It looks like Barry meant for this to go to the list.
Austin
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Barry Newstead bnewstead@wikimedia.org Date: Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 1:54 AM Subject: Re: [Movementroles] Next steps To: Austin Hair adhair@gmail.com
Hi - So I've reviewed the questionnaire (didn't take long) and I'm concerned about the framing of this and the potential for anchoring based on narrow interest groups. This probably affects the proposal somewhat as well, now that I think of it.
1. Framing: It is structured in a way that makes me think the issue is only about how to divide a resource pie between chatpers-WMF-other. I actually think the core questions should be "How do we achieve our vision and the strategic priorities laid out in our movement strategy?" This provides a frame for movement roles and allows us to make decisions on the basis of their contribution (or potential contribution) to the goals. Without this, we have nothing to base decisions on and frankly I don't think we'll reach a good conclusion (i.e., aligning the movement around a shared agenda).
I would like us to ask questions about the achievement of the strategy. To paraphrase: Secure our infrastructure, Increase global participation, Improve quality, Expand reach and Support innovation. (http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Movement_Priorities)
I think the questionnaire should ask "What role do various groups play in achieving our movement priorities? What do these groups need to fulfill this role? What do they need from other to fulfill this role? What do they need to provide others to fulfill their roles?"
2. Narrow interests: I'm concerned that one group of stakeholders will be most active in responding, namely existing participants on "internal" or "fdtn-L", and this will anchor the answers around a combination of their experience (most folks have limited experience around structuring global organizations) and interests. I think it is important to hear these perspectives, but I worry that if we ask them some of these questions, they will (fairly) assume that the way we are going to get to resolution is to draw a consensus view of their inputs. This would be a problem, since there are vital voices that are highly unlikely to engage - future contributors (mostly from the Global South) and current contributors who aren't active in the existing "power structures"
Sorry for the relatively late engagement, but figure this is food for thought for your meetings on Sunday.
Best, Barry
On 09/30/2010 07:14 AM, Austin Hair wrote:
Hi guys,
I'm breaking this out into a separate e-mail, just so everyone's clear on what we're currently doing:
First, I apologize for not writing about this sooner, but Jon and Arne and I will be meeting in Frankfurt on 3 October to take care of some mostly administrative stuff. If anyone's available at 1500 UTC on that day, I think a conference call would be very productive. I know it seems silly to set up a Doodle for a single time, but it's nice to have a standard location to see at a glance who can attend—please take just a second to add an entry at [0].
As previously discussed, the draft proposal (to whom is apparently not yet clear) is at [1], so please weigh in as soon as you can. Since our working timeline has this made official in just a few days, this is the #1 priority.
Additionally, a draft questionnaire/survey is at [2], which everyone should take a look at in the next few days. This is public, of course, and once it's finalized the idea is to have people copy it to their userspace and link back on that page. They're fairly open-ended questions, and intentionally so—it's meant to get a general feel of what the community thinks of the topic, and allow people with very strong opinions to make those opinions known.
And in case you're wondering, I'm still working on the central calendar/schedule we talked about in our last meeting—expect that later today.
[0] http://doodle.com/wmdcifcgggn8q6ug [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_working_group/Proposal [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_working_group/Questionnaire
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-- Barry Newstead Chief Global Development Officer Wikimedia Foundation Tel: +1-415-839-6885 x. 634 Skype: barry.wikimedia Twitter: @bazanews