Difference between revisions of "BeABuilder"

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At [[AboutUs]], we believe a bunch of people working on building something together is itself a profound result. We hope to create a space where such building happens. As such, [[BeABuilder]] is a philosophy of striving to build something of lasting value to the [[AboutUs]] community and the world at large. This is much more than just building wiki pages that are aesthetically pleasing or highly informative and useful (although all these are valuable qualities), but building ways in which people and ideas work together to create something bigger than the pieces. This is about synergy and providing space for others to work in. While this means having a targeted goal, the building is as much about the process of building something valuable than the finished product (especially since the product may never be finished).
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{{WikiWayNav}}
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== If You Build It, They Will Come ==
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[[Image:Hammer.png|48px|left]]At [[AboutUs]], we believe: "Many hands make good work" to build profound results. We have been creating a space, where communal building happens. [[BeABuilder]] embodies our trust in the natural inclination towards creation on a [[Wiki]].  It is a philosophy that places [[RadicalTrust]] in the community to create something of lasting value to our community and the world at large.
  
==Basic Philosophy==
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[[BeABuilder]] is much more than building wiki pages that are aesthetically-pleasing or highly-informative and useful (although all these are valuable qualities), but building the ways in which people work together to create, and the ways ideas interlace and adhere. The building is as much about the process of building something valuable as it is about the finished product (especially considering we have no defined endpoint).
[[BeABuilder]] is about wanting to build and acting on that desire, with the focus on having your heart in the right place. In many ways, it's a leap of [[AssumeGoodFaith]]. It begins with the belief that everyone has come to [[AboutUs]] to participate in something constructive and informative. You have come to build something. You've not coming to [[AboutUs]] to tear down. Even in re-factoring wiki pages with your ideas and thoughts, what becomes of the page is something owned by the whole. You're not building your own page, you're helping to build off everyone else's. At any point, this thing we're building right now is foundation for someone else to build on top of.
 
  
[[BeABuilder]] is also about not just coming and hanging and out and chatting/shooting the breeze. It's about TRYING to creating something that has lasting value.
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== Connecting to the Core ==
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[[BeABuilder]] relies on our three other [[core values]]: [[AssumeGoodFaith]], [[RealPeople]], and [[ItsAboutUs]].  You must first [[AssumeGoodFaith]] in the community before you can feel comfortable contributing your work.  Embracing the idea of [[RealPeople]] also helps build a community and encourages other [[RealPeople]] to help you with your work.  To begin building is to join the AboutUs community and accept the dynamic, communal nature of [[Wiki]], all of which is essential to [[ItsAboutUs]]. What are you waiting for [[Explore the Core]]!
  
===Types of Things We Are Building===
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== Basic Philosophy ==
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[[BeABuilder]] involves the desire to build and acting on that desire, while keeping your heart in the right place. It is important to keep the other values of the [[WikiWay]] in mind during the process of building, since creation typically involves creative destruction.
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[[BeABuilder]] begins with the belief that everyone has come to [[AboutUs]] to participate in something constructive and informative following the tenets of [[AssumeGoodFaith]].
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[[BeABuilder]] is also a commitment to creating something, to becoming actively involved in the AboutUs community and contributing your work.
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There is a tacit implication in [[BeABuilder|BeingABuilder]] that what has been built before you was designed for you to improve.  By contributing you open up your work to collaboration and improvement.
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=== What We Are Building ===
 
* Connections between people
 
* Connections between people
** Good characteristics between the connections
 
*** Trust
 
*** Assume Good Faith
 
*** Spirit of collaboration
 
*** Warmth
 
*** Hospitality
 
*** Fun
 
*** Helps you grow as a person
 
** The synergy between people causes the creation of things you wouldn't create alone
 
*** Riffing off of each other's ideas and energy
 
*** By collaborating we catch each other when we fall quicker and waste less effort trying to pick ourselves up individually.
 
**** The earlier you get input the more valuable the input it, because it compounds
 
 
 
* Ways of collaborating and working together
 
* Ways of collaborating and working together
** Bringing in more and more people, creating a critical mass of people working in this way
 
** Refactoring the Wiki Way together
 
*** Finding whole new ways of working together
 
*** Doing experiments and learning from those failures and successes
 
 
 
* A collectively valuable resource
 
* A collectively valuable resource
** Pages
 
** Topological structures -- organization of information and how things relate
 
  
==Other Values==
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=== Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ===
===Don't Sweat the Small Stuff===
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In order to [[BeABuilder]], it is important not to sweat the small stuff. Remember that [[ChangeIsCheap]].  You can perfect the page later, but the first step is to ''get it started''.  The idea can be likened to building with [[Lego.com|Legos]], you start somewhere and let the creation take shape, adding and subtracting, constantly re-factoring what you are building.  This will also allow a jumping off place for the rest of the community. Focus on the big picture, knowing that other can ''and will'' fine-tune your work and ideas.
[[BeABuilder]] is often about not sweating the small stuff. Believing in [[ChangeIsCheap]] is an acceptance that you can change the small stuff later. Focus instead on the big picture, knowing that other can ''and will'' fine tune or build on top of your ideas.
 
  
To achieve this, just click "edit" and "save" a lot. This creates a visual history of your thoughts and changes that others can use to build on top of or just understand the direction you were going in. Clicking "edit" and "save" a lot also allows you to quickly jump into a document and get your hands dirty. Don't worry too much about a plan up front, just start working on it. The idea can be likened to building with [[Lego.com|Legos]], you start somewhere and let the creation take shape, adding and subtracting, constantly re-factoring what you are building.
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To achieve this, click "[[edit]]" and "[[save]]" often. Doing so creates a visual history of your thoughts and changes that others can use to understand and build on top of your work. Clicking "edit" and "save" a lot also allows you to quickly jump into a document and get your hands dirty.
  
This links to the [[ReleaseEaryReleaseOften]] philosophy common in the [[Open Source]] community:
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This links to the [[ReleaseEarlyReleaseOften]] philosophy common in the [[Open Source]] community:
 
# People seed a page with an idea that's often vague and poorly worded. It is rough and that's okay, that's expected. It's a beginning.
 
# People seed a page with an idea that's often vague and poorly worded. It is rough and that's okay, that's expected. It's a beginning.
# Other people come along and re-factor it. There is a freedom from fear that others are going to judge their effort as unworthy, in fact the expectation is that other will judge their efforts and highly valuable.
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# Other people come along and re-factor it. There is a freedom from fear that others are going to judge their effort as unworthy, in fact the expectation is that others will judge their efforts as highly valuable.
 
 
===Create and Demand a Safe Environment for Experiments===
 
 
 
That touches on [[AssumeGoodFaith]], the inverse of that is that you can expect people to assume good faith about your effort so you don't have to worry that you've got everything perfect.
 
 
 
[[AssumeGoodFaith]] Assume that what has been built before you that those people want you to improve it and feel like it's great if other people come along and improve the things you've built.  Its like a tapestry that you are always improving.
 
 
 
===Other Types of Building===
 
Other types of building.  Part of being a builder is building a strong community.  Building a foundation level, creating networks.  Build more than just page, portal, or user page.  Building community.  Different types of builders suit different types of people.  Some people may not be good writers themselves, but are great at encouraging others in building the pages.  Part of being a builder is collaboration (communication).  Anything on the wiki that is collaborative in nature is part of building the community.  Patrolling changes etc.
 
 
 
 
 
Building community is totally about being a builder, but patrolling changes it kind of depends on how you approach it. If you just basically watching for vandalism and reverting it and letting constructive edits pass through, that is gardening. if on the other hand you are watching for opportunities to help people grow in the wiki way and in their fluency with the technology then you are building the community. So it's not just watching for, it's watching for and capitalizing on opportunities too.
 
 
 
Gardening as a separate thing.  Do we want to encourage building over gardening, knowing that gardening is happening.  Gardening has to happen to keep from sliding into the dump (morass).
 
 
 
===What being a builder is not===
 
Not just building for yourself and for your own purposes.  That doesn't mean that your objectives can't be met while building for the community.
 
  
Be a builder is not gardening (although gardening needs to happen).
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=== Other Types of Building ===
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[[BeABuilder]] isn't just about great [[Wiki]] page creations. [[BeABuilder]] is also about building a diverse, vibrant community.  Just as there are different types of people in the world, there are different types of builders.  We celebrate great writers, organizers, thinkers, artists, and leaders.  Part of being a builder is a commitment to collaboration and communication.  Anything on the [[Wiki]] that is collaborative in nature is part of building the community. Building is everything from a group of people collaborating to create a great [[Wiki]] page, a portal, a consensus poll; people building our community; or helping the AboutUs staff by patrolling recent changes and defining who we are.
  
Be a builder is never finished.
 
  
Be a builder is not perfect. Perfect is the enemy of good enough and right now.
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===[[BiLinks]]===
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<->
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[http://wiki.name.com/index.php/User_talk:Fridemar#Suggesting_the_hybrid_AboutUs.org_approach wiki.name:User_talk:Fridemar#Suggesting_the_hybrid_AboutUs.org_approach]
  
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__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
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[[Category:AboutUsValues]]

Latest revision as of 13:22, 5 November 2013

If You Build It, They Will Come

Hammer.png
At AboutUs, we believe: "Many hands make good work" to build profound results. We have been creating a space, where communal building happens. BeABuilder embodies our trust in the natural inclination towards creation on a Wiki. It is a philosophy that places RadicalTrust in the community to create something of lasting value to our community and the world at large.

BeABuilder is much more than building wiki pages that are aesthetically-pleasing or highly-informative and useful (although all these are valuable qualities), but building the ways in which people work together to create, and the ways ideas interlace and adhere. The building is as much about the process of building something valuable as it is about the finished product (especially considering we have no defined endpoint).

Connecting to the Core

BeABuilder relies on our three other core values: AssumeGoodFaith, RealPeople, and ItsAboutUs. You must first AssumeGoodFaith in the community before you can feel comfortable contributing your work. Embracing the idea of RealPeople also helps build a community and encourages other RealPeople to help you with your work. To begin building is to join the AboutUs community and accept the dynamic, communal nature of Wiki, all of which is essential to ItsAboutUs. What are you waiting for Explore the Core!

Basic Philosophy

BeABuilder involves the desire to build and acting on that desire, while keeping your heart in the right place. It is important to keep the other values of the WikiWay in mind during the process of building, since creation typically involves creative destruction.

BeABuilder begins with the belief that everyone has come to AboutUs to participate in something constructive and informative following the tenets of AssumeGoodFaith.

BeABuilder is also a commitment to creating something, to becoming actively involved in the AboutUs community and contributing your work.

There is a tacit implication in BeingABuilder that what has been built before you was designed for you to improve. By contributing you open up your work to collaboration and improvement.

What We Are Building

  • Connections between people
  • Ways of collaborating and working together
  • A collectively valuable resource

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

In order to BeABuilder, it is important not to sweat the small stuff. Remember that ChangeIsCheap. You can perfect the page later, but the first step is to get it started. The idea can be likened to building with Legos, you start somewhere and let the creation take shape, adding and subtracting, constantly re-factoring what you are building. This will also allow a jumping off place for the rest of the community. Focus on the big picture, knowing that other can and will fine-tune your work and ideas.

To achieve this, click "edit" and "save" often. Doing so creates a visual history of your thoughts and changes that others can use to understand and build on top of your work. Clicking "edit" and "save" a lot also allows you to quickly jump into a document and get your hands dirty.

This links to the ReleaseEarlyReleaseOften philosophy common in the Open Source community:

  1. People seed a page with an idea that's often vague and poorly worded. It is rough and that's okay, that's expected. It's a beginning.
  2. Other people come along and re-factor it. There is a freedom from fear that others are going to judge their effort as unworthy, in fact the expectation is that others will judge their efforts as highly valuable.

Other Types of Building

BeABuilder isn't just about great Wiki page creations. BeABuilder is also about building a diverse, vibrant community. Just as there are different types of people in the world, there are different types of builders. We celebrate great writers, organizers, thinkers, artists, and leaders. Part of being a builder is a commitment to collaboration and communication. Anything on the Wiki that is collaborative in nature is part of building the community. Building is everything from a group of people collaborating to create a great Wiki page, a portal, a consensus poll; people building our community; or helping the AboutUs staff by patrolling recent changes and defining who we are.


BiLinks

wiki.name:User_talk:Fridemar#Suggesting_the_hybrid_AboutUs.org_approach

..


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