User:PeteForsyth
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Peteforsyth
- I do a lot of writing and editing for Wikipedia. My user page there has lots of stuff… wikipedia:User:Peteforsyth
- My personal website, very minimal and out of date: PeteForsyth.com
- My business site: WikiStrategies.net
AboutUs articles I've written
In summer '08, I briefly contracted for AboutUs, writing articles. I wrote these:
- MomentumPrint.com.au
- ExpressDelivery.biz
- PallasFinancier.com
- EFESOnline.com
- BidSale.us
- BlueMarbleMedia.com
AboutMe
I like to think of myself as an architect/builder of the Internet, or of the commons in general. I've made web sites, but that's not what I mean; I'm much more interested in the content that's available, than in any specific site. I write and edit for Wikipedia, I blog, I comment on other people's blogs, etc. etc.
I've always been interested in the idea of collective ownership and stewardship, and I like to think of the Internet as something we all own, and can shape into whatever we want it to be. I grew up in Massachusetts, which is one of only four states that calls itself a "commonwealth;" also, the main park in its capital city is called the "Boston Common," and is where everybody got to graze their cattle back in the day. I moved to the west coast in 1991, and have found these ideals, which I knew mostly from history class, to be alive and well here. People here support and use free software, offer up their yards to their neighbors for community activities, devote huge amounts of time to coaching Little League, etc. It's all very inspiring.
My main contributions to this effort have been on Wikipedia, where I've spent several years working articles, mostly related to Oregon and to open education.
I'm also very interested in the process of decision-making, from small, community-based groups on up to how to run a country. I've found that consensus is an excellent way to make decisions, where possible; it gives lots of people a true sense of ownership over the decision, and emphasizes problem-solving over coalition-building. It's also entirely compatible with other systems; one doesn't need a formal consensus system to use consensus as a tool.
- My favorite (and totally atypical!) Wikipedia contribution of all time.
FunStuff
Brandon Roy is ridiculous. Don't be parkin' that booty. Wikipedia: why it's important. Trailer for forthcoming documentary!
Looks like there's a lot more footage online, here.
ThoughtsAboutAboutUs
I am fascinated and inspired by AboutUs: it has great people behind it, some really cool technology, and a bold vision. It seems that there's a desire to have all community members contribute to the excellence of the site, and in that spirit I'm going to compile some concerns below.
Metacommentary: This grows out of a discussion at SuggestionBox; I'd like to keep my own record independent of trying to convince anybody of anything. Please feel free to either edit this text directly, or comment on my talk page. I'm not possessive about my text! I may edit your edits, but that's what this is all about, right?)
- The newcomer's experience
- For a project that aims to build a very large community, I would think this issue is paramount.
- Where to go to ask questions? One advantage of a wiki is that there are (potentially) lots of people available to help each other out, so it's less necessary to immediately ask newcomers to read a bunch of documentation (much of which may be beyond their needs or comprehension.) The "help" or "support" links should very quickly give the newcomer a taste of the WikiWay, by encouraging them to ask questions and build connections. I suspect that the focus on the 800-number is aimed to meet this need, and I think that's a great step. But more than that, I'd take a lot of the specific documentation off the "help" page to make it less overwhelming, and direct people to a page where they can ask questions. Then a fellow wiki user can direct them to the right PART of the documentation, or just answer them directly, or start a discussion. A "Documentation" link should be easy to find, but it's not the same thing as "Help."
- Presently, there are SuggestionBox, DailyBuzz, and InterestingHappenings. To my mind, none of these really promotes the idea of "jump on in and let's get talkin!" which I think is essential to a wiki becoming a community. I'll try to flesh out this idea and offer a suggestion later, hopefully with more input.
- "Useful links" menu: this is almost completely invisible to me, it blends right in with "Sponsored links," which is something I'm accustomed to ignoring.
- I wonder whether AboutUs has worked closely with an Interface Design specialist. I think my piecemeal suggestions could be helpful, but ultimately, it's important to remember that there's an entire discipline devoted to addressing the kinds of things I'm bringing up, available for hire. Folks like that do amazing things.
- "discussion" vs. "talk": This is a more general MediaWiki concern, and one that could be easily addressed. "talk" and "discussion" are unnecessary synonyms; I think the tab should just say "talk," which is how most wikifolk refer to those pages anyway.
- Wikipedia has a nice feature on diff pages that gives horizontal scroll bars in individual sections of text, when non-breaking text like long URLs extends beyond the box. Prevents crashing text; nice feature.
- Not sure if this is just me, but when I see "IRC," I think of something geeky and complicated. I was surprised to find that "Chat live with community members in the Web IRC" just meant "Chat live with community members." No software to install, launch, or configure…just click and type. I think most companies just say "click here to chat," without mentioning the technology that supports it -- I think that's the better approach. Those that care to learn can always ask.
- Could you just fix this? That would be awesome! TedErnst (talk) 13:19, 21 December 2007 (PST)
- Ted, the ContactUs page appears to be protected, so I can't. Also wasn't sure how much it's OK to much around with that stuff! But I did change the text at Portal:AboutUsHelp/Contact, which is not protected. Thanks! -Peteforsyth 13:39, 21 December 2007 (PST)
- Could you just fix this? That would be awesome! TedErnst (talk) 13:19, 21 December 2007 (PST)
- CamelCase: I don't really have a preference, but my gut says that anything that makes the site feel less familiar to newcomers is potentially discouraging. I see the menu on the right does not use CamelCase for items like "Contact Us" and "Daily Buzz." Is there a reason the page titles are in CamelCase?
- Both Daily Buzz and dailybuZZ work now, so pagenames really don't matter. Some of us are still really attracted to the idea of a LinkLanguage, so CamelCase is a natural, but we're obviously undecided as a community. If you'd like to move those pages, I'd bet they don't get moved back. TedErnst (talk) 13:18, 21 December 2007 (PST)
- How are decisions made?
- One of the appealing things about Wikipedia is that it's pretty easy to figure out how a given decision is made, and for those that are not just "be bold" or "general consensus" situations, to figure out who you gotta talk to to get your opinion heard. Not so here: many of the pages are locked, but it's not clear who the ultimate decision-maker is if you want to change the front page, or the menus, etc.
- Peter, excited to read this! Jump in! If there is a page that is locked, it shouldn't be! Be bold and if something gets changed back, then we can discuss. Your thoughts are right on and perfect for help grow this place. We don't have all the answers! :-) I personally come from non Mediawiki and Wikipedia, much smaller wiki, so it has been a fun ride trying to figure out how to grow this place. Would love to talk to you via phone/skype about Organic Community Building when you get a chance. Best, MarkDilley
- Thanks, Mark! I am occasionally Skypable at peterdforsyth; but also, I plan to be stopping by the office some after the holidays, so maybe we can just discuss in person. In the meantime, is it possible for you to unblock Contact Us? -Peteforsyth 19:47, 22 December 2007 (PST)
Stuff I'm working on
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End of October/November and Beyond! (New!)http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1261201/ Oct 30, 2008: OEN's Venture Northwest at Portland Marriott (Downtown) It starts with a simple seed. But from that seed grows strong, vibrant and sustainable companies that are ripe for investment. Venture Northwest (formerly Venture Oregon) is the premier forum for new and emerging investment opportunities in exciting companies from Oregon, Washington, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Learn about the region's growth segments, explore exciting new technology and research, and connect with entrepreneurs from the area's hottest emerging companies including nanotech,… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1219848/ Nov 1, 2008: Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Install Party at Backspace Celebrate the release of Ubuntu 8.10, the Intrepid Ibex. Get a copy of the .iso file without waiting for the long download. Get a burned CD or burn one of your own and pass on the free software love. Get installation help and talk to local linux experts. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1256712/ Nov 5, 2008: Social Network Spaghetti - Portland Web Innovators at Vidoop Scott Kveton will tell us where he thinks we with the state of current social networks and how we're actually on our way to the promised land. Kveton is a digital identity promoter, open source contributor, and VP of Open Platforms for Vidoop. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1019765/ Nov 5, 2008: Lunch 2.0 at the Eclipse Foundation at Eclipse Foundation The Portland Lunch 2.0 saga continues at the Eclipse Foundation in downtown. Come join your old Twitter pals, meet some new people, learn about what the Eclipse Foundation has going on these days. Did you know they had a Portland office? Worried about parking downtown? It's probably going to be raining by then. No worries, the Max Oak Street stop is right in front of their building. Lunch 2.0 is a Valley phenomenon that you can read about at lunch20.com, and we're putting a PDX stamp on it. Are you… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1243431/ Nov 6, 2008: The Smart Grid and the New Electricity Economy at The Nines Hotel The Smart Grid and the New Electricity Economy Date: Thu, Nov 6th Time: 4:00pm-6:30pm Location: The Nines Hotel 525 SW Morrison Portland, OR 97204 Cost: $35 for non members $10 Discount for walking or taking mass transit Registration Deadline: 11/06/2008 Topic: The Smart Grid and the New Electricity Economy Register for this Event Back to Event Calendar The Clean Technology Alliance is proud to present a special event hosted by noted expert Jesse Berst of GlobalSmartEnergy to chronicle the rapid growth of… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1168203/ Nov 10, 2008: The semi-un-not-so-official Wordpress Upgrade Party at CubeSpace We saw the demo at WordCamp, now lets get together for the grand launch of WordPress 2.7! http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1107612/ Nov 12, 2008: Refresh Portland at Jive Software Refresh Portland is a monthly talk (held every 2nd Wednesday) about design, front-end development, usability and web standards. We’re in the process of finalizing the speaker. Please watch this space and our twitter account ( http://twitter.com/RefreshPDX ) for future developments. Refresh Portland is part of the Refreshing Cities Movement. http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1100706/ Nov 13, 2008: Ignite Corvallis at CH2M HILL Alumni Center I hope you'll join us for Ignite Corvallis in November at High Tech After Hours. Ignite Corvallis Thursday, November 13th, 2-3pm CH2M HILL Alumni Center, Corvallis, Oregon (Across from Reser Stadium) NOTE: Submission deadline for presentation proposals is Tuesday, November 4th. email proposals to ignite [DOT] corvallis [AT] gmail Ignite is coming to Corvallis! Share burning ideas. If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/872418/ Nov 13, 2008: Ignite Portland 4 at Bagdad Theater and Pub Save the date! Ignite Portland 4 will happen on Thursday November 13, 2008, at the Bagdad. Same venue. Same format. Even more burning ideas. More details to come - stay tuned! http://www.igniteportland.com http://twitter.com/igniteportland http://friendfeed.com/rooms/igniteportland http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1261201 Nov 15, 2008: Cre8Camp Portland (@SOUK) Cre8Camp Portland is a BarCamp-like unconference with a creative twist--it is for creative industry professionals. Saturday, November 15, 2008 from 10:00am - 3:00pm. Participants drive the session topics and lead the discussions. Ticket Info: Buy Tickets. http://www.cre8camp.org/Cre8CampPortland. Visit http://www.cre8camp.org/Cre8CampPortland for more information. Photos from the last Cre8Camp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahockley/sets/72157606463692695. Cre8Camp will be at SOUK: 322 NW 6th Avenue, Suite 200. Portland, Or. http://www.cre8camp.org/Cre8CampPortland. Add to calendar: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1265330/export http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1098808/ Dec 6, 2008: CyborgCamp 2008 at CubeSpace Note: The date of this event has been changed to Dec. 6th CyborgCamp is a simulcast unconference about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. We'll discuss topics such as social media, design, code, inventions, web 2.0, twitter, the future of communication, cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. CyborgCamp's aim is to have many communication channels such as Twitter, Flickr, UstreamTV, Video and Audio recordings and live chats displayed on the screen.… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1020710/ Jan 4, 2009: The Ethics of eWaste at Westminster Presbyterian Church Electronic waste or "e-waste" is broken or unwanted electrical or electronic devices. Many components of e-waste are considered toxic. Due to the difficulty and cost of recycling used electronics as well as lacklustre enforcement of legislation regarding e-waste exports, large amounts of used electronics have been sent to countries such as China, India, and Kenya, where lower environmental standards and working conditions make processing e-waste more profitable. Oso Martin, President of Bear… http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1148458/ Jan 14, 2009: Lunch 2.0 at the New OTBC Office at OTBC in the Beaverton Round For the first time, Portland Lunch 2.0 will happen in the 'burbs, Beaverton to be precise. The OTBC is moving into new space and partnering with the Beaverton Round Executive Suites . So, to showcase their new digs and introduce Lunch 2.0 to the suburbs, the OTBC will be hosting Lunch 2.0 on January 14, 2009. The Beaverton Round is right on the MAX line about 20 minutes from Portland. Just jump off the Blue Line at the Beaverton Central stop, and you're 90 feet from the new OTBC office. Lunch 2.0 is…
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My Influence Us Comments
Peteforsyth's Comments on Pdxtc.com
- Peteforsyth (delighted) : Scott is a very approachable and articulate person, and breaks down the complexities of SEO in a way that anyone can understand. I owe most of my understanding of the field to a presentation he made. Highly recommended. 18:17, 29 May 2008 (PDT)