Dear Wikimedians,
In these complex times of pandemic, and the coming complex times of post-pandemic, live human contact with fellow Wikimedians, even mediated through a video call, can be helpful, relaxing, and fun. It can also offer opportunities to ask questions you have been meaning to ask but never got around to, or to explain complex situations that may be hard to articulate in writing.
To better support members of the community during this time, the Community Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation is interested in trying an experiment: scheduling open video calls (using Google Meet) where any active Wikimedian would be welcome to attend and ask questions or ask for advice about whatever Wikimedia-related goal or problem they're working on.
You can also just share what you're working on and invite feedback, even if you don't have a specific question. Or people can just connect to hang out, or to offer their own experience to the people asking questions.
We are thinking of calling these calls Wikimedia Clinics, and would host them once a week (in alternating time zones, to accommodate as many people as possible).
Each clinic session:
* would be 70-120 minutes in length depending on topics presented and volume of conversation
* would have at least two Wikimedia Foundation staff members guaranteed to be present. They are not guaranteed to have the answers you need, but they are committed to helping you get them, even if not during the call itself, but as later follow-up.
* would be summarized in an in-depth *digest* of the call that would be edited for clarity and available to all volunteers interested. These notes would link to any tools and resources mentioned on the call and will be shared on this mailing list and archived on Meta[0].
These calls are *not* replacing any existing channels or regularly-scheduled calls! Every channel or call you are already using continues to exist. No important announcements will be made on these calls, and no one should feel stressed or obligated to attend them.
Rather, they are a new form of live-communication open support calls, less narrow in focus than some of the existing channels (where only specific topics are expected), and, we hope, more approachable and welcoming for people not sure whether their question or dilemma is appropriate for one of the other channels.
If these calls are found useful, we'll try to offer them in some other languages, to increase access to those not comfortable speaking English.
So, let's give this a try! The first two calls are scheduled for:
Monday, June 15th, 17:30 (5:30pm) UTC, and this is the Google Meet link[1].
Link to a WorldTimeBuddy event for timezone convenience[2].
and
Wednesday, June 17th, 08:00am UTC, and this is the Google Meet link[3].
Link to a WorldTimeBuddy event for timezone convenience[4].
Remember, there's no set agenda and no particular preparation needed. Feel free to join us with anything Wikimedia-related that's on your mind, or just to hang out.
Feedback and questions welcome.
Cheers,
Asaf
[1]
https://meet.google.com/kha-nghc-mky
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