How This Works

No matter what your motivation and experience, we've got a place for you. Here's how it works day-to-day.

Our editor, Lauren Sandler, will share feedback and perspective daily on The Scoop. There she'll discuss our collective progress, noting valuable contributions, answering questions, sketching out our emerging narrative, and highlighting assignments.

After checking in with Lauren, visit the Assignment Desk. To get the project started, Assignment Zero editors have identified some relevant topics and broken them down into assignments - like an interview, research, or writing a piece. Each of the assignments is marked with either a crowd or individual symbol. The crowd symbol means that this assignment is open to everyone -- it's non-exclusive and ongoing. You can add information at any time. The individual symbol indicates a task that only one person can do, such as an interview. It just wouldn't make sense to send 500 people to someone's house for a talk, which is why we've limited these assignments.

Once you've picked out the work you'd like to do, simply visit the assignment's reporting page by clicking on the assignment. The reporting page is your temporary workspace. There you'll find everything you need, including a way to save your draft or file your reporting; a collection of others' reporting; the option to check in with the editor; and a discussion thread about the assignment. Here's an example of a reporting page.
In order to contribute a reporting page you'll need an Assignment Zero login, so just make sure to register and set up a profile.

Want to discuss Assignment Zero? Visit the Exchange to talk through any related Assignment Zero issues with other contributors. There you can suggest seismic shifts to the project, whether it be how we present information or what it is that we are studying. Assignment Zero editors will regularly check in to The Exchange and respond to comments and suggestions.

If you're an infrequent contributor, we'll keep you in the loop with Assignment Zero's weekly email. There we'll discuss the emerging story, highlight contributions, and point out interesting new assignments.

How can you get started?

Think about how much time you have to give and what your particular interests and skills are. Are you a writer? Do you prefer research? Do you like to organize and share information with other people? Visit our Assignment Desk to see what appeals to you.

If you're a blogger or have your own website, help us recruit contributors by hosting our Assignment Zero graphic. Just copy and paste it from the top left column of this page.

If you're not sure what you'd like to do or are happy doing just about anything, visit The Scoop to find out what's top priority.

The only real limits to participation in Assignment Zero are the choices you make, as well as your time, interest, and imagination. If there are areas we should be researching, tell us. If there are other ways to get the work done, share. This is your project as much as it is ours, so please take it where you think it should go. If you have any questions about participation generally or would like to suggest improvements, please email me.

If you've got questions about how this all came together, you can contact any of us. It's truly been a team effort -- Lauren, David, Steve, Jay, ChapterThree, Unified Field, and myself -- and we've gone through many iterations of this website behind closed doors. Do you know ways to improve the model? Feel free to contact us.