Maybe there’s an easy way to just test this? A chapter could start calling itself e.g. Wikipedia UK in its comms for a year and see if there’s any noticeable difference?
Sent from my iPhone > On 14 Apr 2019, at 01:47, phoebe ayers <phoebe.w...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Sat, Apr 13, 2019 at 2:29 PM Rebecca O'Neill <rebeccanin...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> I agree Galder! >> >> I would like to respond to Phoebe's comment on not wanting to draw people >> to the *Wikimedia* movement is not true of the Irish experience. We have >> some idea of an editing community that aren't interested in getting >> involved in our user group (and probably never will be), so we are very >> keen to draw people to volunteering as Wikimedians not just as editors. >> Presenting our group as something more than people who are experienced >> Wikipedia editors is very important to us, and anything that makes that >> message easier would be of huge benefit to us. >> > > Dear Rebecca, > Thanks for this. Let me try to explain my thinking a bit more... > I too want people to join Wikimedia New England, which is the group I'm > currently running. And in general, I want a thriving and healthy ecosystem > of affiliates. But I want that to be true because the work that chapters, > affiliates and the Foundation itself does is meant to be enabling for the > larger goal of making free knowledge available, and specifically for > improving and sustaining Wikipedia and her sister projects. > > Everything that the groups do - from building the technical/legal > infrastructure side, to training new editors, to providing a friendly > geographic or topical face to Wikipedia, to doing outreach, to supporting > existing editors - is a means to an end. It is not the end itself. We do > this multivarious work because we recognize that there are many, many > effective ways to contribute in a project as complex as ours, and that > participants can sometimes best find a home in ways that are not directly > editing. But equally: there are of course other means to this end of > building free knowledge that have nothing to do with the Wikimedia group/ > structure, most notably the thousands of independent volunteers who work > largely alone to maintain and build the projects, and upon whose work we > all depend. Groups, and the Foundation, are important! But they are not, in > themselves, the end goal. > > So where does this leave us with rebranding? I admit I haven't read all of > the comments/analysis. But, to my mind, there's a cost to rebranding: the > several hundred person-hours that have already been put into this > discussion, if nothing else. For the benefit to outweigh the cost, we need > to imagine what will happen to increase participation in building free > knowledge as a result. If we are "Wikipedia New England" or "Wikipedia > Ireland" et al, will our groups be more effective -- for instance, with an > easier to understand name, will new people join our trainings, perhaps > becoming Wikipedia editors? Will more cultural institutions reach out, and > be more amenable to releasing images? If the Foundation is the Wikipedia > Foundation, then how does this improve the infrastructure that the > Foundation provides, exactly? > > If the answer is that this change will definitely increase participation in > the projects and free knowledge generally, through the mechanism of the > various groups being more recognizable and thus reaching a bigger audience, > then the proposal is worth seriously considering. But if it is hard to > imagine - and I admit I do find it hard to imagine that the name of the > Foundation is the thing standing in our way to wider Wikipedia > participation - then it doesn't seem worth the cost. > > -- Phoebe > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: 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, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
