deep conviction, the purpose of the community. An effective statement of purpose will be a clear, commonly understood statement of that which identifies and binds the community together as worthy of pursuit. When properly done, it can usually be expressed in a single sentence. Participants will say about the purpose, 'If we could achieve that, my life would have meaning.' "
A good reason to work from the point of purpose rather than projects is to encourage the broadest support for the foundation. Also, needs change over time, so a purpose linked too closely to a specific project may turn obsolete quickly. A good purpose will be one that twenty years from now will still make sense and be worth supporting. To an extent, a really good purpose is more like a process than a goal. [For anyone with real experience with chaordic processes, like Cees, feel free to chime in with corrections and/or more process suggestions.]
Here are some examples to distinguish "purpose" from "project":
"Stable Squeak" is a project. "Better Documentation" is a project. "Hosting Conferences" is a project.
"Ensuring Reliable Technology" is a purpose. "Advancing Computer Literacy" is a purpose. "Encouraging Collaboration" is a purpose. "Enabling Humane Technology" is a purpose. "Supporting Transparent Computing" is a purpose. "Promoting World Peace" is a purpose.
If no one proposes a purpose in a few of days, I will post my own one sentence suggestion.
If you can only think of projects right now, try to think of what that project really accomplishes. For example, what would having better documentation accomplish? Purpose related ideas mentioned already in other threads either directly or indirectly (derived from asking what projects accomplish) could be "harvested" and put here.
Here are some examples of purposes from chaordic groups taken from: http://www.chaordic.org/partner.html
"To restore and enhance an enduring Marine System supporting a healthy diversity and abundance of marine life and human uses through a self-organizing and self-governing organization."
"To discover, integrate and implement theories and practices for the interdependent development of people and their institutions."
"To promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, end religiously-motivated violence and create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings."
"To effect and enable constructive, systemic change leading to a more just, equitable, sustainable society."
"To enable people to create food and farming systems which improve and sustain ecological, economic and social health through systemic, community-based, self-organizing governance."
"To enable the effective, equitable flow and ethical use of accurate, accessible geographic information to improve the health of the Earth and of our economies and communities."
Rather than suggest a purpose myself, I'd be curious to see other people's comments first. Please use this thread to post one sentence statements of purpose and related discussion. Hopefully these purpose proposals can then be further refined further (into other one sentence statements). I think it is a good idea to discuss projects and other issues too, just in other threads. This process is supposed to be iterative in terms of later steps (detailed at the first URL). As people come up with suggestions for projects or other ideas in other threads, the purpose may need to be revisited to include them.
Or, if you can't come up with a whole sentence, then post an idea or sentence fragment that should go into such a one sentence purpose.
They don't have to be completely Squeak related if they Squeak as part of a larger picture.
Proposing silly or funny or overly grandiose purposes for a Squeak Foundation are OK to get everyone's mental juices flowing.
-Paul Fernhout Kurtz-Fernhout Software ========================================================= Developers of custom software and educational simulations Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
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