I call this the proposed plan, because it is subject to development, change, evolution, and continuous improvement. I intend it only to be the beginning of the thruster project, soon to evolve into whatever it evolves into.
No one, or no group, will own the thruster project. The project will be owned by all of the citizens of the earth.
Anyone, who takes the time and trouble to educate themselves on the issues, and can demonstrate awareness of all of the arguments pro and con for a specific issue, may vote on that issue.
Individuals will work on work teams put together by the project managers, or by the group of individuals. The goals of the work teams will be reviewed and agreed to by teams of project managers. Multiple teams will work on each set of goals. All team outputs will be subject to peer review. All outputs and the peer review will take place on the internet, where anyone interested in the project may observe.
Teams working outside of the project may at any time submit their outputs for peer review and project management. Innovation and discovery will be celebrated-not discouraged-to avoid the stifling affect of the "not invented here" syndrome.
Each team member will be subject to regular peer review, by his/her teammates, and by project manager teams. If a team member is found to be not contributing, or being divisive, or otherwise holding the team back, that individual will be rotated off of that team and if necessary, will be replaced by a new volunteer.
Project management teams will be given performance reviews by the work teams they oversee. The job of the project management team is to support the efforts of the work team. PM teams are to open doors for the work team. PM teams are to break down barriers for the work team. PM teams are to help arrange for new resources for the work team when they are needed. Project managers and project management teams will be judged on their ability to facilitate the success of the work teams without creating barriers to their success. The intention is to have as little administrative overhead as possible, so the work teams can focus their energies entirely on their team mission, in support of the project mission.
The board of global leaders (Boggles J ) will oversee and assign the project management teams. The board will work as a team to coordinate the efforts of the project management teams. The individuals on the board will be subject to review by the project managers on the PM teams. The leaders will also be subject to peer review by their fellow team members, and rotated off of the board, if they are found to be divisive, ineffective, immoral, corrupt, or detrimental to the project mission.
To protect against a board of global leaders that cannot earn the trust and confidence of the global citizens, every two, three, or four years, (yet to be determined) the qualified citizens will vote on the retention of individuals on the board, and even the entire board. To facilitate this process, a mirror board will be created that will "shadow" the efforts of the senior board, and prepare themselves as individuals and, if called on, as a team to rotate onto the board of global leaders.
Every team member of every team will be expected to work:
1. Fully in support of the mission.
2. In a collaborative and helpful manner to his/her team.
3. Competently and effectively toward the team goals.
Every team member of every team will be celebrated upon rotation off of a team for their contributions in a demanding, difficult, public, and challenging arena. Each of us who helps achieve the mission will be recognized for our contributions.
Beginning in July 2000:
Volunteer writers will rewrite each page of the thruster project web site, until each page is clear, concise, readable at a 5th grade reading level, and full of pertinent links that more fully explain the topic, at a variety of age and grade levels.
Filmmakers, animators, or owners of relevant animations will begin working, as individuals or teams, to provide animation for some of the concepts that are hard for the average person to visualize. (E.g. tilt, orbit, ecliptic, seasons, and orientation.)
We will form several volunteer coordination teams. These teams will collect the volunteer application forms and organize the volunteers into work teams that will be ready to work on the projects offered by the project management teams.
We will form multiple project management teams, and ask them to propose work team assignments. After peer review, the best plans will be implemented by offering spots on the selected teams to individual volunteers, selected by the volunteer coordination team.
Several web master teams will be formed. Each will propose changes that will enhance the web site reader's experience. For each recommendation, the other team will provide peer review. We may experiment with up to three different versions of the web site on line at the same time: thrusterproject.com, .net and .org. We will ask surfers to review multiple sites and compare them for us. We will ask viewers to rate each site, and compare the demographics. We may keep three versions in perpetuity, if they each are favored by different demographic segments of the citizen population. We will ask that each site offer variations of their site in text, html, and pdf. formats.
We will form one or several resource acquisition teams, who will coordinate with corporate, governmental, individual, or institutional supporters. This team will be asked to find web-hosting companies that will volunteer space to host one or another of the sites. The resource team will seek the support of software companies that offer teaming or collaboration software that the teams can use. The resource team will support all of the project management and work teams to find the resources they need. It is anticipated that the project will require separate resource acquisition teams in each country where web hosting will be offered to provide access to that nation’s populace, in their native language.
We will form several finance teams. The finance teams will be asked to find donors that will donate the minimal cash funds the thruster project may need to supplement the contributions of the many volunteers. The only cash needed will be for those services that we can't find donors or supporters to provide as charitable donations. The finance teams will provide full disclosure of all the financial records for the project, and each team will provide auditing services for the other team. One goal will be to set a new standard for charitable organizations in terms of the ratio of money spent on the mission compared to that spent on administration or fund raising.
We will form several teams of legal volunteers. These teams will handle the legal needs of the project, and peer review the outputs or recommendations of the other teams. We intend to form a non-profit organization eligible for consideration by the US Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt organization, and allowing contributions by US taxpayers to be considered charitable donations. The legal teams will also explore requirements for registration in every country so that tax benefits may be available for donors, contributors, or supporters, wherever the nations tax laws allow them.
We will form as many translation teams as we need to eventually reach more than 90% of earth's people with a version of the site in their native language. Where feasible, we will have multiple translation teams for each language or dialect, allowing for each team to have peer review.
We will form two different boards of global leaders. Each team will provide oversight for half of the project management teams. From time to time the responsibilities will be exchanged between the teams, so that the project managers teams eventually will receive guidance and support from each of the global leader teams. The idea is that by the time concrete solutions have been invented or discovered and implementation has been proposed, the most effective board of global leaders will be chosen, at least in part, by the project management teams.
We will form a teaming team. The teaming team will be responsible for forming all of the teams named above, and other such teams as circumstances dictate. This team will replace me, and after all of the teams are formed and operating, the teaming team will dissolve and disappear. The teaming team will also bring to their team the necessary talent to create the teaming feedback tools, which will allow each team member to receive constructive feedback about their contributions. The teaming team will provide the structure and processes by which team members may be rotated off of teams, and new members added.
We will form multiple communications teams. The communications teams will be responsible for handling the e-mail feedback from readers in their own language when that becomes possible. Each work team and project management team will adopt their own protocol for responding to e-mails, and contribute to the weekly summary of achievements which will be e-mailed to all readers who sign up for it.