On 14 Jul 2011, at 10:09, Charles Matthews wrote:
There are certainly other approaches. No serious use
has been made of
the UK wiki in relation to WLM.
I don't see a WMUK board minute on the matter. I think WMUK
participation in WLM went by default earlier in this year, because it
was not put on the board agenda.
The board has a huge amount to discuss at each meeting, so it not being on the meeting
agenda or in the minutes is not a sign that we haven't been thinking about it.
It's certainly been on my mind for a long time, and I doubt that there would have been
any problem with supporting or funding such a project - but we didn't have anyone that
was willing to lead it, set out its needs, and foster a critical mass of involvement.
It may have course have been discussed
on the board list; but nothing clear was communicated to the outside
world about it.
Please see my email from 15 December, and the ensuing discussion (which you participated
in):
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2010-December/005507.html
Lodewijk's prod on 4 February:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2011-February/005627.html
and a second prod on 18 February:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2011-February/005656.html
It has also been discussed both on the board mailing list, and also offlist (I approached
several individuals about this - without luck). I'm not sure whether we could have
done much more (without starting to bug uninterested people with lots of emails) - I'd
welcome insight into this, though.
The Dutch experience with WLM is apparently that it
brings in new
people. There are limitations to the argument that there is too much to
do and not enough people to do it. If not enough is invested in the
right sorts of research and communications efforts that could improve
matters, it becomes self-defeating.
We need a mixture of both - involved community members that can drive this sort of project
forward and make sure it matches up with online activities, and then new people to
participate, provide fresh enthusiasm, and help out with the project (and hence becoming
involved community members ;-) ). One without the other doesn't work
Mike