Two ways to launch a new project.
- You can set a group of people a hard goal and ask them to work towards it.
- You reveal a project you’ve been working on for a long time and ask for people to help.
The problem is only 1% of people tend to help create a project compared with 10% that tend to edit. Almost every successful collective effort requires an individual (or a few individuals) to make a huge number of contributions to get started.
If you want a wiki, a huge database, a successful fundraising effort, a big collaboration on an eBook or whatever, you need to have something huge to show to begin with. Then let people add and edit as they like.
Anyone can set a big goal and tell people what you want. The harder part is showing what you already have and asking people to help.