Hi all,
I've had a read through the log from the meeting I missed last week and I have some thoughts to share on what was discussed, so I thought I'd send them to the mailing list. As I have said I won't be able to attend tonight either, and I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you can still do okay, but we'll see what comes out of this message first. I think that this is probably important enough (if I may say so!) for you to reply straight back to the list rather than me personally, if you wish to.
I don't know how much Cary knows about Sandy's current status, and I do not wish to pry unnecessarily. However, it is clear that we are going to have to adapt to her not being around in order to be more useful to Wikimedia. Right now I think we're hovering a bit, not really knowing what to do without her. Whilst we obviously can't speak for her, I'd like to propose that we try and reorganise a bit with the presumption that she will not be back for some time, because I believe that is what she would wish us to do. This is because we want to get stuff done.
This brings us on to the question of leadership. When Sandy asked me to co-ordinate the group I didn't really know what to expect, but now after working with the group for some time and after what I have seen discussed in the log and assuming that I have interpreted it correctly, I think I know what I need to do. I would like to act more as a chair than simply a co-ordinator, and I use this term because I refer specifically to other successful committees around Wikimedia: enwiki's Mediation Committee works very well with a chair and tight team and I think we could create a similar environment. However, I need to know that you're all okay with me trying to be more proactive before I do anything :)
I think that Cary is right in that we need to formulate a decent mission statement or some form of structure that we can cycle through to get projects etc. completed. However, I think that before we work on that we first need to sort out a better method of communicating. As some of you know I'm a freenode staff member and we have all observed on multiple occasions that IRC isn't good enough on its own (despite the fact we're trying to run an IRC network) and must be complemented by other means. So, my proposition is that e-mail is used as a constructive discussion environment and then if certain people working on specific projects want to have an IRC session, they can then do so. I would argue that the current weekly meeting idea isn't working well enough. We could still have it, but I would like to make it of less importance. I know that Sandy wasn't keen on the idea of using the list in this way, but I would argue we need to change until she gets back, and then re-evaluate things.
So, after that ramble, what do you all think? :-)
Sean
On 5/16/07, Sean Whitton sean@silentflame.com wrote:
I would like to act more as a chair than simply a co-ordinator, and I use this term because I refer specifically to other successful committees around Wikimedia: enwiki's Mediation Committee works very well with a chair and tight team and I think we could create a similar environment. However, I need to know that you're all okay with me trying to be more proactive before I do anything :)
I think this is an excellent idea.
I think that Cary is right in that we need to formulate a decent
mission statement or some form of structure that we can cycle through to get projects etc. completed. However, I think that before we work on that we first need to sort out a better method of communicating. As some of you know I'm a freenode staff member and we have all observed on multiple occasions that IRC isn't good enough on its own (despite the fact we're trying to run an IRC network) and must be complemented by other means. So, my proposition is that e-mail is used as a constructive discussion environment and then if certain people working on specific projects want to have an IRC session, they can then do so. I would argue that the current weekly meeting idea isn't working well enough. We could still have it, but I would like to make it of less importance. I know that Sandy wasn't keen on the idea of using the list in this way, but I would argue we need to change until she gets back, and then re-evaluate things.
I think that you are spot on about needing to communicate better. We have lots of options, but we should pick and choose what goes where. Since we're a Wiki based community, we should use that where we can, espescially for the longer and larger types of projects. IRC has it's uses, and we have a voice meeting option as well, when we have to get a number of people to hash stuff out or brainstorm. E-mail and mailing lists have their uses also.
Personally, I think we should formulate a strategy, and then pick a few practical projects that work towards this strategy.
Oh, and do we have an agenda for today's meeting?
Gerald.
On 16/05/07, Sean Whitton sean@silentflame.com wrote:
Hi all,
I've had a read through the log from the meeting I missed last week and I have some thoughts to share on what was discussed, so I thought I'd send them to the mailing list. As I have said I won't be able to attend tonight either, and I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you can still do okay, but we'll see what comes out of this message first. I think that this is probably important enough (if I may say so!) for you to reply straight back to the list rather than me personally, if you wish to.
I don't know how much Cary knows about Sandy's current status, and I do not wish to pry unnecessarily. However, it is clear that we are going to have to adapt to her not being around in order to be more useful to Wikimedia. Right now I think we're hovering a bit, not really knowing what to do without her. Whilst we obviously can't speak for her, I'd like to propose that we try and reorganise a bit with the presumption that she will not be back for some time, because I believe that is what she would wish us to do. This is because we want to get stuff done.
Most certainly
This brings us on to the question of leadership. When Sandy asked me
to co-ordinate the group I didn't really know what to expect, but now after working with the group for some time and after what I have seen discussed in the log and assuming that I have interpreted it correctly, I think I know what I need to do. I would like to act more as a chair than simply a co-ordinator, and I use this term because I refer specifically to other successful committees around Wikimedia: enwiki's Mediation Committee works very well with a chair and tight team and I think we could create a similar environment. However, I need to know that you're all okay with me trying to be more proactive before I do anything :)
Definately - a strong, defined leadership is absolutely neccessary. Anything without a head (physically and metaphorically) cannot survive :)
I think that Cary is right in that we need to formulate a decent
mission statement or some form of structure that we can cycle through to get projects etc. completed. However, I think that before we work on that we first need to sort out a better method of communicating. As some of you know I'm a freenode staff member and we have all observed on multiple occasions that IRC isn't good enough on its own (despite the fact we're trying to run an IRC network) and must be complemented by other means. So, my proposition is that e-mail is used as a constructive discussion environment and then if certain people working on specific projects want to have an IRC session, they can then do so. I would argue that the current weekly meeting idea isn't working well enough. We could still have it, but I would like to make it of less importance. I know that Sandy wasn't keen on the idea of using the list in this way, but I would argue we need to change until she gets back, and then re-evaluate things.
Indeed - I feel that we should go towards moving most discussion to somewhere more accessible (wiki, mailing lists), while running IRC meetings on an impromptu basis, as and when required.
Martin
So, after that ramble, what do you all think? :-)
Sean
-- —Sean Whitton (seanw) sean@silentflame.com http://seanwhitton.com/
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