Thanks for sharing this Leila! This is of course a useful angle. Nattes > Le 16 sept. 2019 à 21:51, Leila Zia <le...@wikimedia.org> a écrit : > > Hi, > > A different angle for looking at the question of WMF staff attending > community events which may help this conversation: > > As a staff member (and acknowledging that my position is none of the > ones Thierry called out in their first email on this thread), with the > exception of a few community events, I very much hesitate to attend a > local community-run event unless the specific community, or at least > one person from that community, has specifically invited me or told me > I should consider attending. There is definitely some feeling of > fear/self-consciousness on my end about entering in a place where I > may not be welcome, where I impose my presence to others, or entering > conversations where my expertise may not be valued/considered because > I'm carrying a history which may or may not even be really mine. > > I'm sharing my feelings and the way I think about whether to attend a > local event or not here not to ask for empathy in my specific case > (which is btw, always welcomed:) but to say that there may be other > staff members like me, especially those who have joined WMF more > recently, who may be in the same boat. My recommendation would be for > the local communities to signal to the specific people which they want > in their meetings that they're welcome to attend. At least this way > you will know the person has felt invited/welcomed and will have a > higher chance to decide to attend. > > To be clear: I'm not saying WMF not attending this specific event > would have been addressed by the above. I don't know. I'm just > explaining one of the reasons this may have happened, and providing a > suggestion to address this specific reason. > > Best, > Leila > -- > Leila Zia > Principal Research Scientist, Head of Research > Wikimedia Foundation > > On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 4:20 AM Philip Kopetzky > <philip.kopet...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> 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> > > _______________________________________________ > 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>
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