Today's meeting was definitely progressive and the idea of compiling a handbook (or guide, or whatever) to Wikimania is fruitful..but, I just thought: Enthusiasm and good intentions could turn into a problem (or a crisis) if they are not accompanied by experience, or at least know-how. All teams want a conference, but they don't necessairly understand what does that take.
>From my limited experience in 2008; Delphine was an imporant factor (catalyst) in making things go on track, poking volunteers, and reporting to the foundation. She knew what a conference is...and what wikimedians want. If someone could take the role of Delphine back, maybe on part time or per task basis, then I think that could help. A book is good; but how do we make sure the content is practically implemented? Moushira On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:48 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > A couple of fast thoughts: > > * I think it's debatable whether it's board-level or not. It's board-level > in the sense that it's "not staff-level" -- meaning it's mainly a community > responsibility rather than a staff responsibility. But to the extent that > part of the role of the committee would be to ask the staff for help if > Wikimania is floundering, that is probably not a board-level issue. For > example, I can't imagine the board making a resolution asking me to > intervene to offer more support if one year Wikimania were floundering. > That just doesn't feel like a governance issue. > > * Which leads me to point two, which is that from my perspective, I > actually do want someone to flag to me if Wikimania is floundering, and to > ask me officially to have the staff get involved. Wikimania in Gdansk this > year has had some problems, and I have felt awkward about how to best > resolve them, given that (again) it's a community-led event, not a staff-led > event. But I don't think the board should need to involve itself in that, > because again, I think it's not a governance issue. > > * Those aren't super-significant issues from my perspective though. Upshot > from my perspective: I think that there's lots of good energy and thinking > happening on this, and it feels like people are pretty aligned in feeling we > want some form of oversight/guidance/something, in place supporting > excellent Wikimanias every year. Which is great. Does someone want to > organize a meeting about this for Gdansk? I'm hoping Phoebe will attend, > and Casey and SJ, and whoever else is interested. I will be happy to put it > in my schedule, and I think James would probably be interested too. (James > Owen, not Forrester. I actually don't know if James Forrester is coming this > year, although now that I think of it, maybe he is one of the > train-travelling people?) > > Thanks, > Sue > -----Original Message----- > From: phoebe ayers <[email protected]> > Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:28:37 > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<[email protected]> > Cc: Wikimania general list \(open subscription\)< > [email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Floating a notion: permanent Wikimania > committee? > > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Sue Gardner <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi folks, > > > > For several years now, people have occasionally floated the notion > > that there should be a permanent Wikimania oversight committee – > > basically, a group of people responsible for giving some coaching and > > guidance and oversight to the local planning team each year. Over the > > years, support has been offered each year by people like Phoebe, James > > Forrester, Delphine (Delphine both in her staff role and as a > > volunteer) and SJ … but there has never (AFAIK) been a formal > > oversight committee. I think there probably should be. > > Hello Sue and all, > > Good timing -- we just had a long conversation about this in the > #wikimedia open meeting this afternoon. There were quite a few > participants, including several past wikimania organizers. > > Quick summary of that discussion: > * there is definite interest in an ongoing Wikimania (oversight, > governance, guidance) (body, committee, group) (we talked for quite a > while about those various names and their different connotations) > > * there are a few potential roles that people see for such a group: > ** 1) collecting and writing better documentation about the > conference, including best practices for organization and what has > happened in the past > ** 2) answering questions from Wikimania organizers about past > practices, helping coordinate who to ask about various aspects > ** 3) providing oversight to the overall wikimania process -- for > instance making sure that a bid jury is called and the bids are > submitted in time (like elections) > ** 4) providing oversight/governance as the conference progresses -- > for instance, getting regular reports about the conference. Along with > this, the org team would have someone to report to if, say, a venue > burns down or some other catastrophe happens. > > These ideas are roughly in order of how much controversy they > generated among discussion participants. I think we all pretty much > agreed that we need better conference documentation, and a loose > community group of past organizers and interested participants can > provide such documentation. Here's a start: > > Conference handbook: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Handbook > -- let's write the big book of Wikimania > Conference checklist: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/checklist -- make sure you > have everything you need > Conference community: > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/community -- a start at a > community group, w/ interested participants. > > We discussed however that for any oversight/governance functions we > might need a more formalized structure and perhaps a formal mandate. > This seemed like a Board-level issue to several people (including me). > We also discussed that there's not a good process for proposing and > forming community committees that would interact with the Foundation > on various issues. > > What do you all think? > > best, > Phoebe > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
