Hi,
A short mail to report a bug in the organization of the wikidata workshop held today
during the wikiconvention in Paris[1]. Weeks in advance I convinced a few people to attend
so that we can work on our topic of interest: Software and Free Software in particular[2].
There is no better context than being surrounded by seasoned wikidata contributors to
improve and contribute at the same time. The description was appealing:
"After a one hour training, we will create groups according to the desire of the
participants: contribute, discover and install useful gadgets..."
When the audience was asked for their preferences, I raised my hand and happily declared
"Contributing to the Software and FLOSS projects !". Much to my surprise this
was quickly dismissed: "we're only going to learn about tools, we create groups
to use and learn about tools, not to work on a specific project". My interest for the
Software project is known to both Harmonia Amanda and Ash_Crow, to the extent that I
discussed with them my intent to recruit people to participate in the workshop for that
particular topic[3], well in advance. The focus of our interest was also made clear in the
participant list[4].
Of course the rebuttal was not enough to discourage us from contributing to wikidata :-)
We found another room and did useful work together, just without the pleasure of being
part of the group.
When facing such a minor disappointment, I suppose there is not much cause for concern.
But I thought it would be useful to report what appears to be a glitch in the organization
so that it can be fixed. This is not a pleasant thing to write or read, but what would be
life without a few mistakes ?
In conclusion I would like to thank everyone for a wonderful first experience, specially
Harmonia Amanda and Ash_Crow who do a tremendous work with wikidata.
Cheers
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConvention_francophone/2016/Programme/A…
[2]
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Informatics/Software
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Informatics/FLOSS
[3] 15 july 2016 <dachary> Ash_Crow: pour
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConvention_francophone/2016/Programme/A…
nous serons au moins trois avec pour centre d'intérêt
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Informatics/FLOSS et
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Informatics/Software . J'espère
convaincre deux autres personnes mais c'est pas gagné ... l'attrait des
vacances...
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConvention_francophone/2016/Programme/A…
--
Loïc Dachary, Artisan Logiciel Libre