Assignment Zero is taking up more of my time than I expected.

I am cutting back to working with the two writers I have committed to, Achilles Lakes and Emily Hanson, on the profiles of Wikipedia super-contributors.

Think big and have a wonderful life.

Eric S. Raymond is a programmer who wrote "The Cathedral and the Bazaar":
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

It includes an economic explanation of why open-source programming works, "The Magic Cauldron":
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/index....

He addresses the "Tragedy of the Commons'' here:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/ar01s0...

Here are a few resources for people preparing for interviews.

NewsU online course
http://www.newsu.org/courses/course_detail.aspx?id=nu_interview04
By Chip Scanlan and the Poynter Institute; both have a very good reputation.
Takes one to two hours.
Free for registrants.

Tip sheets from the Committee of Concerned Journalists
http://www.concernedjournalists.org/tools/filter/30

More tips from Poynter
http://poynter.org/search/results_article.asp?txt_searchText=interviewin...

Amy Atkins has passed off the assignment on the Campaigns Wikia to the Wikipedia team, because it was founded by Jimmy Wales. You can learn more here:
http://zero.newassignment.net/topic/675

It looks like our Wikipedia profiles will be done long-distance. That's not ideal, but maybe that will balance out with really good subjects.

This is a good time to think about qualities to aspire to in a profile.

Here's a link to the winner of the 2004 Distinguished Writing Award for Profile Writing by the American Society of Newspaper Editors:
http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=5590

The two profiles are by Tommy Tomlinson of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer

The two stories -- "Michael Kelley's Obstacle Course" and "A Beautiful Find" -- each focus on one aspect of the person to tell a story. Not just an article, but a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. The description and background is woven into the story.

It's almost a movie, except it's true, and it's not on the screen. It's in the words that the writer uses. It's in the writer learning enough about the subject that you, the reader, can see it, hear it, feel it, as if you were there. As if you were on the quest, with these men in their troubles and their triumphs.-- figuring out the math, and facing down the obstacle course.

That's one way to think about profiles -- telling somebody's story, directing a movie in the reader's mind. Finding focus and panning out. Flashing back to the past and circling back to the present.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I might have mentioned before that I have some concern about the potential for our Wikipedia coverage to lack balance. So far, we have assignments for three pieces, each focused on an insider.

I asked Anna Haynes about brainstorming on this and possibly helping. She suggested using a wiki.

At least until I understand this site better, that seems like best option.

If anyone has any ideas or comments or would like to help, please let me know. You can add comments here or go to the wiki page.

http://journalism.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Assignment_Zero/Wikipedia_desk

So far, I'm striking out trying to find a WP super-contributor near Achilles Lakes in Cincinnati.

But on the reporting page, I listed a few ideas -- such as following the example of Gay Talese in "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold."

Please let me know what you think.

http://zero.newassignment.net/assignmentzero/help_us_find_wikipedia_supe...

I think I've found someone for Emily Hanson to profile.

Joe Mabel, aka Jmabel, has been a WP contributor since November 2003. But since January, he has cut back to being what he calls "only moderately active."

His user page says: "I am on an extended break from being a 'mainstay'of Wikipedia, a role I played for several years. This was precipitated (but not caused) by having List of songs containing covert references to real musicians put up for possible deletion. I had said a year ago that if Wikipedia become so tight-assed that we decided to delete that article, it would be time for me to leave the project."

His experience should give us a good picture of WP. To learn more about Joe, see his user page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmabel

I've also outlined a little about my research to find a profilee:
http://zero.newassignment.net/assignmentzero/help_us_find_wikipedia_supe...

I'm stil trying to figure things out here and get more organized.

But in the meantime, some people have been listing some good questions to ask our Wikipedia interviewees.

A couple of other things to work on early are location and focus.

I'm hoping we'll be able to find super-contributors to profile who live near our writers -- Emily Hanson in the Tacoma, Wash., area, and Achilles Lakes in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area.

And for the Jimmy Wales Q&A, we need to consider that much has already been written about him. How should this piece be different? One option, from the writer, James "Texx" Smith, is thinking of Jimmy Wales as a person, not the founder of a movement.

If you have any suggestions or can otherwise help, please let us know in the blog comments or the reporting pages:
* http://zero.newassignment.net/assignmentzero/help_us_find_wikipedia_supe...
* http://zero.newassignment.net/assignment/what_should_angle_be

Introducing the Wikipedia assignments that have been made:

For a Q&A with Jimmy Wales, the founder --
James "Texx" Smith

For profiles of Wikipedian super-contributors --
Achilles Lakes
Emily Hanson

I would link to the profile pages, but I haven't found them all yet.

OK, jargon and acronym time ... Wikipedians refer to Wikipedia as "WP". So I'm going to save myself typing and do that here also.

I'm trying to catch up.

More to come ... ("TK" in journalism jargon)

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And myself ...

My name is Maurreen, and I've never blogged before.

Charter member of Virgin Bloggers Anonymous (not my idea; somebody else had it during a conference call Tuesday).

Newspaper copy editor, at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., since 2000. Active in the American Copy Editors Society. For those of you unfamiliar with copy editors, our job is essentially quality control for publications. Journalism is my second career, after the Marine Corps. Did odd jobs in between. Some were more odd than others.

Founder of Journawiki, http://journalism.wikia.com/, spent about two years on Wikipedia and have been participating in Squidoo.com since December 2006.

Relative Luddite -- dial-up for the Web, no cell phone, no microwave, no cable TV.

Enjoys playing with words, numbers and ideas.

Here to help explore the potential of leveraging numbers ... that sounds mercenary ... but a group that is coordinated (and sometimes even if it isn't) can achieve great things.

It can shed light in the shadows.