Liam, Regarding the word convening, WMF has held one with the Arabic Wikipedia folks in Qatar. Check this blog to better understand the term/context: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/23/arabic-wikipedia-convening/
--Abbas. > From: [email protected] > Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 09:57:27 +0000 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation Mid-Year Presentation to the > Board of Trustees > > On 3 March 2012 10:34, Chris Keating <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > 23, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Erik Moeller <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi folks, > > > > > > > > on February 3, the Wikimedia Foundation senior staff gave a > > > > presentation to the Board of Trustees as part of its Board meeting in > > > > San Francisco, recapping the fiscal year so far (our year begins July > > > > 1) and looking ahead. The slide deck is now available here: > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Mid-Year_Review_February_2012.pdf > > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for this - very interesting :-) > > > > For me, the most reassuring part is at the end. (It feels a bit odd > > highlighting this, given the amount of cool stuff in the report, but I > > suppose it's cool stuff I already knew about). I am very glad to hear that > > these issues are on peoples' minds and I think identifying them is a really > > helpful step. > > > > ● Everybody at all levels of the WMF needs to stop spending > > social & political capital accidentally, or on stuff that doesn't > > matter; > > ● We need to stop surprising the community: we need to > > acknowledge that time works differently for volunteers, and > > they need lots of advance notice for everything. Overtransparency has never > > harmed us, but lack of transparency > > has; > > ● Internally in the organization we need to shift from the > > assumption that our scarcest resource is money, to the > > acknowledgement that it's time. We need to get better at > > conserving energy, focusing and saying no; > > > I too agree that this was a very interesting reading. Much of it I knew > from being an avid reader of the Signpost but it's very good to be able to > see an overview like this. I appreciate the honest about the failure of the > Indian Education Program (slide 37) and learned a lot from the Technology > section (slides 9-22). I, like Chris, found the three points on slide 56 > (quoted above) under the heading "stop doing this" to be very enlightening. > There are also some related points on the subsequent slides (under the > leading "start doing this") that are also related, which include: > ●Assign other resources to explicitly earning social & political > capital for the org, so it can be spent on editor retention; > ●Actively monitor the bank balance (social & political > capital); > ●Assess community views and factor them into the total cost > of projects before green-lighting. In some cases, community > opposition will be a dealbreaker; > ●Develop easy routinized methods for assessing community > sentiment (RfCs, polls) in multiple languages, and routinely > dedicate resources to community input-seeking and > facilitation of discussions (TOU, AFT); > ●Better support editors along language lines and activity lines > (e.g., page patrollers, ArbComs, OTRS workers): find out what they need and > give it to them; > > In all the focus on reversing the downward trend of new-user retention > (which I wholeheartedly agree with, don't misunderstand me), I've been > feeling a bit like the WMF has seen the existing community as "the problem" > rather than part of "the solution". I think that these points that Chris > and I have quoted are pertinent because they seem to be aimed at trying to > reverse that feeling. They argue for the WMF to dedicate resources > specifically to support the existing community, to make their work easier, > and to take the time to bring the community along with changes rather than > announcing 'surprises'. But most of all, I'm interested in the repeated > phrase "social and political capital". If I read the text cynically that > phrase could look manipulative, but I don't believe that to be the case. > Rather, I'm pleased to see that the WMF is overtly addressing the fact that > *trust* is the most valuable form of currency in a volunteer project - and > that Chapter-WMF-Community trust levels have been less than ideal lately... > So - I look forward to seeing this proactive effort to build "social and > political capital" with the existing community put into practice :-) After > all, there's no point in increasing the number of new users if the existing > community is so frustrated that they're unwilling to train and acclimatise > the newbies. > > However, on a different note, I note with interest (though not surprise) > that it seems the exec have decided that the recent fundraising debates > between Chapters-WMF have already been concluded and that the decision for > the WMF to centrally manage all future fundraising is now a *fait accompli*: > - From slide 28 "Collaborated more closely with *remaining* payment > processing chapters to improve their donors' experience" and "Improved > experience for donors in several countries where chapters processed > payments last year". > - From slide 40 "*Reposition* the grants process as a core funds > dissemination mechanism for the movement with strong community ownership > and tight accountability" > [*my emphasis*] > > Finally, a question. Slide 31 says that in the future the WMF will run > "Worldwide convenings of highly active contributors in mature Wikipedias". > I know the noun "a convention" and I know the verb "to convene" but I don't > recognise the noun "a convening". What is it? Is it the same as "a > conference"? > > -Liam > wittylama.com/blog > peace, love & metadata > _______________________________________________ > 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
