On 02/04/2014, Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Great! We are starting to have the conversation we
need to have!
So: What is the purpose of the Wikimedia Conference?
This has never been clearly defined, in my view.
I certainly found attending last year useful as it was a chance to get to
know face-to-face people I only knew over email, to share some useful
experience of Wikimedia UK's with other chapters, and to get an insight
into how others were thinking, and have some meetings which needed to be
done face-to-face.
In general those are very useful things. But is that what the conference is
for?
Chris
This question neatly demonstrates the fundamental issue for me.
I am genuinely puzzled as to why, if nobody on the WMUK board (such as
the CEO or the current Chairman) is sure what the purpose of the
conference is, they should chose to invest the donor's money in
sending 5 trustees and 3 full time employees to it (presumably the
employees are being paid for their time rather than going as
volunteers).
If the key benefit claimed is to do social networking, it should be
recognized that all the same faces will be at Wikimania London in 4
months, and socializing is part of the defined benefits of Wikimania.
Considering the conference is a week away and it appears that flights
and accommodation have been paid for, re-framing this as good news,
rather than admitting it is a problem, appears to be replacing
pragmatism with sophistry.
Fae (writing from the grave)
--
faewik(a)gmail.com
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae