Re: [Wikimedia-l] Join us tomorrow for the FINAL Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting

2019-08-30 Thread Pine W
Thanks for the links, Leila.

I am generally happy with what I have seen of the Talk Pages project. I am
familiar with the current talk page system being difficult to explain to
new users. I was dreading the possibility of WMF operating with a wrecking
ball to get the changes that it wants, but thankfully the early indications
are that this project is being handled carefully.

I am remain unconvinced that Space is a good use of WMF resources, with the
exception that Space provides a WMF-hosted option for private group
discussions that WMF is willing to accept under its current policies for
Space. People who currently use non-WMF platforms for private group
discussions might decide that they would prefer to have some of those
discussions on Space. Notably, MediaWiki doesn't provide robust support for
private group discussions on a wiki that is public by default.

Have a good weekend,

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )




On Thu, Aug 29, 2019, 14:03 Leila Zia  wrote:

> Hi Pine,
>
> On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 12:47 PM Pine W  wrote:
>
> > From what I have seen, I think that Wikimedia Space may be good for some
> > use cases, but it's not a substitute for Meta and for many existing
> public
> > communications channels. One use case for Space that does make sense to
> me
> > is that people might want to use it for private group communications.
> > However, the platform is under WMF's control, community governance
> appears
> > to be nearly nonexistent, public interest appears to be low at this time,
> > and I think that Space fragments discussions onto yet another platform.
>
> I'm not sure if you've already watched the Metrics Meeting today. If
> you have not, you may find these helpful:
>
> * Elena's response to a few questions about the governance of Space,
> who/what-purpose it's being designed for, how we should evaluate its
> success, ...: https://youtu.be/nhoJb6rwkfc?t=3487
>
> * In IRC, whatami shared a link to the Talk pages project:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_project
>
> Best,
> Leila
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Join us tomorrow for the FINAL Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting

2019-08-29 Thread Leila Zia
Hi Pine,

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 12:47 PM Pine W  wrote:

> From what I have seen, I think that Wikimedia Space may be good for some
> use cases, but it's not a substitute for Meta and for many existing public
> communications channels. One use case for Space that does make sense to me
> is that people might want to use it for private group communications.
> However, the platform is under WMF's control, community governance appears
> to be nearly nonexistent, public interest appears to be low at this time,
> and I think that Space fragments discussions onto yet another platform.

I'm not sure if you've already watched the Metrics Meeting today. If
you have not, you may find these helpful:

* Elena's response to a few questions about the governance of Space,
who/what-purpose it's being designed for, how we should evaluate its
success, ...: https://youtu.be/nhoJb6rwkfc?t=3487

* In IRC, whatami shared a link to the Talk pages project:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_project

Best,
Leila

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Join us tomorrow for the FINAL Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting

2019-08-28 Thread Pine W
Hi,

Thanks for the update.

Over the years there has been a flourishing of subject-specific public
meetings, which have been good for covering topics in greater depth than is
possible when a much larger number of topics are packed into the same one
hour time window. However, my guess is that this has contributed to the
decline of interest in presenting at the Monthly Activities Meetings.

Bluerasberry and I are planning to resume the Wikimedia Café online
meetings. These are more casual and smaller in scale than the Activities
Meetings. For those who liked the Activities Meetings for wide-ranging
discussions, I encourage you to visit the Café sometime.

From what I have seen, I think that Wikimedia Space may be good for some
use cases, but it's not a substitute for Meta and for many existing public
communications channels. One use case for Space that does make sense to me
is that people might want to use it for private group communications.
However, the platform is under WMF's control, community governance appears
to be nearly nonexistent, public interest appears to be low at this time,
and I think that Space fragments discussions onto yet another platform. I
encourage WMF to be thoughtful about how much money, staff time, and
marketing efforts are spent on Space that might be better spent elsewhere,
and I discourage WMF from further fragmenting public discussions.

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )


On Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 11:03 Gregory Varnum  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
> place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
> Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
> meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
> After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
> the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
> are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.
>
> You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc
>
> And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office
>
> The agenda will include:
> - Wikimedia movement strategy update
> - Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
> - Wikimedia Space
>
> More information on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
>
> When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
> otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
> staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
> online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
> progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
> however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
> and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact.  In addition,
> interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
> there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.
>
> Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
> wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website, discussed at last
> month's meeting, has a greater ability to communicate across languages and
> is already helping us reach more people.[1] We are discussing ways to
> further expand this support. The new Wikimedia Space project that will be
> discussed at this month's meeting provides a central, real-time space to
> have discussions and share information on activities across the
> movement.[2]
>
> We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
> will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
> to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
> the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
> often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.
>
> Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.
>
> -greg
>
> [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/
> [2] https://space.wmflabs.org/
>
> --
>
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
>
> Communications Strategist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation 
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[Wikimedia-l] Join us tomorrow for the FINAL Wikimedia Monthly Activities Meeting

2019-08-28 Thread Gregory Varnum
Hello,

You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.

You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc

And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office

The agenda will include:
- Wikimedia movement strategy update
- Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
- Wikimedia Space

More information on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings

When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact.  In addition,
interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.

Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website, discussed at last
month's meeting, has a greater ability to communicate across languages and
is already helping us reach more people.[1] We are discussing ways to
further expand this support. The new Wikimedia Space project that will be
discussed at this month's meeting provides a central, real-time space to
have discussions and share information on activities across the movement.[2]

We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.

Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.

-greg

[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/
[2] https://space.wmflabs.org/

-- 

Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)

Communications Strategist

Wikimedia Foundation 
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