User:Sj/logue/Reporting

21:17, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Reading back over writings form recent months -- my own and others -- and reports of various kinds, I was reflecting on reporting as art. It takes great practice, and exposure to fine models, to produce a good report. An excellent one instructs the reader in its development, in how to construct another like it, and in the state of mind needed to make sense of what is read. A poor one states what the author thought before sitting down to write, often independent of any facts or metrics used; or doesn't state anything concretely at all.

Recent reports from a Global Voices conference I attended were fascinating -- written by a variety of people without direct communication, one with another; and to excellent effect. I also had the pleasure of proofreading the annual report of a national organization of some 50 people; and noting how little reporting it actually did.

Focusing on Wikimedia, for instance: Yearly & quarterly reports, financial & event reports, news reports, and mailing-list reports; all have their own style. Then there is a thick soup of casual reports that show up as new wiki pages, on talk pages, personal blogs, individual emails, in mass media, on physical posters and banners in one city or another.

Current reports on my desk : a Wikimania program report, a global content-filtering report from talks over the past weeks, a financial report for metatrans, a stats report w/ graphs & comparisons. A follow-up overview on community groups from New Haven, Tunis, and London. A report on the state of citation use in APS journals and arXiv preprints. They all feel different; but should they be? Excellent reports all share a certain feel and structure -- a division into overviews, metrics, processes and findings -- that one rarely finds.

It is worth working on basic templates for all reports, and likewise for meetings and whitepapers, beyond what I see in common use. I know entrepreneurs and small projects could use this, even training in it; and many scientists as well. Plus it would be useful in environments of high-volume informatoin; disaster relief, hacking weekends, fundraising drives...

SJ