Harry, I recall hearing that there was a push a year or two back to alter
the proportion of presentations at Wikimania so that there were fewer WMF
presentations and more community presentations. I don't know if that was a
one time event or if that's ongoing. I have never been to Wikimania, and
have no plans to go in the foreseeable future, but I watch what happens
with Wikimania partly because it's an expensive operation in terms of
financial cost and in terms of volunteer time. Also, the scholarship system
is a perennial point of friction.
Dariusz or Ellie, are there any thoughts at WMF about doing a full review
of the scholarship system and the value of Wikimania to the community? With
WMF spending so much money on Wikimania year after year, and volunteers
spending so much time on Wikimania year after year, I think that it would
make sense to do this type of review, which might be possible to
synchronize with WMF's strategy process. I am very interested in ensuring
that there are SMART goals being achieved with all of the money and time
that goes into Wikimania. At the same time, I think that the scholarship
system could be reviewed to consider the strategic priorities for
scholarships and how to align those priorities to SMART goals. I don't
envision reducing funding for Wikimania and scholarships, but I think that
some re-thinking and evaluation would be good to align funding with the WMF
strategic plan and with SMART goals.
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 12:31 PM, Harry Mitchell <hjmwiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Since you raise chapter scholarships, it would be nice
to see some of the
other big chapters (and to some extent the WMF) spending more on
scholarships for rank-and-file Wikimedians rather than staff and board
members. That might help with the perception that Wikimania is the same old
faces year in, year out.
Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
+44 (0) 7507 536 971
Skype: harry_j_mitchell