I am currently working on writing up a wikipedia article as was suggested by Firas a few months back.
I would appreciate any input concerning the article. So far I have drawn up a very tentative and brief outline to work around and build upon. It is, of course, by no means a final draft: just an idea of the direction. You can skim through it and if you think there is anything you would like to see added or talked about then post your ideas here and I will take them into consideration.
This is open to all citizens of Jordan Planet and any of it’s loyal readers who are very familiar with JP. But remember, this article is specifically about JP and not the Jordanian Blogosphere as a whole.
Thank You,
Naseem Tarawnah
OUTLINE:
Background:
a) How Jordan Planet got started & the first citizens. Itâ??s mission statement: non-profit, community, promoting Jordanian bogs
b) Features like â??Weekly Eventsâ?Â, â??Highlightsâ?Â, Poll, etc
c) Segment of Jordanian society represented. Also that not all Jordanian Bloggers are necessarily citizens. Iâ??ll come back to this in the end (refer to notes)
d) Brief statistics and their increases
e) First Meet-Up
f) Articles promoting JP:
(i) Royal Wings Eddie Taylor (expats begin to join)
(ii) Jordan Times, JO Magazine
(iii) (Thereâ??s another one written in Arabic I read in the summer when I was researching mine but I canâ??t remember the magazine, so if someone could help me out there)
g) Staff is formed in October 2005: staffers, and responsibilities.
Events:
a) November 11th, Global Voices coverage, Sabri Hakimâ??s Blog on CNN North America. Statistics on the boost/exposure during this period
b) Global Voices Summit in London. Roba emailed me with the details but Iâ??m not sure if it can fit in here as what was discussed was primarily about Blogging in general and does not pertain specifically to JP. But there is the mention of JP maintaining a healthy blogosphere for Jordanians with the constant meet-ups. Also, the JP members that attended the Summit.
Today/Tomorrow:
– Jordanian Bloggers in different countries. Percentages.
– More diverse, increasing number of Bloggers.
– Future plans in the works: Jordan Blog Awards, “Eye on the Media” radio program, monthly podcast for JP news/highlights. Arabic Blog interface: mention increase in Bloggers with an increase in Arabic blog services like Albawaba and Jeeran.com
– First Jordanian podcasts
– Most important posts (possibly in the past year) that relate to the key issues raised like lack of politics, anonymity, etc.
Links:
– Articles
– Flickr Pictures: kingdom of Jordan/meet-ups/ 9/11
*Notes/Ideas:
РI don̢??t know if I should mention (even briefly) the specialties of the Bloggers i.e. what specific Bloggers specifically Blog about, like Sabri̢??s photography and Khalaf̢??s politics. I hesitate because there may not be enough diversity and at this point there are just too many Bloggers without sounding discriminatory or at least without snubbing anyone.
РA screen capture of JP̢??s interface in August 2004, and the most recent one.
– A paragraph on internet freedoms in Jordan as background information to the reader of the kind of environment Jordanian Bloggers work in.
– Possibly the earliest posts on JP.
c) I think it is essential to discuss this now when Jordanian Bloggers are increasing. What exactly does JP represent? Is it only selective membership? Accepting all Jordanian blogs? Does it actually aim to represent all Jordanian blogs? Will we have something like 500 Jordanian Bloggers in the country but only 100 or so of them are citizens at JP?
This goal needs to be defined ASAP because without it then you canâ??t really write about where a site is aiming to go.
РLastly, I haven̢??t fully organized the above but as I write it will all come together and the bits and pieces will be floated around to make it look articulate and flowing. I was going to put a timeline but we haven̢??t had that significant status worthy of it as of yet, so the narrative based timeline is better.
Dont forget the date i Joined the Planet ! it is a historical day , u all should make me a monument for that , h3 h3
Cheerz !
Dar, I’ll make sure to make a note of it 😀
You might mention how JP bloggers were referred to (and interviewed by) major media sources after the Nov 9 attacks in Amman.
thanks rebecca
Naseem,
Why you don’t put this draft online on Wikipedia so people can start contributing ?
Jad Madi, I thought of that, but we thought the better approach was to create the foundations and then everything else can be built upon later. What I’m doing here is writing up the foundations. 🙂
I agree with Jad here. Lets build this and work on this on Wikipedia it self.. put what you have now in wikipedia, even if it is one paragraph. You can build it while it is live, and you will get much better feedback. I think that if when it was first proposed by firas, a page with pne paragraph was created, it would have been the long article you want it to be by now.
Anyhow, I am really looking forward to it, and I really can’t thank you enough for your initiative and effort on it.
Isam, I dont think it’s wise to just have one paragraph and simply jam everything in there with no sense of organization or language. It needs a degree of articulacy, no?
I gonna comment later Naseem regarding the content.
Now, I agree that the whole purpose of Wiki that people can edit the content. Though what usually happens is that someone posts a somehow full article and then others will add minor things or extend the topic.
Any article should have an organized structure! If only one paragraph was uploaded and then people will add to it with no coordination we will end up with a sketchy article.
So the whole point of appointing a project leader is not to get several versions of the article updated every couple of days!
People can add their input here, so we gonnna end up with one consistent version that pleases all people!
So the safest method is having one person writing a tentative article, that is a full article, and all members and readers could have their input here, and it will be considered spontaneously! After a while the final draft will be uploaded to Wiki! So any future addition will be done there! But the main article should be solid and of good writing.
Now we have already discussed many of the possible things to include in the article, and I think the proposed outline is fair enough for a start and is inclusive!
I think the way its going is in the right direction, we gonna have a very comprehensive article that people can then extend and add into it once uploaded on Wiki!
Anyways, thanks Naseem for doing this.
Ù?ثرÙ?Ù? Ù?Ù? عبارات اÙ?رÙ?اÙ?Ø© Ù? تÙ?سÙ?ؠاÙ?جÙ?Ø® :]
“Ù?ثرÙ?Ù? Ù?Ù? عبارات اÙ?رÙ?اÙ?Ø© Ù? تÙ?سÙ?ؠاÙ?جÙ?Ø® ” lol, inshallah 😀
I like the idea of mentioning each bloggers’ general individual focus…there is a good mix of right and left brainers, techies, artists, politicss etc. This definition gets beyond the stereotypical images the world thinks of when they think of Jordan. It may not seem important, but from the viewpoint of a foreigner who attempts to correct Western misconceptions, you have to go a couple steps beyond what may seem obvious or necessary.
nAS,
Quick comment: The Jordan TImes article was the first of all articles written about Jordan Planet….. It came before Royal Wings.
Thank you
Natasha, thanks. I was under the impression it was second.