Re: [Wikimedia Education] EDUWiki UG: wrapping 2018 and looking forward to 2019!
On 30.1.19. 03:54, Pine W wrote: > Hi Filip, > > Previously WMF seemed to have a larger scope of work in supporting > educators in institutions. I think that some of that stopped when a few WMF > staff members left. I think that at least some of that staffing has been > restored. However, I don't want WMF to use a staffing shortage as a reason > to permanently offload more administrative and support responsibilities > onto volunteers. If volunteers are contributing in ways that they like, > that's fine and good, but I don't want volunteers to feel that it's their > obligation to fill WMF's capacity gaps with their personal unpaid time, > especially not on a long term basis. WMF's job is support the community, > not the other way around. However, if the people in the user group like how > things are going and feel that their time is being used well in a > sustainable and respectful way, then I'm glad to hear that, and I wish you > the best in your activities. I assure you, nothing is being offloaded to us. > > I'm sorry if anything in my second paragraph seemed offensive. I'm confused > regarding how what I wrote was offensive. I thought that I was expressing > concern about the sustainability of a person's activity level and the > sustainability of the groups in which they are involved, which I thought > would have been well received. Can you specify what you found to be > offensive? I'm happy to discuss that off list or on one of my user talk > pages if you prefer. I am not perfect and I hope that I am always willing > to learn how to do better. I just find it presumptuous to question whether someone will burn out or not. Cheers, Filip ___ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Re: [Wikimedia Education] EDUWiki UG: wrapping 2018 and looking forward to 2019!
Hi Filip, Previously WMF seemed to have a larger scope of work in supporting educators in institutions. I think that some of that stopped when a few WMF staff members left. I think that at least some of that staffing has been restored. However, I don't want WMF to use a staffing shortage as a reason to permanently offload more administrative and support responsibilities onto volunteers. If volunteers are contributing in ways that they like, that's fine and good, but I don't want volunteers to feel that it's their obligation to fill WMF's capacity gaps with their personal unpaid time, especially not on a long term basis. WMF's job is support the community, not the other way around. However, if the people in the user group like how things are going and feel that their time is being used well in a sustainable and respectful way, then I'm glad to hear that, and I wish you the best in your activities. I'm sorry if anything in my second paragraph seemed offensive. I'm confused regarding how what I wrote was offensive. I thought that I was expressing concern about the sustainability of a person's activity level and the sustainability of the groups in which they are involved, which I thought would have been well received. Can you specify what you found to be offensive? I'm happy to discuss that off list or on one of my user talk pages if you prefer. I am not perfect and I hope that I am always willing to learn how to do better. Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) ___ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Re: [Wikimedia Education] EDUWiki UG: wrapping 2018 and looking forward to 2019!
Hi Pine, On 29.1.19. 20:32, Pine W wrote: > Hi Shani, > > Thanks for sharing these updates. > > It sounds like there is a lot of effort being spent on organizing the > EduWiki group. Thanks for the amount of tiime that you are putting into > this. > > I have two questions. > > Facilitating meetings of Wikimedia educators, working on tools, asking for > feedback, etc. are all tasks that have been previously done by WMF staff. > How is the EduWiki user group adding value? I am concerned about how much > time and effort has been spent by non-WMF people, many of whom I am > guessing are participating unpaid, when I don't understand the benefits and > when I think that WMF staff were previously doing much of the organization > and support work so that voluneers and affiliates didn't need to spend > their valuable and limited time on these activities. Why do you believe such tasks should be done solely by WMF? I don't believe WMF has the capacity (and that might be by design) to handle all things Education, so this UG seems to fill that purpose. The idea is for us all to work together and complement each other. We've been meeting with the WMF education team and will continue to do so, since we believe that we can and should work together and share the workload. > > Another question that I have is about sustainability. You seem to be > filling many roles in multiple organizations, and I am concerned about what > would happen if you burned out, got into a conflict and decided to leave, > or had some other need to withdraw. Is your workload sustainable, and do > you each of the groups that you lead including the Education groups have > sufficient human resources capacity to replace you if you left or became > unavailable? I admire your level of effort, but having one person lead so > many groups, especially on volunteer time, seems to be risky both for your > sustainability as a leader and for the sustainability of the groups. I > personally had a bad experience trying simultaneously to sustain a user > group and to do paid work and to keep up with the regular outbreaks of > problems around the Wikiverse. After that bad experience I am trying to do > fewer simultaneous activities so that I am under less stress and am > participating in a more sustainable way, and I encourage you to consider > whether your level of activity is sustainable and whether your many groups > are sustainable if you are no longer involved. I will understand if you > don't want to respond to this concern in public, but I encourage you and > the groups that you lead to consider how sustainable your leadership is and > to do succession planning. I honestly find this a bit offensive, but I get what you're aiming at. We're all human beings, and some of us burn out, but that's why we're trying to share the workload and make sure that bulk of the UG's programmatic work is shared with volunteers (that's where working groups come into play). We think that the board is there to set up the ground work and maintain governance, but the actual work should be done by us all. And I see the diverse community that we have as a safety net in that regard. If one of us burns out or leaves due to life, that's fine, someone else can step in. This argument works for most other affiliates and roles in the movement and I don't see why W UG is any different. Cheers, Filip > Best wishes, > > Pine > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 28, 2019, 6:16 PM Shani Evenstein wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> (and sorry in advance for x-posting -- we are sharing this a bit wider to >> draw attention to not only the education group, but also the Libraries and >> GLAM groups, which we believe have a lot in common with ours and hope will >> be active partners in our work throughout the year) >> >> Below is a report of what we've been up to during 2018, including a few >> updates looking forward to 2019. We've tried keeping it short and to the >> point. >> >> Best, >> Shani. >> >> >> >> >> ** 2018 Report - * >> Our group has been recognized during 10/2018, so we don't have much to >> report about, but here is a short summary of what we've been up to since >> being elected - >> >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_%26_Education_User_Group/2018_Annual_Report >> >> ** Revamping our User Group Page - * >> Check out our (a bit more) updated page on Meta. The work is far from over >> and the key areas identified are especially a work in progress and will >> keep evolving as we do more work. That said, you can now easily find who we >> are, how you can get involved, how governance works, various resources and >> a way to contact us, which is a good start. >> >> ** Logo - winner - * >> As some of you remember, we've ran a logo challenge, in order to determine >> what our logo would be. We finally have a winner - a logo that most people >> voted for, which was
Re: [Wikimedia Education] EDUWiki UG: wrapping 2018 and looking forward to 2019!
Hi Shani, Thanks for sharing these updates. It sounds like there is a lot of effort being spent on organizing the EduWiki group. Thanks for the amount of tiime that you are putting into this. I have two questions. Facilitating meetings of Wikimedia educators, working on tools, asking for feedback, etc. are all tasks that have been previously done by WMF staff. How is the EduWiki user group adding value? I am concerned about how much time and effort has been spent by non-WMF people, many of whom I am guessing are participating unpaid, when I don't understand the benefits and when I think that WMF staff were previously doing much of the organization and support work so that voluneers and affiliates didn't need to spend their valuable and limited time on these activities. Another question that I have is about sustainability. You seem to be filling many roles in multiple organizations, and I am concerned about what would happen if you burned out, got into a conflict and decided to leave, or had some other need to withdraw. Is your workload sustainable, and do you each of the groups that you lead including the Education groups have sufficient human resources capacity to replace you if you left or became unavailable? I admire your level of effort, but having one person lead so many groups, especially on volunteer time, seems to be risky both for your sustainability as a leader and for the sustainability of the groups. I personally had a bad experience trying simultaneously to sustain a user group and to do paid work and to keep up with the regular outbreaks of problems around the Wikiverse. After that bad experience I am trying to do fewer simultaneous activities so that I am under less stress and am participating in a more sustainable way, and I encourage you to consider whether your level of activity is sustainable and whether your many groups are sustainable if you are no longer involved. I will understand if you don't want to respond to this concern in public, but I encourage you and the groups that you lead to consider how sustainable your leadership is and to do succession planning. Best wishes, Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) On Mon, Jan 28, 2019, 6:16 PM Shani Evenstein wrote: > Dear all, > > (and sorry in advance for x-posting -- we are sharing this a bit wider to > draw attention to not only the education group, but also the Libraries and > GLAM groups, which we believe have a lot in common with ours and hope will > be active partners in our work throughout the year) > > Below is a report of what we've been up to during 2018, including a few > updates looking forward to 2019. We've tried keeping it short and to the > point. > > Best, > Shani. > > > > > ** 2018 Report - * > Our group has been recognized during 10/2018, so we don't have much to > report about, but here is a short summary of what we've been up to since > being elected - > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_%26_Education_User_Group/2018_Annual_Report > > ** Revamping our User Group Page - * > Check out our (a bit more) updated page on Meta. The work is far from over > and the key areas identified are especially a work in progress and will > keep evolving as we do more work. That said, you can now easily find who we > are, how you can get involved, how governance works, various resources and > a way to contact us, which is a good start. > > ** Logo - winner - * > As some of you remember, we've ran a logo challenge, in order to determine > what our logo would be. We finally have a winner - a logo that most people > voted for, which was designed by krishna chaitanya velaga (who also happens > to be one of our board members :)). The new logo will be implemented soon! > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_and_Education_User_Group_Logo_(with_text).svg > > ** Bylaws -* > We have started working on a draft for our bylaws here (which, once done, > will be moved to Meta) - > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hsEXVCnLrqC7qcGYXinEZENIDsZIvPnBcInh_bfEP88/edit > We are looking for people with experience in governance to join the board > as we finalize our bylaws. If you're interested in working on it with us, > please contact us privately. > > ** Annual plan *- > We've also started working on an annual plan. Again, this is a draft, and > once done, it'll be moved to Meta. In the meantime, we are inviting anyone > who's interested in affecting what we'll be focusing on this coming year, > to comment on the (really not final!) doc - > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wBR-tAHwpwsCo24tu7mL0QNgUJEebSA18_rbZF8MYJc/edit?usp=sharing > > ** Working groups -* > As part of working on our annual plan, the board has recognized key focus > areas for our work: *Community, Resources & Outreach. * > It was decided to open *working groups* that will be working separately on > advancing each of these focus areas. So
