Re: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal - Training for Wikimedia movement boards
Seems good initiative! I'd like to know, who will be training the people from chapters?? It'll be more efficient if someone who specializes in management of non-profit organization can do this job. Regards, Tanweer On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 11:30 AM, Balázs Viczián balazs.vicz...@wikimedia.hu wrote: If you wish to educate board people, I think mailing lists and acronyms should not cover a full bulletpoint of the event because they should have that knowledge already I miss volunteer management in particular what is imo amongst the basic skills (it is totally different in many ways from paid staff mgmt) and fundraising. (Omg, we got a donation...what to do now? :) I'd go for general project (and time and workflow...) management instead of particular this and that kinda specific things. Imo first get the big picture, than the specific ones (Glam, editathon, etc.) Are you plannig to hire a professional NGO trainer (individual[s])? A training company specialized on NGOs? Or we should educate each other? Cheers, Balázs 2013/8/13 Ziko van Dijk vand...@wmnederland.nl Hello, Indeed it seems to me possible to fill a whole master studies with the things a board member should know :-) but I know that he meant something different. It would be a could idea to have board members going to trainings to be a board member in the specific country where they live. A course of a weekend, for example, would be already a good help. Everything must remain a little bit realistic. Possibly, some board members are more open to other Wikimedians than people from the outside world - possibly not. Narrowing the target group down to chapter board members to staff chapters is a good step, and I share the arguments on the Meta page. Maybe one should let participants apply for the seminar in a similar way as to Wikimania, in order to have those participants most likely to succeed. For example, if someone is already more than a year board member and likely to remain at least on a board for another year, that would be a pro. Kind regards Ziko Am Dienstag, 13. August 2013 schrieb David Gerard : On 13 August 2013 15:39, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com javascript:; wrote: True. Even worse, many do not even try to be board members (or active chapter members, for that matter) because they (think they) don't have enough experience. It's crucial to ensure the availability of growing paths (usually informal) for volunteers or you lose them and they lose opportunities. For me, it's been crucial to be told by a prof. you can learn the job of a [university] board member in 6 months (so it's inexcusable if you don't, but you must try). He was right. A very useful book: Nonprofit Kit For Dummies by Stan Hutton and Frances Phillips. I so wish I'd read it 25 years before I did. Very US-centric, but informative outside that. - d. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; ?subject=unsubscribe -- Ziko van Dijk voorzitter / president Wikimedia Nederland deputy chair Wikimedia Chapters Association Council Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland Postbus 167 3500 AD Utrecht http://wikimedia.nl ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Regards - Tanweer Morshed ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Chapter collaboration
Dear WCA Council Members, dear Wikimedians, most of you are probably already aware of Ziko's and my resignation as Deputy Chair and Chair of the WCA Council. I don't want to reiterate the whole story, as many things have already been said [6][7]. The discussions that followed when it became clear that WMFR was about to withdraw made it obvious to both of us that our resources are better spent elsewhere: * Support for the WCA within Chapters is very small. * Chapters withdrew from the WCA long time ago by non-participation. * The WCA is expected to do big things with no resources. * It is virtually impossible to get rid of the structural debates. Still, I firmly believe we need to continue the dialogue. There are some projects (started by the WCA and others) that are very promising if they get the attention they deserve. As a consequence, I will focus on working on Chapter collaboration and the continuation of programmes. Here's an (incomplete) list: * Chapters Exchange [1] as a place of coordination for common projects. * Boards Training [2] as a way of enabling good organisational work. * Peer reviews [3] for learning from each other. * Chapters Manual [4] as a sustainable documentation of the way Wikimedia organisations work. * Journal on Meta [5] for staying up to date. Obviously, I need help for this :) So please participate, if you find these projects useful. I suggest, for coordination, we gather around the Chapters Exchange page on meta [1] for the time being. Cheers, Markus P.S.: Thanks so much for the many kind words and your personal support. That was really helpful during the course of these events! [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Chapters_Exchange [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Boards_training_workshop_proposal [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Peer_review [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_Manual [5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Journal [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-08-07/News_and_notes [7] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Journal#WCA:_Difficult_Sleeping_Beauty_waiting_for_Prince_Courageous -- Markus Glaser WCA Council Member (WMDE) Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal - Training for Wikimedia movement boards
Am 14.08.2013 14:44, schrieb Tanweer Morshed: Seems good initiative! I'd like to know, who will be training the people from chapters?? It'll be more efficient if someone who specializes in management of non-profit organization can do this job. We were thinking about having more than one trainer and a set of subsequent sessions focussing on different topics. Definitely, I think there should be some external expert among them. But I'd also hope for someone with a deep insight in the movement to be present at the workshop. This person, naturally, should be someone internal. Best, Markus -- Markus Glaser WCA Council Member (WMDE), Chair Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Chapter collaboration
WMUK will do what it can to keep this important work going. Jon On 14 August 2013 08:14, Markus Glaser markus.gla...@wikimedia.de wrote: Dear WCA Council Members, dear Wikimedians, most of you are probably already aware of Ziko's and my resignation as Deputy Chair and Chair of the WCA Council. I don't want to reiterate the whole story, as many things have already been said [6][7]. The discussions that followed when it became clear that WMFR was about to withdraw made it obvious to both of us that our resources are better spent elsewhere: * Support for the WCA within Chapters is very small. * Chapters withdrew from the WCA long time ago by non-participation. * The WCA is expected to do big things with no resources. * It is virtually impossible to get rid of the structural debates. Still, I firmly believe we need to continue the dialogue. There are some projects (started by the WCA and others) that are very promising if they get the attention they deserve. As a consequence, I will focus on working on Chapter collaboration and the continuation of programmes. Here's an (incomplete) list: * Chapters Exchange [1] as a place of coordination for common projects. * Boards Training [2] as a way of enabling good organisational work. * Peer reviews [3] for learning from each other. * Chapters Manual [4] as a sustainable documentation of the way Wikimedia organisations work. * Journal on Meta [5] for staying up to date. Obviously, I need help for this :) So please participate, if you find these projects useful. I suggest, for coordination, we gather around the Chapters Exchange page on meta [1] for the time being. Cheers, Markus P.S.: Thanks so much for the many kind words and your personal support. That was really helpful during the course of these events! [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_** Association/Chapters_Exchangehttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Chapters_Exchange [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Boards_training_workshop_**proposalhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Boards_training_workshop_proposal [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Peer_reviewhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Peer_review [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Chapters_Manualhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_Manual [5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_** Association/Journalhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Journal [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/** 2013-08-07/News_and_noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-08-07/News_and_notes [7] http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_** Association/Journal#WCA:_**Difficult_Sleeping_Beauty_** waiting_for_Prince_Courageoushttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Journal#WCA:_Difficult_Sleeping_Beauty_waiting_for_Prince_Courageous -- Markus Glaser WCA Council Member (WMDE) Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@**lists.wikimedia.orgwikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org ?subject=**unsubscribe -- *Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 tweet @jonatreesdavies Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990. Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal - Training for Wikimedia movement boards
I've left some notes on the meta talk pagehttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Boards_training_workshop_proposal#Boardsourceabout a US nonprofit called Boardsource that specialises in educating nonprofit boards on just the issues you raise, Chris. Though it is US centred, most of the knowledge and advice has universal applicability. You point out an important gap in our governance - the education of our boards in best practice. But I'm not (yet) convinced by anything on the meta project page or any of the above comments that an in-person training is the only or even best solution to that. Another option (if you want assessment and certification to be a part of the process) would be to commission Boardsource or a similar specialist organisation to create an online module tailored to this project's needs. That would have the advantage of not requiring participants to take several days out of their lives for the course, open the course up to many more participants, including those who can't take that time off from work and, if a good package is negotiated, should be vastly cheaper per head than an in-person course. If independent assessment and certification is dispensed with, this gap in knowledge *may* be able to be filled simply by judicious private reading. Boardsource (and I assume other specialist organisations) produce a range of books aimed directly at the very questions you cover in your description of the problem. Anthony Cole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Anthonyhcole Memberships secretary Wiki Project Med Foundationhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Project_Med On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Markus Glaser markus.gla...@wikimedia.dewrote: Am 14.08.2013 14:44, schrieb Tanweer Morshed: Seems good initiative! I'd like to know, who will be training the people from chapters?? It'll be more efficient if someone who specializes in management of non-profit organization can do this job. We were thinking about having more than one trainer and a set of subsequent sessions focussing on different topics. Definitely, I think there should be some external expert among them. But I'd also hope for someone with a deep insight in the movement to be present at the workshop. This person, naturally, should be someone internal. Best, Markus -- Markus Glaser WCA Council Member (WMDE), Chair Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@**lists.wikimedia.orgwikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org ?subject=**unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] git.wikimedia.org dead due to wikimania ; )
2013/8/14 Tim Starling tstarl...@wikimedia.org: On 14/08/13 07:40, Oliver Keyes wrote: We have weekend support - for core services, which constitute our MediaWiki instances. Git, however, is not a core service - as Max accurately notes, while it makes development finicky and frustrating, I didn't know anyone used git.wikimedia.org. I think I've only visited it once. I sometimes use it to point people to code, especially new volunteers who are starting to learn the code. Other people very frequently send me git.wikimedia.org links when they are asking me about the code. So yes, it's not as important as keeping *.wikipedia.org online, but it is definitely far from negligible. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] git.wikimedia.org dead due to wikimania ; )
Chris McKenna, 14/08/2013 00:00: On Tue, 13 Aug 2013, Oliver Keyes wrote: I'd like to think Engineering do a pretty good job at uptime for core services - when was the last time you saw Wikipedia down for any extended period of time? - regardless of what day of the week it is. Wikipedia uptime is certianly much better these days than it was around 2005/6 when there were at least two websites dedicated to reporting its status. Back then it wasn't uncommon to experience major slowdowns, periods of non-responsiveness, extended read only periods and edits failing (sometimes silently) due to (iirc) overloaded servers. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that, but it certainly wasn't 2013. Btw it would be nice to have stats on uptime, or at least some assessment of the progress for the stabilizing infrastructure 5 years strategic goal. I couldn't find any recently, I asked both on mailing lists and on Meta. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_budget#Stabilizing_the_infrastructure Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Proposal - Training for Wikimedia movement boards
hi, I believe that more than external training (useful, but possibly to a limited extent due to our movement's uniqueness, related to the ways we discuss things, the ways we finance our projects, etc.) we really very much need internal training/coaching. Larger chapters have best practices to share with the smaller ones. FDC, affcom, etc. can share their views and perspectives. Internal experts can prepare short workshops on chosen topics... All this should be cheaper, more relevant, and more meaningful than an external training. As a bonus, it would also organically stimulate cross-chapter cooperation, mentoring, etc., which could also lead to better projects. best, dj On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 10:48 AM, Anthony Cole ahcole...@gmail.com wrote: I've left some notes on the meta talk page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Boards_training_workshop_proposal#Boardsource about a US nonprofit called Boardsource that specialises in educating nonprofit boards on just the issues you raise, Chris. Though it is US centred, most of the knowledge and advice has universal applicability. You point out an important gap in our governance - the education of our boards in best practice. But I'm not (yet) convinced by anything on the meta project page or any of the above comments that an in-person training is the only or even best solution to that. Another option (if you want assessment and certification to be a part of the process) would be to commission Boardsource or a similar specialist organisation to create an online module tailored to this project's needs. That would have the advantage of not requiring participants to take several days out of their lives for the course, open the course up to many more participants, including those who can't take that time off from work and, if a good package is negotiated, should be vastly cheaper per head than an in-person course. If independent assessment and certification is dispensed with, this gap in knowledge *may* be able to be filled simply by judicious private reading. Boardsource (and I assume other specialist organisations) produce a range of books aimed directly at the very questions you cover in your description of the problem. Anthony Cole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Anthonyhcole Memberships secretary Wiki Project Med Foundation http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Project_Med On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Markus Glaser markus.gla...@wikimedia.dewrote: Am 14.08.2013 14:44, schrieb Tanweer Morshed: Seems good initiative! I'd like to know, who will be training the people from chapters?? It'll be more efficient if someone who specializes in management of non-profit organization can do this job. We were thinking about having more than one trainer and a set of subsequent sessions focussing on different topics. Definitely, I think there should be some external expert among them. But I'd also hope for someone with a deep insight in the movement to be present at the workshop. This person, naturally, should be someone internal. Best, Markus -- Markus Glaser WCA Council Member (WMDE), Chair Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@**lists.wikimedia.org wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org ?subject=**unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- __ dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak profesor zarządzania kierownik katedry Zarządzania Międzynarodowego i centrum badawczego CROW Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego http://www.crow.alk.edu.pl ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] An idea that may improve Wikipedia's fundraising
Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in the team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* pay to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. This sounds a bit like Fundraising principles or similar. Are these documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to start a page. :-) In the past days there's been discussion internal to the fundraising team -- it appears that the 'fundraising principles' I thought we held are not uniformly held by others. In this particular instance it seems that gift premiums are not entirely off the table. I've been told that the reason we have not done them in the past is mostly due to technical limitations. The current view is that we should keep our options open to future experimentation if the situation allows. personal hat At this I'll take off my foundation hat and state that I remain firmly opposed to gift premiums being used as a donation incitement. I hope that if we do, at some point, press forward and experiment with premiums that, before this happens, ... - We show reasonable evidence that the gain in monetary income will fully offset the new cost in managing gifts. - We either have some method to ship worldwide without subsidy; or we communicate beforehand that we will not be able to do this in some regions *and* that we understand and have a plan for the fallout that will probably cause. - We have premiums that actually mean something to the movement; e.g. you do not donate $100 and get a t-shirt. - We show reasonable evidence that if the experiment doesn't work that we will not have hurt our future donation prospects. (E.g. will people always expect premiums if we offer them once?) - That we have a solid communications plan in place to immediately offset any possible suggestion that you are 'buying' a piece of the foundation with your donation. Just my two cents. /personal hat ~Matt Walker Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising Technology Team On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 11:50 AM, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Matthew Walker wrote: Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in the team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* pay to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. Hi Matt. This sounds a bit like Fundraising principles or similar. Are these documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to start a page. :-) MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] An idea that may improve Wikipedia's fundraising
YMMV, but I'd prefer if the solid value returned from my donation went to someone in more dire need of it - i.e. if my donation could be used to directly improve access for others who may not enjoy it. Indirectly any donation to Wikimedia fits into the vein of sustaining access to project content, but think of the success enjoyed by charities who drive donations by linking them to the support of individual needy recipients. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] git.wikimedia.org dead due to wikimania ; )
http://status.wikimedia.org is from external monitors Sent from my mobile. Please excuse the brevity and typos. On Aug 14, 2013 4:44 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: Chris McKenna, 14/08/2013 00:00: On Tue, 13 Aug 2013, Oliver Keyes wrote: I'd like to think Engineering do a pretty good job at uptime for core services - when was the last time you saw Wikipedia down for any extended period of time? - regardless of what day of the week it is. Wikipedia uptime is certianly much better these days than it was around 2005/6 when there were at least two websites dedicated to reporting its status. Back then it wasn't uncommon to experience major slowdowns, periods of non-responsiveness, extended read only periods and edits failing (sometimes silently) due to (iirc) overloaded servers. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that, but it certainly wasn't 2013. Btw it would be nice to have stats on uptime, or at least some assessment of the progress for the stabilizing infrastructure 5 years strategic goal. I couldn't find any recently, I asked both on mailing lists and on Meta. https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_budget#** Stabilizing_the_infrastructurehttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_budget#Stabilizing_the_infrastructure ** Nemo __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@**lists.wikimedia.orgwikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org ?subject=**unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Questions for the Board post-Wikimania
Hey all, During Wikimania's QA panel, the Board lamented that, as always, they did not have enough time to answer all the questions from the audience and posted beforehand on-wiki. They did say they were accessible to follow up with on unanswered questions though, so I am taking this opportunity to start an open thread. The question I am personally interested in, I posted on the Wikimania wiki page,[1] and it's... The 2013-14 Annual Plan allocates 40% of the Wikimedia Foundation budget and 59% of the staffing to engineering and product development. However, it seems that few of Board members have professional expertise in theses areas (compared to previous years and in general). Does the Board feel it has the necessary expertise to lead the Foundation in this area? Would the Board consider recruiting expert seats with more experience in engineering and product development? There are several other excellent questions posted on-wiki as well. I know people are still traveling and likely jet-lagged even if they're home, so I am in no huge hurry to get an answer. Thanks to the Board in advance. :-) -- Steven Walling https://wikimediafoundation.org/ 1. https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Board_Q%26A ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] An idea that may improve Wikipedia's fundraising
A supportive anecdote for you, Matt: Back in 2008, I got toured through the fundraising operation of one of the major American public broadcasters. It had a large fundraising team that included a group dedicated solely to tracking and shipping premiums. Its boss advised us to avoid going down the premiums road: he said once you start it's very difficult to stop, because donors grow to expect them. I remember being reminded of a study, I think by Dan Ariely, in which he found that if you offer people small material incentives for doing something, they begin to see the transaction in self-interested terms, and the incentive can end up being viewed as too small -- insulting, and not good value. Essentially IIRC small material incentives can have the effect of shifting people from an intrinsically-motivated mindset (donor) into a transactional mindset (economically-self-interested rational actor). So, I agree with you that before we instituted premiums, we'd want to think long and hard about what benefits they would bring, and what unintended consequences might result. Thanks, Sue On Aug 15, 2013 4:20 AM, Matthew Walker mwal...@wikimedia.org wrote: Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in the team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* pay to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. This sounds a bit like Fundraising principles or similar. Are these documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to start a page. :-) In the past days there's been discussion internal to the fundraising team -- it appears that the 'fundraising principles' I thought we held are not uniformly held by others. In this particular instance it seems that gift premiums are not entirely off the table. I've been told that the reason we have not done them in the past is mostly due to technical limitations. The current view is that we should keep our options open to future experimentation if the situation allows. personal hat At this I'll take off my foundation hat and state that I remain firmly opposed to gift premiums being used as a donation incitement. I hope that if we do, at some point, press forward and experiment with premiums that, before this happens, ... - We show reasonable evidence that the gain in monetary income will fully offset the new cost in managing gifts. - We either have some method to ship worldwide without subsidy; or we communicate beforehand that we will not be able to do this in some regions *and* that we understand and have a plan for the fallout that will probably cause. - We have premiums that actually mean something to the movement; e.g. you do not donate $100 and get a t-shirt. - We show reasonable evidence that if the experiment doesn't work that we will not have hurt our future donation prospects. (E.g. will people always expect premiums if we offer them once?) - That we have a solid communications plan in place to immediately offset any possible suggestion that you are 'buying' a piece of the foundation with your donation. Just my two cents. /personal hat ~Matt Walker Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising Technology Team On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 11:50 AM, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Matthew Walker wrote: Technology limitations aside, there are two things we throw around in the team a lot; that we should not give the impression that a user *must* pay to use a WMF property, and that we will never ever do gift premiums. Hi Matt. This sounds a bit like Fundraising principles or similar. Are these documented anywhere (e.g. on Meta-Wiki)? If not, I think it'd be great to start a page. :-) MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] An idea that may improve Wikipedia's fundraising
On 14 August 2013 20:39, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: YMMV, but I'd prefer if the solid value returned from my donation went to someone in more dire need of it - i.e. if my donation could be used to directly improve access for others who may not enjoy it. Indirectly any donation to Wikimedia fits into the vein of sustaining access to project content, but think of the success enjoyed by charities who drive donations by linking them to the support of individual needy recipients. In general, earmarked donations are a massive pain in the backside. Worse, if you offer a slightly earmarked donation then people will think that's a reasonable thing to demand of you. - d. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
