***from email discussion 24/10/08 4:54pm *** see http://transitiontowns.org/forum/topic.php?id=204&replies=9#post-904 for subsequent post from same discussion.
On the issue of facilitating this project I think we need something a bit more structured and focused than the wiki page. I advocate a dedicated project website that will provide that structure out of which the project can grow and satisfy some key requirements for a sustainable project: user engagement, transparency, collaboration and flexibility, decision making, conflict resolution and a reward and recognition system.
Indeed this site should include a Wiki, maybe as a process to create the documentation; but also a hosted irc channel or link to one, forum, archive and document repository into which all the extensive work, minuted meetings already done and pdf'd by some of us can be put. In addition, we will need to also consider a version control system, licenses & legality (for software and data) and an issue tracker, which in the early stages may be used as a tool in the evaluation process as well as a user engagement tool.
These are necessary items, longterm at least. For whatever the shape the 'community' takes in developing this solution and however the character of that solution plays out, whether it is a fully coded by us or bits of other projects glued together, we will need the central reference point and foundation to document and explain it. Even so, as Gary and a few others have pointed out in earlier posts, it would be beneficial if our 'stages' ran concurrently to feedback into each other, which ultimately will be happening anyway as the platform develops an we respond to user feedback, testing and contributions.
This project is not going to end with a website platform either, however complicated. In many ways we are seeing and taking part in the emergence of a new open development platform that will encompass a lot more tt aearliernd lccn activity than what is traditionally considered to be open source (whatever that might be). There is a lot of expertise and, it seems, considerable interest from environmentally and ethically charged communities and those resources and fascinations will be important to maintain.
Beyond the site then is the maintenance and management of the accumulating knowledge into new and consumable forms e.g. transition guides; some kind of social monetisation of that knowledge e.g. evangelising - marketing, feedback and contributions - product development; dynamic logging and responses to requests for technical and knowledge specific assistance, e.g real time and personal chat box with contributors, facilitators and moderators. Facilitating the ecology of these workflows will require a grassroots user driven, open, self reflexive, and sustainable solution and for that: user engagement, transparency, collaboration and flexibility, decision making, conflict resolution and a reward and recognition system are all key.
So for the sustainability and longevity of this project we need to put in place the enabling factors to support it. I think that is the forming of a dedicated site, and if enough of us agree maybe we can apportion some of our next meeting towards organising to this end.