Re: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance

[Adam Karpathakis]

Hello,

Shouldn't this be on the members list? When I go onto Google I can search this 
list. It's not hard, and it may not be desirable either.

When the chapter adopts a position it takes responsibility (Legal, ethical, 
whatever) for that position. The chapter is a legal entity which is separate 
from the people in it, so would not normally take a position. The best model 
for this is to have a central place which decides and can consider the 
implications, something members may not be well placed to do individually 
although they can of course offer their ideas and thoughts. For example the 
government of the day is making this proposition, but we also have to deal with 
and negotiate with the government of the day on other issues and "joining the 
revolution" may endanger projects which are steaming along, I am not saying 
that is the case but just giving an example. I for one as a member trust the 
committee we have elected to make those decisions. 

As I understand it but correct me if I'm wrong, any member can go out into the 
public arena and advocate for his or her opinion and make submissions and be 
active (I know I certainly plan to!) but that is "Adam" or "Privatemusings" it 
is not "Wikimedia Australia" and what we say does not reflect on it, what it 
says doesn't reflect on us either.

best (and merry Christmas), Adam


Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:25:26 +1100
From: thepmacco...@gmail.com
To: wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimediaau-l] chapter governance

G'day all,see http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Billabong#chapter_governance
I saw a post on the UK mailing list ( 
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2009-December/005004.html ), 
and I sort of felt that it raised some questions in relation to how we do 
things down here - I also recently asked on the WMAU wiki about how an 
'official chapter position' might be formed (on the ISP filtering stuff), and 
andrew responded that the official chapter position would be determined by the 
committee... obviously some sort of structured discussion space (or the more 
open behaviours of the UK committee?) would offer greater transparency, and I 
see them as quite desirable - what do you think?


Also - merry christmas to everyone, I'm sort of throwing this rock in the pond 
and running, 'cos I'll be off-wiki until the new year now, so season's 
greetings and festive merriness and all that to one and all, and maybe see you 
for Wikipedia Day in January :-)


cheers,Peter,PM.  
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[Wikimediaau-l] Getting started

[Adam Karpathakis]

Hi, I'm a fairly new Wikimedian. I hope this is the right place as there is two 
lists.

I would like to get a discussion started on how to approach institutions. I am 
a confident speaker but to senior people to whom I am Mr Joe Blow off the 
street, I don't have any firm ideas on gaining trust then commitment from them. 
It does not help that Public Perception #1 is Wikipedia = unreliable, full of 
useless trivia. Telling them this isn't Wikipedia is likely to confuse them.

So what ideas have others tried that have worked or that may work?

Also as a new member while I received a very nice welcome email, and I am 
grateful for that, I think Wikimedia should have a standard pdf email as well 
to inform people of relevant contacts in their city, what the org is and what 
it stands for and why it exists, etc. This should be simple enough to show or 
pass on to potential members. Interesting fact from uni student associations - 
New members are your best recruiters, all you have to do is make it easy for 
them.

As everybody seems to be very invested in who should edit the chapter wiki, 
which to me is an unimportant issue, I would say only that if you want people 
to support you, you have to look professional. Wikis are good for geekd but 
discourage tech newbies, so you get very 'filtered' feedback. People also get 
upset when their contribs get reverted or written over. The obvious solution is 
to start an open access blog - people love blogs, some of the ones I read 
attract over 100 comments a day and they are full of useful feedback and ideas 
while still being moderated spaces protected from spam. Visitors will not 
confuse a blog with the chapter's official website so you get the best of both 
worlds.

Adam
  
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