Difference between revisions of "MissionStatement"

OurWork ... MissionStatement

Mission Statement

To promote Wiki in a way that rekindles the spirit of worldwide collaboration and unleashes people's full potential to build things worth building. AboutUs provides the venue, tools and infrastructure to support the community's vision.

Note on Mission Statements: Mission statements describe what your business is and what it will be over the next few years. They define who you are, what you do, what you stand for and why.

Vision Statement

Because no single resource is as powerful as the one that can tap into the knowledge of every visitor, AboutUs stands front and center as one of the most valuable information resources on the web. By synthesizing informational and commercial sites AboutUs creates a vibrant community asset.
Note on Vision Statements: Vision statements describe what the organization wants to become in the long term; what it wants to be known for; its purpose for existing. Visions represent dreams! They are an idealistic stretch - perhaps not even achievable. They can be just beyond reach.

Thoughts

The Earth Metaphor

I woke up early and found myself pondering the seemingly trite "growth" metaphor for AboutUs. On further reflection I realized came to favor "gardening" over "growth" and then gardening raised to stewardship of the Earth. Here are a few more words that try to explain this vision. -- Ward Cunningham

AboutUs.org hosts continuously changing information about the people of the world and particularly how they choose to organize and relate.

We uses an organic metaphor for this information. All information is our "Earth". When we refer to "the Earth" we are being both respectful and somewhat vague, like the farmer, as to which parts of the Earth we are stewards.

Our mission is to give life to our Earth. We've begun by elevating the "about us" pages of the internet into a collaboratively editable commons. It is from this act that we take our name.

We assume an activist perspective with respect to our Earth. We choose to "work" the information we find so as to make it produce value we can share. The "iron" from which we make our tools is the computer. Our stewardship depends on making better tools, learning to apply them to our earth effectively, and then engaging all people in this creative activity.

Our activism derives from deeply held values. We struggle to voice our values but recognize that our voice alone cannot capture their uniquely human character. Our collective voices serves only to remind us that we are free to act on our values and that our actions observed and sometimes copied serves as our only sure way to guide stewardship of our information Earth.