Contributor FAQ Rufus Pollock 2004-01-02 2004-01-02

WiTbD - What is To be Done

A Program For The 21st Century

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Contributor FAQ

Question: Are there rules or guidelines for authors of articles?
Answer: Yes, there are. These rules are not absolutely enforced but they should be borne in mind by all contributors:
  1. Our tone is more academic than journalistic. Rhetorical flourishes are to be avoided. At the same time, analysis should be as clear as possible and avoid jargon or discussions only understandable to a narrow audience wherever possible.
  2. There is no word limit on articles.
  3. Citation of sources is essential. Provision of references to relevant material would be expected but a comprehensive bibliography is not a necessity.
  4. Even if an area is covered in some other fora this does not exclude its inclusion in What is To be Done. However we do not seek to duplicate prior efforts. Thus in this case the main aim would be to extract a clear list of goals and then link to this already existent work.
  5. Every article must commence with a list of goals. These constitute and summarize the author's view as to What is To be Done in area covered by that article. (see separate Faq)

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Question: Could you be more specific about the list of goals?
Answer: Goals should be presented in the following format:
  1. Clear concise statement of goal. The specificity of this goal should depend on the specificity level of the article. For example: if an article is on education then a goal such as improve primary education would be acceptable. As a goal for an article on primary education it would not (not specific enough).
  2. Subitems: Each goal should have a list of one or more milestones. These serve two purposes: a) to provide a roadmap and timescale for the achievement of the goal (this allows us to measure progress towards the goal) b) To provide a reality check (if someone has a milestone of universal primary education by 2010 you know this is crazy).
  3. Goal priority (relative to other goals in the list) should be made clear (for example by the use of explicit numerical ranking or weighting)

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Question: I have an article I want to submit
Answer: Please send it to us.

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Question: I want to write an article. What do I have to do?
Answer: It's great to hear from you. We suggest that as a first step you send us the proposed title of your article and, optionally, a brief summary of the topic. If this proves acceptable, the next step will usually be to for the managing editor in that area to contact you and to draft a preliminary goal list. This helps to avoid later confusion and to direct the article in a clear way from the very start. Once both sides are happy with this proper work begins. This process should normally be rapid, not taking more than a week or two (it is NOT a long drawn out review process but simply a mechanism to ensure that effort and energy is not wasted).

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Question: Copyright and Reproduction Rights
Answer: By including an article in What is To be Done you grant a non-exclusive right for WiTbD project and its parent the Open Knowledge Foundation to use, reproduce and distribute it in any way seen fit. We are not for profit and any revenue derived from WiTbD shall be used only to fund the organization or donated to charity. We intend to release all our materials under a licence that is as unrestrictive as possible (see Open Knowledge Foundation standard license).

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