Before we call out individuals for lack of attendance publicly, I think we should remember that both volunteers and staff have lives outside of Wikimedia that include children, families and other commitments in life. They all come with complications. Sometimes things don't work out. There are tens of conferences every year at various scales all over the world. Many staff and volunteer board members will have recently just travelled to Wikimania and a strategy summit in Tunis. Attendance at these events is often to the detriment to people's personal lives to some degree.
So please lets just be careful about how we talk about this and keep the above in mind. Regards Seddon On Sun, Sep 15, 2019 at 7:02 PM Thierry Coudray <tcoud...@gmail.com> wrote: > "*The Foundation does not care so much of the French-speaking > contributors*". > This harsh sentence is the translation of a statement in French, I've just > said in a conversation a week ago at the Francophone Wikiconvention held > last weekend in Brussels. The statement may seem excessive, because the > Foundation does things for the Francophone community as well as for other > communities (and its website is fairly well translated into French). But it > reflected my feeling, shared by my three interlocutors, all non-French, > facing that no Foundation high-level members were present to this > Wikiconvention: no executive director, nor members of the Board, nor any > level-C staff. In an another conversation, where the subject came up over > again, someone said this absence was offensive. I do not know if it > reflects the majority of attendees feelings but with varying degrees, I > would said it was widely shared. > > In 2017, for the Francophone Wikiconvention in Strasbourg we had a very > quick visit of Katherine Maher, in 2018, a simple video message and in 2019 > ... nothing. At the same time, the Francophone Wikiconvention has stepped > up with ever more participants, always more countries represented. This > year, it brought together more than 220 Francophones, Algerian, Belgian, > Beninese, Cameroonian, Canadian, French, Guinean, Ivorian, Swiss and > Tunisian contributors, and I may forget some, with varied and enriching > conferences and meetings. A huge success, very well organized by employees > but also by several volunteers, who dedicated time and energy. This > Wikiconvention and the projects and achievements submitted have shown the > French-speaking Wikimedia community vitality, which will continue to grow. > FYI, French is foreseen, thanks to Africa, to be the most rapidly growing > languages in the next twenty years and will be the mother tongue or the > language used for communication for more than 8% of the world's population > in thirty years' time. But my reaction would have been the same if I had > attended an Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Swahili-speaking or any other > important languages Wikiconvention. > > So yes, this Wikiconvention is not in English. Fortunately, not all > Wikimedia meetings are in English. In a previous discussion on this mailing > list about the question of whether or not it is appropriate to continue > Wimania, one of the participants argued that unlike other Wikimedia > meetings, anyone could attend Wikmania. It may be obvious for those who > have English as a mother tongue or for Northern Europeans for whom English > is almost a second mother tongue but this is false: English is spoken only > by a small minority in the world, less than one human in six. So only one > human in six or seven could attend Wikimania or any other english-speaking > conferences or meetings (the case of the vast majority of global Wikimedia > conferences). I do not deny a common working language usefulness but a > Wikiconvention in French, as I hope other languages ones will be more to > come soon, allows all non-English speaking Francophones to participate in > the Wikimedia movement and above all, help them to meet our common goal of > spread freeknowledge.The movement talks a lot about its efforts to overcome > differents gaps (gender, LGBT,...) and it's rightly pointed, these topics > are important. But it simply forget the language gap and the almost > exclusive use of English excludes a very large majority. > > So why no high level Foundation members in Brussels ? > I was told that Valerie D'Costa, the new Chief of Community Engagement, > should initially be there but finally told she will not. But then, no other > member could then replace her and why only one Foundation representant > given the part of French language in the WM projects ? Perhaps no > Foundation > Board or high level member speaks French or feels she/he speaks good > enough. > But with more than 220 attendants at the FWC, it would have been easy to > find volonteers with a good level of English to provide simultaneous > translation in discussions with other non-English speaking participants or > to > translate conferences.A higher-level representation would have helped the > Foundation top level to gain more insight into Wikimedian French-speaking > community and enabled this community to have a direct access to the > Foundation, like in Wikimania. That would have helped bridging the gap > between these "two worlds". Because this gap is real. In the 2011 Finance > Meeting in Paris, during workshops where a Board member was in each > group (Jan-Bart > de Vreede for mine), me and another non english-speaking chapter head > (she/he > will recognize her/himself) had made the comment that we had the impression > in our relation with the Foundation of "*colliding with an Anglo-Saxon > wall*". > I notice that despite more Foundation staff diversity in recent years, > French speaking organizations would probably still have the same feeling > and clearly many French-speaking wikimedians feel that gap. > > It is sad that the Foundation, which is very demanding with Francophone > chapters, does not apply itself to these demands with the Francophone > community. FYI the next French-speaking Wikconvention will be held on WE 31 > october/1 November 2019 in Tunis. Save the date. > > Regards > > -- > Thierry > > PS. Assas, Diane and Benoit (for those I met) don't take this personaly. > Your presence was appreciate and you avoid the Foundation relationship with > French Community of a total Bérézina as we said in France. > _______________________________________________ > 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>
