups agree to:

  • Regularly visit the group's pages, both main and talk pages.
  • Contribute to discussions and draft reviews of WikiEducator Workgroups' outputs.
  • Aim to achieve consensus on relevant items.

Members and signatures

Founder of WikiEducator, elected member of Council with governance, senior level management and leadership experience. Active WikiEducator member/Ambassador with extensive content contributions, training support, strategy and policy development.
Location: Pacific, New Zealand: No. of WikiEducator edits: >15,600
Relatively new member of WikiEducator, experience working on process design, technical writing experience, corporate and community face-to-face management/leadership experience.
Location: North America, USA; No. of WikiEducator edts: > 1000
Nominated member of Wikieducator Council, Educational leader specializing in curriculum and instruction, experienced online facilitator, experience in organizing collaborative online projects, PAIRS relationship and marriage training skills, conflict resolution, and English as a foreign language teacher.
Location: Middle East, Israel; No. of WikiEducator edits: 16,432
Active WikiEducator member, grassroot practitioner and experienced online facilitator with emphasis on community building (some face-to-face experiences); active team member working with and for the founder of WikiEducator since inception of WikiEducator, excellent project management, - coordination and - organisational skills, wiki statistics, strong leadership and collaboration skills working with the community.
Location: North America, Canada; No. of WikiEducator edits: 14,104
Nominated member of Wikieducator Council, Senior level technology consultant with specialties in governance, solutions architecture, project portfolio management, quality assurance and open and agile approaches. Experienced online and face-to-face teacher / facilitator, numerous online community developments with focus on open data and community engagement. Open source software developer...
Location: North America, Canada; No. of WikiEducator edits: > 4400
Active WE member, Researcher of Advanced Mediawiki Features, HTML & CSS, TeX Markup languages. Experience in Online Facilitation, Project Managing, Instructional Design, Community Engagement. Experienced F2F Academic Conselour on Test Taking, Study Strategies, Private Teacher and Tutor in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry for over 30 years.
Location: North America, Mexico; No. of WikiEducator edits: 7,696
Nominated member of the WikiEducator-India Interim Advisory Board. Main Page Featured WE for December 2008 UPE. India Page Featured WE June 2009. Associate Professor of Botany. Strong believer in Open Sources and OER's. Facilitated both F2F and Online L4C workshops at WE.
Location: Asia, India; No. of WikiEducator edits: 5002.
Nominated member of the WikiEducator Community Council, Open Free Educational Content Developer, Volunteer Researcher of Online ODL Systems, Trainer.
Location: Asia, India; No. of WikiEducator edits: 6,453.

Additional workgroup roles

Additional workgroup roles are not anticipated.

Resources to achieve Workgroup objectives

  1. Does this Workgroup require financial resources? No
  2. Are there any legal issues that might be of concern? No
  3. Does this Workgroup impact on community governance issues? Yes, WikiEducator Workgroups will determine a process for the initiation of Community Workgroups. We expect that the proposed process will require WikiEdcuator Community Council's review and approval of the Workgroup's outputs. Four council members are participants of WikiEducator Workgroups to help with consideration of what role the WikiEducator Community Council will have in forming and supporting Community Workgroups.
  4. Are there any security risks or technological dependencies which might be difficult to support? No

Boundaries

The current focus of this effort is to develop a "Policy for Community Workgroups" to include a developed process for the initiation of Community Workgroups. The policy will be tabled at the September meeting of the WikiEducator Community Council. Following the Council meeting, WikiEducator Workgroups will likely move to a second phase of work (of undetermined timeframe) to shepherd the implementation of the policy, if endorsed by the WikiEducator Community Council, and to revise and augment the policy as needed given direct feedback from active Community Workgroups.

The first phase of work will conclude on 5 Sept 2009. The second phase of work will be determined following the September meeting of the WikiEducator Community Council.

WikiEducator Workgroups will meet asynchronously so that members are free to contribute to the development of the policy as their schedules allow.

Ground rules (the process)

Meetings

  • When and where will the workgroup meet?
  • What technologies will be used in order to meet?
  • What happens if a member cannot be at a meeting but has not finished an assignment due?
  • What are expectations regarding participation in meetings?

WikiEducator Workgroups meets asynchronously in a continuous effort to meet the deliverables as specified in the project plan. No specific meetings are planned. Announcements and substantive discussions will be carried out on the various project-related talk pages, via email (for ensuring members are kept up to date), and to the main WE Google group as specified in the project plan.

If a member is not able to complete an assignment, the group collectively will carry out such assignments.

Editing

When editing content pages for this group, we ask participants to

  • freely edit the project pages, being sure to enter a substantive summary in the summary box for each revision,
  • create a new thread on the discussion page to introduce a topic or issue for discussion,
  • add suggestions, notes, or reminders to the main content page in a color other than black or using the {{Note}} template; include a signature.

Communication

The members will communicate chiefly through the discussion sections on WikiEducator Workgroups project pages, with occasional email and WE Google group notifications.

Decision-making

WikiEducator Workgroups uses a consensus approach for all decision-making. The workgroup members are encouraged (but, not required) to participate in editing content and to voice their views in discussions. Note that silence indicates consent. In addition, the larger WE community will be asked to review and comment on various drafts of the "Policy for Community Workgroups". All suggestions and feedback will be used to refine the project pages. Minority opinions will be discussed until participants agree to a resolution.

The project plan

Sl No. Activity Action by Start Date End Date Output Outcome
1 Announce formation of group on WE list and invite participants Wayne Mackintosh 31 May 2009 31 May 2009 Post to WE Google group Initiation of WE Workgroups
2 Publish first community update Wayne Mackintosh 5 Jul 2009 5 Jul 2009 Post to WE Google group WE community informed on progress of WE Workgroups
3 Create a boilerplate for use by future workgroups in developing a charter Workgroup members collectively 1 Jun 2009 31 Jul 2009 Workgroup charter boilerplate A boilerplate format that encourages and simplifies the creation of a workgroup charter
4 Publish second community update Wayne Mackintosh 31 Jul 2009 31 Jul 2009 Post to WE Google group WE community informed on progress of WE Workgroups
5 Create and approve WE Workgroups charter Workgroup members collectively 5 Aug 2009 5 Aug 2009 Charter A working document that effectively guides the work of WE Workgroups
6 Collaborate on the creation of a policy and guidelines for Community Workgroups Workgroup members collectively 1 Jun 2009 5 Aug 2009 Policy for Community Workgroups A simple and effective process for the establishment of Community Workgroups
7 Invite community comment and feedback on first draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups" Wayne Mackintosh 5 Aug 2009 5 Aug 2009 Post to WE Google group Invitation to community members to review "Policy for Community Workgroups"
8 Review all comments and discussion items to see if they have been incorporated into the draft documents Need at least two volunteers to do this:
 6 Aug 2009 10 Aug 2009 Second draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups" Community-wide input into first draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups"
9 Invite community comment and feedback on second draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups" Wayne Mackintosh 15 Aug 2009 15 Aug 2009 Post to WE Google group - posted by Alison Snieckus, 16 August 2009 Invitation to community members to review "Policy for Community Workgroups"
10 Review all comments on second draft and incorporate as required Need at least two volunteers to do this:
Alison Snieckus
Wayne Mackintosh 		16 Aug 2009 25 Aug 2009 Third draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups"
Third draft completed 27 August 2009 		Community-wide input into second draft of "Policy for Community Workgroups"
11 Prepare summary report of WE Workgroups' activities Wayne Mackintosh 26 Aug 2009 30 Aug 2009 Workgroup report Concise report of Workgroup activities, providing necessary and sufficient information for the WE Community Council's deliberations
12 Review and endorsement of "Policy for Community Workgroups" by members of WE Workgroups Workgroup members collectively 26 Aug 2009 30 Aug 2009 Final version of "Policy for Community Workgroups" before submission to WE Community Council A policy for Community Workgroups that has wide acceptance in the WE community
13 Prepare final submission for WE Community Council by 5 September 2009 Workgroup members collectively 31 Aug 2009 5 Sep 2009 Final versions of "Policy for Community Workgroups" and Workgroup report An effective process for submitting Workgroup results for consideration by WE Community Council


Evaluating workgroup success

The following benchmarks will be used to evaluate the success of WikiEducator Workgroups:

Progress in reaching these benchmarks will be discussed in WikiEducator Workgroups' final report.

Approval of charter

The WikiEducator Workgroups charter was shared with the wider WE community as part of the 2nd community update.

The participants shall indicate their approval by signing under the Charter vote section below by 5 August 2009, [due to member time constraints, the charter approval due date has been extended]. Members who disapprove or have further concerns should create a new discussion topic on the talk page. Consensus approval will occur when at least 6 (out of the 8) members, listed as participants above, have indicated approval and no issues have been raised in the talk pages.

Charter vote

Voting opens 5 Aug 2009.

By including your signature below you indicate your approval of this charter. Any disagreements, excepting minor edits, should be noted in a new discussion thread on the talk page.

References

  1. ↑ Message to the WikiEducator Google group, May 31, 2009
  2. ↑ Template:Frontpage_values
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