There were different level of support: * External consultants (williamswork I think but probably others) * Internal paid facilitators (mostly wikimedians paid to facilitate discussions) * Internal staff resources (mostly form WMDE and WMF)
Whether we need external consultants or not, I would say such endeavor does need some people to be paid to work on it. -- Christophe On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 at 09:51, Amir E. Aharoni via Wikimedia-l < [email protected]> wrote: > > בתאריך יום ה׳, 2 ביולי 2026 ב-9:51 מאת Michael Snow via Wikimedia-l < > [email protected]>: > >> Movement Strategy efforts have relied in part on the Foundation hiring >> consultants who could assist in framing discussion, and also provide some >> of the sustained presence that makes it easier for volunteers to contribute >> even when they can only do so with intermittent intention. Could that be >> helpful piece of responding to this call? I think it might need to be >> something more than a small working group. >> > > No. > > I was there. Those consultants only got in the way and provided no value. > Wikimedians from all over the world came together and brought up good > ideas. Then those consultants, or facilitators, or coaches, or whatever, > said that those ideas are "too narrow" or "too broad" or "too detailed" or > "too general" or "too low-level" or "too high-level". They said it about > every single idea that Wikimedians brought up. And then they insisted on > rewriting those ideas and rewriting them yet again into mush. > > I said back then that I'm afraid that it's not going to work. Six years > later, here we are. > > So please, no. No consultants, facilitators, or coaches. They cost a lot > of money, and they may be "professional", and their professionalism may > work well (or not) for other organizations. I don't care very much about > other organizations. I care about Wikimedia. Wikimedia is special. For more > than twenty years, Wikimedia volunteers have been building the best, the > most popular, and the most multilingual encyclopedia in history without > consultants. > > Wikimedians do need money, but this money should be invested directly into > what Wikimedians say they need and not into consultants who look > professional, but only get in the way. > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/BAF6DDWB64B4ISO5ZYNWPWT3QRRYF5QI/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
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