Application for Independent Stewardship Help

From DUcollab

Contents 1 Schedule 2 Definitions and Responsibilities 2.1 What is a Portal? 2.2 The Independent Steward Program 2.3 Agreements 2.4 Expectations 3 Application 3.1 Basic Information 3.2 Portal Name(s) 3.3 Subportal ideas (Optional) 3.4 Associates or Students (If known) 3.5 Notes and other information (Optional) 3.6 Curriculum Vitae (Required)

Schedule

The stewardship program will gradually ramp-up from a pilot program in May 2006, in which the steward tools and procedures are tested by a small group of Independent Stewards working closely with the Digital Universe staff, to a fully self-service Independent Steward program (with help available as needed), to Coalition-centered stewardship by May 2007.

Definitions and Responsibilities

What is a Portal?

A Portal is a basic unit of the Digital Universe, a node in the taxonomy. It is a single point of access to a variety of information collected from different sources about a particular subject. It is an organized system consisting of existing web resources plus original content designed by the Portal Stewards. The elements and resources comprising a Portal include:

• A well-developed and presented collection of resources (with metadata, i.e. tags & descriptors) that cover (a) the major thematic areas of the taxonomy for the portal, and (b) all of the essential categories of the sidebar in the user interface (e.g. the Explore Activity with its groupings into "Essentials," In Depth," "Publications," "Organizations," etc.). This includes some or all of the following types of resources:
  • websites
  • encyclopedia articles
  • books
  • images
  • sounds
  • video clips
  • forums
  • games
  • streaming broadcasts
  • teaching tools

• A well-defined taxonomy that provides a rich and logical navigation structure for information resources that share a coherent set of characteristics. The taxonomy thus provides the conceptual framework for data information retrieval. That taxonomy has vertical depth sufficient to make the portal of interest to more than a small niche community of users.

• A static or dynamic visually oriented "home" page (a.k.a. "Diorama") for each Portal that includes a synthesis of the most important and relevant information on the subject area covered by the Portal. This may include one or more of the following:
  1. A graphic illustrating the subject of the portal
  2. Text and/or links to the most important and relevant information about the subject
  3. Dynamic elements that allow the user to browse the subject area without requiring the user to click to another page
  4. A 2D or 3D rendering of the the subject area that allows the user to dynamically explore the subject (for instance a 2D digital map, a 3D digital Earth or a 2D or 3D human body)

It is planned that Portals will fall under the jurisdiction of a Coalition, the first such Coalition being the Environmental Information Coalition. Each Coalition will review and, if merited, approve portal development plans drawn up by the relevant stewards that describe the vision, taxonomy, resources, governance and maintenance for their portals.

The Independent Steward Program

The Independent Steward Program is intended to "jump start" the buildout of DU Portals and to form the nuclei of Coalitions. As such, the range of duties that an Independent Steward initially agrees to undertake can be (significantly) less comprehensive than the stewarding activities of a Coalition. The range of duties in approximate degree of complexity are:

1. Selecting best relatively static links in the Explore Activity
2. Maintaining News links in the Explore Activity
3. Writing an encyclopedia article on the Portal topic
4. Constructing a Diorama linking to content
5. Extending the taxonomy to subportals
6. Generating other original text and image content
7. Generating rich-media (e.g. 3 D) content
8. Populating new Activities as they come online

An absolute minimum level of independent stewardship would involve only task 1. A desirable level of independent stewardship would span tasks 1 through 5 or 6. The DUF Board of Stewards and/or relevant Stewarding Coalitions reserve the right to appoint additional stewards who are willing and qualified to work with existing stewards to enhance the breadth and depth of content within existing stewarded portals.

Independent Stewards will be appointed for a one-year term (with possibility of renewal depending on the Coalition formation process).

Independent Stewards will be selected by the DU Board of Directors based upon the application material discussed below.

Agreements

By submitting the application and upon being accepted as an Independent Steward, the Steward agrees to the following:

1. To be aware of and agree to the basic rules of governance for the DU as laid out in the Bylaws and the Charter, including policy of Fairness and Neutrality
2. To abide by the Steward Guidelines for Inclusivity.
3. To exercise due diligence with respect to the veracity of linked and other content.
4. To update and maintain material in a timely fashion
5. If producing original content for posting, to do so under the Creative Commons Attribute-Share Alike (by-sa) 2.5 license.
6. To agree that Steward status may be revoked for lack of effort or impropriety.

Expectations

1. Independent Stewards should familiarize themselves with the Stewardship Program.
2. Independent Stewards who wish to become long-term Stewards are expected to submit a succinct portal development plan to the Board of Stewards.
3. Multiple stewards are likely to be given permission to build out the same portal, and it is expected that a professional level of respect and cooperation will exist.
4. It is expected that Coalitions will form and that Independent Stewards will come under their authority of an appropriate coalition and may need to apply to such a Coalition to become regular, long-term stewards.

Application

PLEASE USE THE ONLINE FORM AT STEWARD APPLICATION TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION.

Basic Information

• Name
• Email address
• Highest relevant degree(s) and subject(s)
• Degree granting institution(s) and year(s)
• URL of your home page if you have one
• Current position (If relevant to the Portal, otherwise optional)

Portal Name(s)

• Name the portal(s) that you would like to develop.

This or these should correspond to a topic no broader than that studied by whole subdiscipline(s) (e.g., fundamental particles; the nature of moral principles; 19th-century French literature; probate law; role-playing games) in which you would like to work. If possible, please do not specify a discipline, but instead the topic(s) that the discipline studies (e.g. Sun, not Solar Physics). Bear in mind that portal topics will eventually be very fine-grained/specialized, but that at this point we need volunteers at many levels of generality in every field. Note that as an Independent Steward program, you may be asked to work collaboratively with other well-qualified Stewards, particularly on more general topics; you will not necessarily be the permanent Steward for a given portal.

Subportal ideas (Optional)

• List topics you have in mind for subportals.

If you have in mind expansions of the taxonomy in your area(s), i.e., topics of special focus, please identify some subportals that you think would be appropriate and that you would wish to develop. This need not be a complete list, but it should be representative of the work you wish to do.

Associates or Students (If known)

• List collaborators and their information.

If you anticipate others working with you (e.g., graduate students), please provide names, email addresses, and brief descriptions of their roles in your work.

Notes and other information (Optional)

• Any other relevant information should be concisely presented.

Curriculum Vitae (Required)

Please upload your CV as a Word document or, preferably, a pdf file.