[Wikimania-l] Wikimania organization structure/style

Hi Manuel, et al., On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Manuel Schneider <manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch> wrote: +1, I can think of one recent deployment I worked on where they kept changing the date and then once they finally decided on a date I was left out of the notification loop! On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 2:12 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki(a)gmail.com> wrote: You could build up gradually to the desired weight. But that's hard to do if they're going to show up because of a deadline rather than showing up because they just saw the banner. I'm not sure I agree. (and don't necessarily disagree either) But, I think the question of whether they needed some custom work or something different than what they ended up getting is a small detail. Maybe there was some public planning or discussion (or even something on the -team list) that I missed or somehow wasn't subscribed to. But maybe this is one more an example of how I wish Wikimania were more like DebConf (debconf.org). Typically I've wanted to apply the DebConf model to organization in general and video recording/streaming/etc. but I imagine this applies just as well to setting up a registration server. Not saying we should copy everything exactly nor are they perfect as is but I think they have a good model to learn from. With DebConf, more work is typically done in house by volunteers that are interested in what they're working on. (Much like the way enwiki works, things are typically done by people interested in making them happen because otherwise they're not done at all. There's rarely or never any paid staff involved and rarely anyone assigning work for someone else to do. People are given opportunities to find out about how something will work early and when someone wants to do something differently or thinks there's a problem with the something they are often invited to join in that work themselves.) Some work is necessarily done out of the public eye (e.g. some negotiations with potential fiscal sponsors or handling of private personal info about attendees) but that's the exception rather than the rule. Most work is planned and discussed in public and the organizing teams (which are essentially defined as whoever shows up regular and takes on some work) have regularly scheduled and widely announced public meetings. (for IRC meetings logs are published very soon after the meeting. for public meatspace meetings there is usually no recording but some basic notes are taken and published.) Some examples: http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20120703.022020.76785594.en.html http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20120701.233202.64f18798.en.html http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20120701.234402.d6ae00ac.en.html http://lists.debconf.org/lurker/message/20130408.200353.623deacf.en.html Thanks! -Jeremy [[user:jeremyb]] Wikimedia NYC && Wikimania 2012