Session 04: Identify Compass Terms
Hello and welcome to this session of the Compass Definitions project where I am illustrating the ideal state of Cryptiquest by defining the terms of the compass statements (vision, mission, and value statements). In the previous session, I listed out all the deliverables. In this session, I will start production by identifying all the compass terms. If there is time, I will create objective and measurable definitions for them.
To begin, I need to have the compass statements handy. Here they are:
Vision Statement
To responsibly unlock and inspire creators of any and every identity.
Mission Statement
To CREATE immersive MEDIA with inclusive fiction;
To SHARE content creation TOOLS with the world; and,
To MODEL corporate humanistic POLICIES for the industry.
Value Statements
A. MEDIA
1. Inclusive: Content must strive for representation while avoiding tokenism, stereotyping, and cultural appropriation.
2. Original: Content must be unique and consistent to the world it creates.
3. Quality: Content must be entertaining, professional, and understandable.
B. TOOLS
1. Obtainable: Tools must be freely available for any would-be creators.
2. Refinable: Tools must be open to refinement based on feedback from users in order to increase tool effectiveness.
3. Useful: Tools must be engineered for ease of use by the novice creator.
C. POLICIES
1. Diverse-Seeking: Business must seek diversity in talent and in partnerships.
2. Human-centric: Business must treat people as people first (regardless of relation to the business).
3. Respectable: Business must serve as an industry role model regarding culture, conduct, and professionalism.
Starting with the vision statement, I have these terms:
- Responsibly
- Unlock creators
- Inspire creators
- Identity
Next, from the mission statement:
- Create
- Immersive media
- Inclusive fiction
- Share
- Content creation tools
- With the world
- Model
- Corporate humanistic policies
- Industry
Finally, from the value statements:
- Content
- Representation
- Tokenism
- Stereotyping
- Cultural appropriation
- Unique
- Consistent to the world it creates
- Entertaining
- Professional
- Understandable
- Tools
- Freely available
- Would-be creators
- Open to refinement
- Feedback
- Users
- Tool effectiveness
- Ease of use
- Novice creator
- Business
- Seek diversity
- Talent
- Partnerships
- People-first
- Industry role model
- Culture
- Conduct
- Professionalism
There’s some overlap of some terms and others that are probably generic enough to not warrant a definition. Either way, I think I’ll start defining the values since there are more of them.
| Term | Loose Definition |
| Content | Fictional characters, settings, plot, or other types of story elements that are used in a narrative or in any other capacity (e.g. an example in a reference manual, etc.). |
| Representation | Prominent inclusion of people of diverse identities that may or may not be typically featured in media |
| Tokenism | The inclusion of an identity just to serve as a symbol of diversity and/or a character who only exists to portray an identity |
| Stereotyping | A myth or over-generalized belief assigned to all people of an identity |
| Cultural Appropriation | The taking of cultural element or elements from one identity and re-purposing it for something else |
| Unique | Different enough from everything else to appear genuinely fresh |
| Consistent to the world it creates | A minimal amount of plot holes, paradoxes, and scientific inaccuracies (reasonable to the science established in the containing content) |
| Entertaining | Not boring or frustrating to experience |
| Professional | Standard of quality is above amateur |
| Understandable | Not confusing, misleading, or convoluted |
| Tools | Surveys, worksheets, instructions, and other documents used for educating |
| Freely available | Obtainable for free and with ease |
| Would-be creators | People who either have created or have yet to create but either way may create in the future |
| Open to refinement | System is versioned to track older iterations from the current |
| Feedback | Criticisms, suggestions, and other comments regarding quality |
| Users | People who actively use the tools |
| Tool effectiveness | The production rate for the intended purpose |
| Ease of use | Minimal loss in production rate due to tool design |
| Novice creator | The person is either new to creation or relatively new to being a person |
| Business | Cryptiquest, as a content creator, a policy maker, and an income generator |
| Seek diversity | Actively find people with backgrounds which differ from previous projects |
| Talent | Content creators who are contracted by Cryptiquest |
| Partnerships | Third party or those who are otherwise contracted by Cryptiquest who are not content creators |
| People-first | Respect people’s identities and validation before addressing performance |
| Industry role model | An example to which similar companies respect and take inspiration |
| Culture | The environment fostered within Cryptiquest in which social and professional interactions exist |
| Conduct | The ways in which Cryptiquest manages policy and public relations |
| Professionalism | The quality of skill in which Cryptiquest performs |
Okay, so those definitions are loose, rough, and off the cuff. They will serve as a foundation for which to build objective value statements. Here are the next wave of definitions based on terms identified from within the mission statement.
| Term | Loose Definition |
| Content creation tools | Guides, surveys, worksheets, and other documents used to directly or indirectly generate content |
| Corporate humanistic policies | Policies are based on the assumption that humans have opinions, ideas, and experiences which are valid and valued and that decisions should be based on data to support a vision while permitting humans to have opinions, ideas, and experiences |
| Create | Cryptiquest fabricates or commissions the fabrication of content |
| Immersive media | Content that is entertaining, unique, consistent to the world it creates, professional, and understandable |
| Inclusive fiction | Invented story and/or story elements which strive for representation while avoiding tokenism, stereotyping, and cultural appropriation |
| Industry | The businesses, contributors, users and other associated individuals and organizations that foster content creation as Cryptiquest does |
| Model | Serve as an example to which others look up |
| Share | Provide freely |
| With the world | Any and every human |
I did that list alphabetically and wish that I had done the same with the first one. In hindsight I wish I had chosen a different method for displaying the data than a table since I now see how limited I am in copying and pasting data from it (I should have known better). The remaining list only has a few terms so I’ll use a table for consistency’s sake.
| Term | Loose Definition |
| Identity | One or more categorical labels by which a person feels representation |
| Inspire creators | Provoke and/or assist creators to create |
| Responsibly | Ensuring that toxic philosophies are cast in a negative light |
| Unlock creators | Convert a non-creator into a creator |
That concludes identifying the list of definitions based on the compass statements. Next I’ll try to take these definitions and form measurable objectives for Cryptiquest. Should be fun and arduous. Ha. See you there.
Action Items
- Not sure how to do this reliably, but I need to figure out a way to identify if I will have a future need for data before I put it into an HTML table.
Project Notes
- Keep an eye out for project evolution (not scope-creep) with an attempt to identify when it happens (if it happens) and if there is an opportunity to incorporate a step for that in project management documentation.