[Wikimedia-l] WMF's New Global South Strategy

[John Vandenberg]

'Global Strategy countries'?

I think this aligns with the intention of GS, which is to support
initiatives that help make our movement more global by investing in
areas/languages where editors and/or readers is low but potential is high.

John Vandenberg.
sent from Galaxy Note
On Aug 30, 2013 11:42 AM, "Balázs Viczián" <balazs.viczian at wikimedia.hu>
wrote:

> What about making it simply global...?
>
> Balázs
> 2013.08.30. 2:44, "Asaf Bartov" <abartov at wikimedia.org> ezt írta:
>
> > On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 5:30 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > The first section was removed? I got excited to see the term "Global
> > > South" with a line through it (in the agenda index), but I think I
> > > initially misunderstood its meaning.
> >
> >
> > No, the strikethrough was a visual cue that the _term_ "Global South" is
> > emphatically not on the agenda.
> >
> >
> > > The term "Global South" is pretty
> > > awful and deserves a quick death.
> >
> >
> > Agreed...
> >
> >
> > > But based on the title of the
> > > presentation and this e-mail thread... I'm not hopeful that it's dead
> > yet.
> > >
> >
> > ...but what do we replace it with?  This has been rehashed quite a bit,
> but
> > no one has come up with a compelling alternative that's reasonably
> concise
> > and is politically acceptable.  (Personally I am happy with "developing
> > world" and "developing nations", but of course those terms are
> euphemistic
> > as well, and apparently no longer acceptable in some circles.)
> >
> > I have stated before that the term, for us, is just shorthand for a list
> of
> > countries, and we make no essentialist assumptions about some uniformity
> > throughout all these countries.  It is my understanding that most of the
> > consternation (kittens dying etc.) the term causes is due to the
> assumption
> > that we _are_ making an essentialist assumption and treating all GS
> > countries the same.  I hope it is by now evident we are not.
> >
> > Once again, I find no point to debating this.  All who _are_ interested
> are
> > welcome to hash it out somewhere, and submit a consensual term (or a
> > shortlist) to WMF for consideration.  If a superior term arises, I
> promise
> > to make an effort to adopt it across WMF.  Until then, let's focus on the
> > actual work rather than the nomenclature.
> >
> >
> > > I'm a little confused about whether the ongoing programs in Brazil and
> > > India will continue. There's a note that reads "No WMF contractors on
> the
> > > ground any more", but it's unclear whether this means a discontinuation
> > of
> > > the current folks. And the final slides focus on future engagements.
> Does
> > > the "no contractors on the ground" line mean only full-time staff will
> be
> > > working with (engaging with, if you prefer) areas in the future?
> > Full-time
> > > staff and local chapter folks, I guess? And simply no Wikimedia
> > Foundation
> > > contractors?
> > >
> >
> > There are no WMF employees outside the US, so "no contractors on the
> > ground" (in the GS context -- we still have engineers around the world!)
> > means that (once the Brazil transition is complete -- this is in
> progress),
> > no program work in the GS will be done by WMF contractors, but only by
> > local partners (movement affiliates -- chapters, thematic organizations,
> > and user groups -- and unaffiliated partners), some of whom would be WMF
> > grantees.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> >    A.
> > --
> >     Asaf Bartov
> >     Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
> >
> > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> > sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
> > https://donate.wikimedia.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list
> > Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>