A quest to answer the question, “Why does MotorCyclePedia.org exist?”
The definition of a Mission Statement is as follows, “To broadly describe an organization’s present capabilities, customer focus, activities, and business makeup”.
We have some pretty clear things laid out which need to be put down in writing because I want to ensure focus is not lost while building this site so at the same time I am also going to write a “Vision Statement” to try and solidify the path forward.
I think we need to get these two items straight and revisit them occasionally to ensure things don’t get wrapped around the axle make us veer off course too much.
Right off the start here I want to ensure that this site remains as true and valid as possible to ensure it keeps being a good resource for knowledge.
An example of misinformation is easy to find, when looking on google for a definition of “Mission Statement” I stumbled on a page at About.com which described it pretty well, but at the bottom of the page was the following comment, “A good mission statement provides strategic vision and direction for the organization.” No you dumb ass, that’s a Vision Statement! This is why a wiki style resource is so important, collaboration will inevitably end up giving a true and educated description of things.
If that site had a comment section on the page someone surely would have straightened this blunder of information out. But no, instead it remains there to further corrupt minds and breed stupidity into others who read that sentence and believe it to be true.
Surprisingly I think the boneheads over at eHow got this one mostly right for once, but their own Vision Statement is probably written on recycled Toilet Paper and reads something like, “It is eHow’s goal to completely wreck the internet and make as much money as possible while producing badly written instructions which will likely kill people if they try to follow the hap hazard information we publish for the goal of mass traffic generation”.
I know that I can be guilty of being a “know it all” sometimes too but we need to work together to get he real answers. Mass collaboration will produce good information and make for some good old fashioned heated debates I am sure.
With that now off my chest, here is the first draft of our MotorCyclePedia.org Mission and Vision Statements.
For The Public, the current answer would be
MISSION
- To deliver quality product, unlike most of the motorcycle information sites out there.
- Establish a community of people who believe in the site enough to tell their friends about it.
VISION
- To keep on delivering reliable information of high quality.
- To have every started page on the site with some content by the end of 2011 (with exception to the list of movies)
- Not to let the site become a banner farm or Circle Jerk of misinformation.
As far as the crew of the SS MotorCyclePedia.org goes
MISSION – See answer above, there is not any big ominous hidden agenda going on.
VISION – One way or another I would like to be able to work on this site full time so there needs to be some fine line drawn between a public wiki and making a few bucks from it to pay the bills. Unless we get big enough to draw some donations/volunteers and be self supportive, would that not be the coolest thing ever