Hi Theo,
Look, this is a two-way street. Ashwin made rather robust assertions along
side his feedback and I think I am entitled to both clarify points and call
out assertions that are unfair or unfounded IMO. The fact that I did that,
shouldn't be interpreted as disrespect for a senior editor or ignoring the
valid feedback in the post. It is quite possible to both respond, call out
assertions AND still hear feedback.
As I said at the beginning of the post to Ashwin, "Please don't read my
responses too personally, as I'm more focused on the themes in your
comments that are persistent rather than responding personally." [1] I was
seeking to illustrate these themes.
In recent months, many a post on this mailing list have had some or all of
the following themes (as I read them):
a) assert either deep knowledge of the work that the IP team (or other
groups) is doing, make demands of the team based on this incomplete
knowledge and/or in a tone that asserts that the writer is somehow "an
authority" and the team should jump at their command;
b) make assumptions about people's motivations on the basis of rumour or
pretty limited personal knowledge of that person
c) seek to speak for community rather than for themselves when sharing
opinions (I believe the norm in our movement is to speak for yourself,
unless you are acting as an official spokesperson for a group)
d) a general focus on criticism without the "constructive" element of
building bridges/relationships as well as contribution to generating
solutions and balancing negative feedback with positive
My post sought to highlight these issues as all four came through in the
post and make a few suggestions on how one might engage more constructively
IMO.
General thought:I belive it is time that the focus return toward more
constructive engagement about the program work and challenges that we face
in India and the work that many of us want to accomplish together. This
can and should include engagement and feedback on the work that the IP team
is doing. In this vain, I've created two new pages on Meta within the India
Program area to provide a space for suggestions[2] and for
appreciations/feedback[3]. This will hopeful provide a new outlet for
sharing of information on a wiki, where the environment is designed for
constructing work products rather than the ping-pong style of a mailing
list, which IMO encourage personal squabbles that more often end in ill
will than in a good exchange of ideas that help people learn and advance
our shared agenda.
[1] For the record, despite your assertion Theo, I do not doubt Ashwin's
sincerity. He asked if I doubted and I confirmed that I did not doubt it. I
felt it was useful to say that rather than ignore him and leave it
ambiguous.
[2]
Best,
Barry
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 3:10 AM, Theo10011 <de10011(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Barry
I have to say I'm a bit surprised reading this mail from you. I really
don't care about what the issue is, and what side you or anyone is, but
this is not the way to address and answer feedback and queries that I've
heard from others a hundred times. This is not the kind of professional
tone I expected from you, some of your inline responses are
uncharacteristic of you. You conflicted yourself questioning Ashwin's
definition of "sincerity", and then ending the email with "I don't
doubt
your sincerity..", It seems you do. You question Ashwin's insight and
motivation. I haven't read a single thing in Ashwin's email that I already
didn't hear from others over the years, even before you were hired, on what
the IP should focus on, what should it do, etc.. Those are still common
points, and general feedback. I fail to see what provoked this kind of
response.
I don't know about Ashwin but I would have expected an apology after
that. I took umbrage with a couple of things you said, and how you said
them. My responses inline are in reaction to yours.
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 11:37 PM, Barry Newstead <
bnewstead(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Who really cares, seriously! The purpose of any
list is to share
information openly and encourage community members to participate. It is
not a credit taking exercise.
Err...You should? Someone from IP attended Wikimania and the chapters
meeting last year, why not add those to the list, or the ones from 2004.
Global south has been the rallying cry for WMF fundraising for a few years,
is this how that focus is going to get translated into? by blurring the
lines between where the money is actually going. I'm not sure about your
community organizing experience, but these events take a bit of effort to
organize and put on, to just have them claimed by someone else, is not in
the good spirit of things either.
If you look more deeply, you'll see the IP team is doing work that helps
move us forward. They aren't simply replicating what the community can do
(note: I will still take issue with the point that there is some invisible
community being held back from doing copious amounts of outreach or other
work because the IP team is crowding out their activity). I think the
value that the IP team can and is bringing is more about the overall
support of outreach and the improvement of outreach work to increase
impact. The sad fact about a lot of outreach work is that it doesn't
produce that much community growth in its current form. Ask yourself
honestly, Ashwin, how much has your Pune community grown as a result of
your excellent and dedicated efforts to conducting outreach? What Nitika
(yes, I think it should be clear to all that she is working hard on this)
is doing is really investigating the efficacy of outreach and trying to
identify things that will improve the results for the tireless work that
you and other community members are doing. The link that I pointed to has
a handbook for outreach that is evolving and would benefit from a
collaborative, wiki-style partnership to share learning in which Nitika
can be the facilitator and doer of the heavy work. In addition, Nitika and
Subhashish in partnership with the Global Development research team is
piloting a tool that will help with follow-up after events with attendees
to encourage actual editing. The tool also allows us to measure whether
attendees ever actually edit. This is a small pilot that they are
investing a lot of time in and has the potential to dramatically improve
outreach (or tell us conclusively that it is not an effective way to build
community, which I hope isn't true). IMO this is the kind of work that
adds real value to the community and will help us achieve our shared
mission in India.
See, there is a difference, it is not Ashwin's *job*. By your own
admission
the spending within India has not been able to achieve any
growth. Ashwin is a community member, who got even a laggard like me to
edit an India related article for his collaboration. WMF didn't raise money
in the name of Global south, to have it fall on Ashwin to be responsible
for the growth - That's just you.
Thanks for the advice. I think that is already
largely the case. Nitika
is the main resource focused on outreach with some support from
Subhashish. Hisham involves himself as the manager of the work and has
been instrumental in guiding us toward a more analytical and
learning-oriented approach that we hope will be fruitful.
Thanks. He is indeed focused here and is doing excellent work. It is
useful to note that he partners very closely with Hisham, who provides a
lot of silent support and guidance and gets useful input from the rest of
the team (and he contributes to the work of the team as well). We believe
(and most organizational effectiveness research supports) that teaming is
an effective approach to getting things done. It isn't about putting
people in silos and leaving them there to figure it out.
I've explained Nitika's work above and she will also play an important
role in future education work. Noopur has been on the job for a month and
her role will become clearer as she settles in and starts getting some
communications-focused initiatives going. Subhashish's role is by
definition less simple to express. He is there to support the team and
handle administrative elements. He is playing a valuable support role to
Nitika and Shiju. He also frees Hisham from some of the burden of
administration.
So, we are taking this slowly on purpose. It is
not because of shyness
on Hisham and Nitika's part. They are ready to go for it again and are
excited to lay the ghosts to rest as you say. We did wait a bit to let
everyone have some time to reflect on the pilot lessons (including us). We
want to get the conversation going again, soon, though there is nothing
stopping you from starting it yourself if you like. I will say I'm really
encouraged by part of your remark, as we haven't really heard anyone say
that the Indian community is committed to trying again to make this kind of
program work in the Indian context. We too, particularly Hisham and Nitika,
remain committed to education work in India. We are also looking forward
to incorporating the lessons we are garnering in our work in Brazil and
Egypt at the moment into future designs. We'll be getting back on the
elephant, for sure.
Oh we are ready for the IEP. I'm not sure what the community needs to
learn from the failures. It's great you can still blame the Indian
community for not showing its commitment to make your program a success. I
and others pointed out several times in Tory's report, that this is the
perspective that is one of the problems - Not admitting mistakes, not
taking responsibility and working together on correcting them. Do you still
want to blame the Indian community for IEP failure.
We'll keep an eye out for the elephant when you finally get on it, until
then he's going to be in the room.
You are incorrect, actually, so you might reflect on use of terms like
"sincerity", since this speaks to motivations that you don't really have
insights into. Hisham has been engaged with institutions and is developing
a valuable network, though not as much as he would like as these efforts
take serious time. Hisham would love to have even more time to do this.
I took umbrage with this part. Is this how you address a senior editor?
Questioning his motivation and insight? I don't see a single thing in his
comment that I haven't already heard from others about partnerships and
cultural outreach. You are free to defend Hisham as much as you like, but
not at the cost of denigrating a community member, not like this. What
insights and motivations does anyone have, in the end.
Do note that as the leader of a team of people he does a lot to help
them be effective - this is a core role in team leadership - and is a
valuable use of time, even if it isn't always visible. He also has had to
carry significant administrative duties that we are working to get off his
shoulders. Finally, he spends an inordinate among of time on "India
politics" (the other IP) - fighting off accusations of malintent, attacks
on himself and his team members, and arguments that go nowhere about who is
the "boss of X". The guy is working is butt off...often seven days a week
and is available at odd hours to engage with colleagues in the US and with
community members around the country. It is worth stepping back and
reflecting before offering personal critiques of Hisham and the IP team.
One might ask oneself: "do I understand the full context of the situation
that this person is dealing with?" There is some great research on
"attribution bias" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attributional_bias)
that is worth keeping in mind when you think you have things all figured
out and are comfortable ascribing motives to people or commenting on what
you think they are doing.
I respect your concerns, but I would prefer that you speak for yourself
rather than invoking "most concerned editors". Let's not pretend that we
have any special authority to speak for the community.
Why? Is "the movement" a whipping stick only for the staff. Don't believe
there is any authority when you use terms like these either. When a simple
long-term editor uses these terms they should carry more weight. If you
have any doubts, please consider me as one of the concerned editor, and
feel free to question my authority and motivation.
My view of the IP is that it will not be built in a day. We committed to
a multi-year investment because it will take time to build and we would
need to do a range of pilots (some successful, some not), learn from them
and then build programs that work. If this work was easy, it would have
been done already. I'd like nothing more than to have "figured it all out"
in India, so that we could move on to other challenges, but that isn't what
we signed up for. This is a long, hard road with elusive rewards and a lot
of difficult work along the way (including building community support), but
the rewards are pretty huge if we can find solutions that help build our
projects in India and expand access and contribution to the sum of all
knowledge.
You might refer to the India Program plans on Meta (
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program), which have been there
for people to contribute to for about a year and is evolving as we learn.
The team is working to this plan and is adjusting as needed based on
learning from their engagement on the issues and discussions with people in
the community. If you have better ideas or think that their plans can be
improved, then click edit. I'm actually serious about this. There has been
a ton of keys clicked in the mailing lists criticizing, but not many on
contributing to the plans and helping improve them. They are on a public
wiki for a reason.
I don't doubt your sincerity. You make a lot of valuable contributions
including this note. I would say that we all would benefit if you (and
others) would ascribe the same sincerity to the IP team, recognize that
what they (and all of us) are engaged in isn't exactly straight-forward and
their goals are the same as yours.
That is all I have to say on the matter. I was disappointed by the tone
you employed in the response above, my inline responses were in reaction to
what you had to say.
Regards
Theo
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