User:Conor Kenny/Archive

http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/conor_0.jpg I'm the managing editor of the Congresspedia project on SourceWatch. It's my job to help out citizen editors and sysops with any needs they might have, blog about Congress and Congresspedia, resolve disputes, recruit new editors and help develop the wiki, as well as making edits, correcting errors and checking facts like any other editor. I also work with the staff of the Sunlight Foundation, the co-operators of Congresspedia.

I used to work for Congress Watch division of Public Citizen, a national, non-profit public-interest organization. At Congress Watch I spent several years researching and reporting on influence and corruption in the federal government. I studied political economy at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA and Deep Springs College in California. I live in Washington, DC.

My full bio is here. This is my personal page. If you'd like to leave me a message, leave it on my talk page.

"I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults." -Molly Ivins (Yeah, I"m from Texas)

Current meta-SourceWatch/Congresspedia projects

 * A proposal for a set of "ground rules" for SourceWatch
 * A proposal for a standard referencing format
 * SourceWatch:How to run a good working group - A guide for people using our new working groups.

Revamping Help pages

 * Wikipedia's Help:Contents

Actions on SourceWatch/CP

 * Care2's action alerts

Debating points on SourceWatch
Wikipedia has put a lot of thought into this and in general I'd like to move SourceWatch away from depending on case-by-case judgments from the sysops and managing editors. This should include a way of debating topics on SourceWatch.
 * An example of debate on Wikipedia.

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Original research policies

 * Wikipedia has a policy banning synthesis of sources to advance a point (WP:SYN) as part of its policy on no original research. We need to write a more complete policy on original research for SourceWatch and I think I have no problem with what is banned under WP:SYN. This should be looked at thoroughly, however.

Keeping track of changes

 * Wikipedia's Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol

Headline feeds

 * Drupal has a 255 character limit for RSS feeds?

Updating OpenTasks through the pearlebot

 * See conversation with User:Beland on Wikipedia

Navigation templates and boxes

 * w:Wikipedia:Navigational templates
 * w:Wikipedia:Embedded list
 * w:Template:Navbox
 * w:Category:Navigational templates
 * w:Template:Otherarticles
 * w:Wikipedia:Article series
 * w:Wikipedia:List of article series
 * w:Wikipedia:Series templates

Opening up the policy-making process

 * w:Help:Modifying and creating policy

Differences between Wikipedia and SourceWatch
Articles that need revamping:
 * SourceWatch:How does SourceWatch relate to Wikipedia?
 * SourceWatch:FAQ

Current research projects

 * Alan Keyes and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Inc.

Thoughts on design
One of the things I think about a lot is the design and display of SourceWatch and Congresspedia. If you like, you can see my notes on the matter and share some wisdom with me:
 * User:Conor Kenny/Thoughts on wiki design

Useful shortcuts

 * For orgs -> SourceWatch:For research and advocacy organizations
 * Voting Record Resource Center -> Help:Congresspedia Voting Record Resource Center

Things I'm looking at that are cool

 * Platial, map mash-ups made easy.
 * Blip.tv, a new video hosting site.

Thoughts on wikis and news

 * "Most notably, wikis can transcend the short attention span and fragmented view of issues and events inherent in traditional story-format reporting. With a wiki, no topic ever really "scrolls off the home page." Wiki pages are forever active -- even if they lie fallow for long stretches of time. And interested people can continue to watch and edit these pages indefinitely." - Amy Gahran, "Where Are the News Org Wikis?" Poynter Online, March 20, 2007.

Stuff of utility to me

 * My scratchpad
 * Conor Kenny/user greeting
 * List of interns
 * Conor Kenny/Monsanto
 * User:Conor Kenny/Using del.icio.us with SourceWatch

Congress upcoming week news
These are other sources of upcoming-week-in-Congress news:
 * [Project Vote Smart's blog