Workgroup Selection Criteria FAQ

What are the Overall Goals of the Workgroup?

The goals of the group can be best summarized by the theme of 'Perspectives'. The theory that each part of the Media 2.0 ecosystem has distinct needs and that each of those needs result in distinct challenges and opportunities. The goal then, should be to categorize parts of the ecosystem and find the best, most interesting, most representative voices (i.e. bloggers) in those categories.

Those bloggers should, as part of the Workgroup:

1. Blog about their personal interests, experiences, concerns, feelings and actions in the space
2. Highlight the efforts of others in their particular category in order to help drive the conversation and make it truly democratic
3. Look for opportunities to link to other members of the workgroup and others in the general blogosphere in different categories in order to begin breaking down the perceived barriers that exist to create solutions that help us all
4. Engage on the mailing list to suggest themes, events, initiatives and newsworthy of joint debate or collaboration
5. Potentially come together for events/panels/actual 'work' (maybe in the form of joint projects)

How is Eligibility Decided?

When deciding on the eligibility of a potential member, the key issue is probably that of their Perspective. How does their perspective differ from the others already included (difference of opinion and agenda being a valuable commodity for thorough debate) and will it add a unique voice to the chorus. Can they help the others and the broader community understand an aspect of the ecosystem that was previously unrepresented.

For example: How do PR/marketers ethically and transparently engage the social media? How can advertisers reasonably measure ROI? How can Attention be applied to distribution? How can (or should) Creative Commons trump DRM?. How can Identity affect users and platforms? How can content creators make money - should they all expect to? What are the practical issues and examples of aggregation, disclosure, syndication, authentication, monetization, attention profiling etc etc.

How many are going to be in the workgroup?

The group will consist, at least initially, of about 4 blogs per category. At that point it may be necessary to create more granular categories or create a mechanism for aggregating the participation of a broader set of contributors to a secondary feed/page.

So are the big boys allowed?

Techcrunch, GigaOm and others of that caliber bring a unique perspective. They represent the high level view of the emerging industry and their perspective, like any other, is valid and welcome. However they are not the only voice to be included - especially when it comes to dealing with domain specific issues and creating best practices.

Logically then, bloggers who have no existing audience are just as likely to be eligible if they have a unique perspective, style and voice and are equally eligible.

Ultimate community consensus and workgroup deliberation will decide. Willingness to participate in the workgroup as outlined under "Overall Goals of the Workgroup" should be considered for all participants including "the big boys."