Gereon, you clearly forget the whole Mediaviewer saga and attendance of WMF staff at the following WikiCon in Cologne ;-) But that was a long time ago :-)
On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 at 01:53, Gereon Kalkuhl <gkalk...@freenet.de> wrote: > Since 2010 we have the WikiCon for the German language communities with > more than 300 attendants. I don't remember that the WMF has sent anyone > to these conventions. And why should they? It's all in German, the > communities are established and have strong chapters. I suppose the same > applies to the French language communites. The WMF visits emerging > communities, to learn about them and to help them by transfering > knowlege. They visit the CEE meetings, they visit Wiki Indabas. I don't > think that the WMF is neglecting big communities, it rather makes sense > that when sending employes across half the planet they check before, > what benefits the conferences have from their attendance and what > benefits their attendance bring to the particpants of the conference. > Cheers, Gereon > > Am 15.09.2019 um 20:02 schrieb Thierry Coudray: > > "*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 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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>
