[Wikimedia-l] Additional admins appointed for this list

[Asaf Bartov]

Dear Wikimedia-l subscribers,

I write to inform you that additional volunteers have been recruited to
co-admin this mailing list.

The new admins are all longtime, trusted volunteers. They are, in
alphabetical order:





** Butch Bustria * João Alexandre Peschanski (User:Joalpe)* Ravishankar
Ayyakkannu (User:Ravidreams)* Risker/Anne*
They join existing admins *Shani Evenstein Sigalov* (User:Esh77 and
User:Shani (WMF)) and *Asaf Bartov* (User:Ijon and User:Asaf (WMF)).  *John
Vandenberg* is no longer an admin of the list.

We believe that  the larger admin team will  both improve response times
when messages need to be released from moderation, as well as diversify the
perspectives when reviewing alleged or actual misconduct and dealing with
spirited or controversial discussions, without the sense WMF has too much
control over the list.

That's the end of the announcement, but recognizing there may be some
questions, we try to answer some below.  If you have no questions, you can
stop reading here. :)

Asaf Bartov (volunteer capacity)
on behalf of the Wikimedia-l list admins


*Questions and Answers:*


*Q: Why add admins?*A: For a long time now, John Vandenberg has not been
active in list administration, and has not responded to multiple requests
to re-engage. This left list-administration to Shani and Asaf.  Asaf is WMF
staff, and Shani, though a volunteer when appointed list admin, has since
become a WMF Trustee.

Shani and Asaf both feel it would be better if the list management is not
dominated by people so closely associated with the Wikimedia Foundation.
Although they are both administering the list in their volunteer capacities
and are carefully avoiding acting in a conflict of interest, they want to
reduce even the potential appearance of such conflict.

Indeed, they have tolerated behaviors on the list that probably shouldn't
have been tolerated, only because they coincided with criticism of an
action of the Wikimedia Foundation, and they did not want to be suspected
of attempting to silence criticism.  Both Shani and Asaf strongly believe
in criticism, including of the Foundation, and would never seek to silence
civil criticism.


*Q: What happened to John?*A: We don't know. We trust he is doing okay, and
just lost interest in this form of volunteering.


*Q: Why now?*A: There's no specific trigger beyond the situation mentioned
above, and no urgency.  We have been meaning to do this for long months
now. But work and other volunteer commitments kept getting priority over
figuring out how to recruit new admins. Until one day we finally did, and
here we are.


*Q: How were the new admins selected?*A: In the same way Wikimedia-l
adminships have always been handled, and the way we were appointed
ourselves: the current admins reach out to some trusted volunteers seen to
have good judgment and an appropriate temperament for administering this
list, and offer them to join as co-admins. Some say no; eventually enough
people say yes to fill the number of slots we want to recruit, and we
proceed.


*Q: So it's basically just people Shani and Asaf like?*A: No. It's people
Shani and Asaf consider to meet the criteria mentioned in the previous
answer. There are people we like who don't. :) And we strove to invite
volunteers from different regions of the world, different kinds of
volunteer experience, and to preserve a good gender ratio. Some people we
sought to recruit have turned the thankless role down.


*Q: Still, it's quite a subjective way to pick admins, isn't it?*A: Yes, it
definitely is subjective. Again, it has always been so, and it seems to us
it has worked fairly well so far. It certainly seems to us to beat
potentially exhausting community elections to elect admins, with the
well-known weaknesses of the "popularity contest" effect, and the
un-guaranteed fitness-to-the-role elections bring. We understand some
people would have preferred to see elections despite that.

One way to reduce the personal bias in future rounds might be to curate a
public list of interested volunteers. We have just started one, here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia-l#Volunteers_interested_in_administering_the_list
Feel free to express interest, and you will be considered next time admins
are recruited for the list, probably in a couple of years.


*Q: Where's the catch?*A: There is no catch. This is a routine
administrative refreshing of the ranks, solving a non-critical but
undesirable situation that has been the case for a while, and is an obvious
net improvement in our opinion. We hope it is in yours, too.


*Q: Are there any changes to list policies?*A: None at this time, no. Any
future changes will be discussed among all admins.

-- 
Asaf Bartov 
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: [Marketing Mail] Re: Closing the comment period for the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Draft Guidelines and next step

[Patrick Earley]

Hello, all.

In reply to these questions and a few received via direct email:

Questions about the content of the Universal Code of Conduct policy itself
are very legitimate, but unrelated to the current process under review with
the Board. The policy was ratified by the Board last February.[1] That
said, a policy must be adapted over time as it is put into practice and
complications arise.  The main text of the UCoC must be adaptable, and
there will be a full review and update of the text one year after the close
and ratification of the current phase, which is looking at enforcement
pathways.[2] We fully expect refinements at that time. Figuring out how to
manage some areas of policy is challenging. Doxxing is a very difficult
area to form policy around, and I know the Drafting Committee from Phase 1
worked hard to reflect best practices around the movement in this area.

To clarify, Nosebagbear: Youngjin was reminding folks to get their last
thoughts in for the current work the Drafting Committee is doing on
revising the text.  It wasn’t meant to imply that there will be no more
discussion on the Guidelines before a ratification process takes place. The
revisions to the draft Guidelines will be published on Meta for comment and
discussion as soon as the committee feels they have incorporated the input
received over the last few months. This message was just meant as a
reminder to anyone who might not have been aware of the draft review.

In terms of what we’re reviewing with the Board, it is a process for
ratification in response to a request from the global arbitration
committees. They are not being asked to ratify the Enforcement Guidelines
at this time. As to how and when ratification of the guidelines will take
place, thoughts and opinions from the Drafting Committee, community members
and functionaries, and the Board of Trustees will inform the details.
We’ll communicate a full ratification plan after the Board meets in
mid-December and considers the input received so far on what would make a
fair and practical process.

Patrick

[1]
https://www.mail-archive.com/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg35984.html

[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/FAQ#Periodic_reviews


On Sat, Nov 27, 2021 at 11:37 PM Peter Southwood <
peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

> Fair comment.
> P
>
> -Original Message-
> From: nosebagb...@gmail.com [mailto:nosebagb...@gmail.com]
> Sent: 27 November 2021 13:04
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Marketing Mail] [Wikimedia-l] Re: Closing the comment period for
> the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Draft Guidelines and next step
>
> Hello,
>
> I would make a couple of notes here:
>
> One is that when you say "comment period will end", that can't be of the
> process.
>
> There are numerous open questions that we have yet to see any draft policy
> text on - they can't go into the final document without chance for open
> review and further revision.
>
> While I've heard bits about how they will be discussed, we've seen nothing
> formal and nothing in writing.
>
> Please let me know BEFORE the 29th how that will be handled to the
> community's expectations. As the inherently most controversial bits (that's
> why they were open questions!) the actual next needs MORE time to review
> than the aspects already there, not less.
>
> Yours,
>
> Nosebagbear
> ___
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-- 
Patrick Earley
Lead Trust & Safety Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
pear...@wikimedia.org
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Join us for EduWiki Live, take a deep dive into Wikidata and Curriculum Digitization

[Sailesh Patnaik]

Just a reminder, join us for the EduWiki Live
 on Tuesday (30th
November) at 15:00 UTC.
You can watch it live on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1635752083428570
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwbK_-C6Rlc

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Best!
Sailesh

On Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 10:03 PM Sailesh Patnaik 
wrote:

> Dear Wikimedians and Friends,
>
>
> TL;DR: The first EduWiki Live will be on Tuesday, November 30, at 15:00 UTC
>
> Theme: *Wikidata and Curriculum Digitization*
>
> Livestream:
>
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaEducationTeam
>
> Youtube (link will be shared soon)
>
> I hope this email finds you well. Last month, we introduced you to our new 
> EduWiki
> community support strategy
> .
> As a part of our new strategy, we are here with the first “EduWiki Live
> ” event,
> scheduled for 30th November at 15:00 UTC.  EduWiki Live is a virtual
> event that aims to serve as a bridge between the EduWiki community and
> the Education sector. This will help the community to engage in deep dives
> into interesting topics about global education from a Wikimedia movement
> perspective.
>
> This month, the Education Team is hosting the first EduWiki Live on the
> theme of *Wikidata and Curriculum Digitization*. We are aiming to
> highlight the work that has been done in this area and how you can be a
> part of it. For this event, we will be joined by guest speakers Ivan Savov,
> a researcher working in the field of curriculum digitization and data
> models, along with Ernest Gavor and Andrews Lartey representing the Ghana
> Society for Education Technology (GSET).
>
> Here is the brief agenda for the event:
>
>
>- A general update and news on things happening in the EduWiki
>community. An overview of the potential impact of aligning curriculum data
>on Wikidata, and where we are now with the Wikidata for Education
>
>project by Nichole Saad.
>- Take a deep dive into the data models for curriculum standards
> with Ivan
>Savov: learn about the use cases for digital curriculum standards, the work
>done so far, and how this could be useful for the Wikimedia movement.
>- Meet our implementing partners from Ghana, learn what we want to
>accomplish with the Wikidata for Education project, and why it is important
>in the Ghanian context.
>
>
>
> Open Q
>
>
> You can watch the event live on Facebook and Youtube. For you to be able
> to ask questions in your native language we encourage you to use the
> comment option on Facebook, as it supports automatic translation, If you
> are interested in helping translate questions and answers in the comments
> please reach out to educat...@wikimedia.org
> Best!
> Sailesh and the Education team
> --
>
> Sailesh Patnaik (He/Him)
>
> Program Officer, Education
>
> Wikimedia Foundation 
>


-- 

Sailesh Patnaik (He/Him)

Program Officer, Education

Wikimedia Foundation 
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