CZ:Wishlist/Citations, References and Bibliographies/Problem Statement

This page summarizes the problem of using and providing citations, references and bibliographies in a multi-page environment, such as Citizendium. It follows a well-tested technique for solving complex problems, which organizes the work into 3 stages. In the first stage (Collection) everyone who wishes to contribute provides a statement of what he/she thinks is the problem or a component of the problem. This statement is then summarized and that (the summary) is placed in the Collection portion of this page. For this problem, statements are specified on a forum thread and then summarized here. The basic rule for the collection stage is no filtering. That is, everyone is allowed to state their view and those views are recorded. It is inappropriate for others to request the removal of anything recorded in the Collection section.

The second stage is Analysis. In this phase the ideas presented in the Collection section are organized. Similar ideas are aggregated together and the problem statement presented in a more developed form. While filtering is allowed during this stage, generally that is best left for the third stage.

The third state is Prioritization. The work in this phase is to rank the processed ideas presented in the Analysis section according to their importance. Deciding what is and what isn't important is a subjective activity. However, a general guideline is to give higher priority to those problems identified in the Analysis section that are impeding the goals of Citizendium the most.