Hi Michal,
thank you for your reaction. No, I am personally not interested in attending the Wikimedia conference or whatever name it has now. I am unhappy with that, from my viewpoint, the opinions of what is called unorganized volunteers is discarded.
- On stage 1, I participated in some discussions in the projects. I do not see any traces of that discussion in the final document. On one occasion, we were told that we are not discussing what we should be discussing. However, we are writing the content - if we thing smth is important, and if this smth is strategic, I expect the functionaries which are getting salary from the funds raised because of our input, to at least take it seriously and not dismiss it. I reported the case here, I got responses of the type "this is not good", and nothing happened.
- When the was a call for strategy groups, I applied and was rejected. Other people applied and were rejected. The report of the selection committee essentially says that there were too many unorganized volunteers. (To give a bit of a background, I speak five languages, lived in four countries, and active in four Wikimedia projects, but I am not a member of any affiliate). Fine. Nobody complains there are too many unorganized volunteers to create content
- Now the strategy will be discussed at a conference, and it will be discussed at local events. But I am not interested in going to these events. I am a content creator, highly involved in the project governance (I have administrator flag on four projects and a crat flag on one).It is ok if the strategy is being discussed at the meetings where mostly functionaries go, but it should be discussed at the projects - where content is created - and not just in the form of the approval of a text which has been drafted elsewhere and already approved by functionaries. As it stands, it will be strategy for functionaries. Do not then expect projects to follow smth they have not been asked to participate in creation of.
I am not really happy to antagonize functionaries and content creators, especially since I respect a few of functionaries for what they have done and are still doing on the projects (and some of them are heavily working on content), but we have come across too many things in the recent years which suggest that the opinions of the projects are not properly respected, and the strategy thing is just one of them.
Cheers Yaroslav
On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 2:06 PM Michał Buczyński sandbox@o2.pl wrote:
Hi Yaroslav, I find your concern important so let me attempt to refine it to discussion points or a call for action. :) Firstly, I think it is unwise to assume what "everyone is interested in". You don't know personally all the people in the Movement, e.g. me and my interests. If you meant some particular people or body, please voice it clearly and we can go from that point. Secondly, there were signs showing people interested in your input: 1. while creating and filling a "diversity matrix" to check if we cover all the stakeholders, the non-representatives of affiliates, WMF or other bodies (FDC, sAPG, AffCom) this issue has been raised - certainly for the funds allocation group. I am not sure of the final outcome in terms of e.g. inclusion of particular names within the group (it is a pretty tricky to give some representativeness without overblowing the groups) but I am sure the strategy team has been working on this issue and can communicate something. :) 2. There are many ways to reaching out to the wider audiences: including surveys, online discussions, show and tell sessions (e.g. IIRC on Wikimania *all* strategic sessions, except the organizational/briefing for the groups, were fully open for all conference participants) and sessions dedicated to particular communities. E.g. in my home Poland there were strategy sessions for willing attendees of WMPL conferences, some languages also had dedicated online discussion venues, and everyone could contribute in English. Thus, let's give the credit where it is due. I am not discussing here if this interest was sufficient. And I am pretty sure that if needed we can explore this direction further (e.g. put more resources to discuss the strategy in particular national/regional communities and send it upstream) and many people don't participate even though they have very meaningful things to say. Perhaps what you wanted to write is e.g. "Please provide X seats in the [ Group 4: Additional participants – mostly members of the Movement Strategy working groups – invited to complement the conference program] for non-affiliated Wikimedians based on their editorship in Wikimedia projects and trust of their local communities". Did I understand you properly? Best Regards, Michał Buczyński Wikimedia Polska, FDC, Resource Allocation Working Group Dnia 27 września 2018 13:21 Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt@gmail.com> napisał(a): This is very remarkable that nobody is actually interested in input from what the WMF functionaries now call "unorganized volunteers" - people who actually work in the projects. We are just not in the picture. Good luck with that. Do not be surprised to see a huge number of volunteers to oppose the strategy document again, as it happened last year. Cheers Yaroslav On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 12:54 PM Nicole Ebber <nicole.ebber@wikimedia.de> wrote: Hi Chris, I can comment on your question why we need another strategy conference: The Wikimedia 2030 process is ongoing, and is building – among many other inputs – upon the outcomes of the last two conferences. Organized groups are already working on the implementation of the Strategic Direction in their own strategic/annual planning and programmatic work, and Working Groups start developing recommendations for change on the structural level of the movement. In spring 2019, these groups will need feedback and input from the movement's organized groups and the Wikimedia Summit – alongside other opportunities for community consultations – will be build as a platform to synchronize the Working Groups' work and to gather and synthesize this input and agree upon next steps. I hope this helps to shed some light on the need for this event. Please let me know if you have further questions. We'll also be presenting the current state of the strategy process at today's activities meeting; if you're interested in tuning in: meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org All the best Nicole On Wed, 26 Sep 2018 at 22:18, Chris Keating & lt;chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com> wrote: > I have so many questions. > > Is anything concrete planned to replace the learning and capacity-building > work that used to happen at WMCON? (Or has the identification of capacity > building as a strategic priority just resulted in .... the abandonment of > the main capacity building event?) > > And why after two "strategy focused" conferences, do we need another one? > What will it achieve except acres more flipchart? How many conferences do > we expect to need before the strategic direction starts to become a > reality? > > Chris > > On Tue, 25 Sep 2018, 20:34 Cornelius Kibelka, < > cornelius.kibelka@wikimedia.de wrote: > > > Dear all, > > > > As Nicole Ebber already wrote a couple of weeks ago, we would like to > give > > you some further information about the next Wikimedia Conference, that > will > > take place from March 29–31, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. > > > > The next conference will focus on the Movement Strategy process and > > movement governance for the organized part of the movement in general. > The > > program will be designed according to the status and needs of the ongoing > > Movement Strategy process and its working groups. We are hoping to see a > > diverse group of participants next year, and look forward to creating > three > > days of working, discussing, and thinking together. The event is made > > possible through the generous financial support of the Wikimedia > > Foundation. > > > > Thus, to make it clearer that learning and capacity-building will not be > > part of the program and cut laces to the previous conference, we will > > change the name to “Wikimedia Summit” (#wmsummit). > > > > The change of the purpose of the event is accompanied by a change in the > > composition of the audience. The event will be a more focused one, and > > therefore we aim to scale down the audience to around 200 participants. > As > > it is this still the Wikimedia affiliates conference, every _eligible_ > > affiliate can send one (1) delegate. Furthermore, we will invite > > participants from the Wikimedia Affiliate EDs (~10), WMF Board of > Trustees > > (10), WMF staff (~10), the committees (~15 from FDC, AffCom and Simple > APG) > > and additional members of the Movement Strategy working groups, that do > not > > come in another role (~20). You can find more information regarding this > on > > Meta.[1] > > > > Registration for the Wikimedia Summit will open on November 2 and end on > > December 17, 2018. We urge participants that need a visa to register no > > later than November 19, so we can support them as best as possible to > get a > > visa for the event. > > > > We will keep you updated in the further weeks and months via the usual > > communication channels. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate > > to contact us, preferably via wmsummit@wikimedia.de. > > > > Best regards, > > > > Daniela Gentner & Cornelius Kibelka > > > > [1] > > > meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org > > > > -- > > Cornelius Kibelka > > Program and Engagement Coordinator (PEC) > > for the Wikimedia Conference > > > > Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin > > Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0 > > wikimedia.de wikimedia.de > > > > Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen > > Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei! > > spenden.wikimedia.de spenden.wikimedia.de > > > > Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. > > Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg > unter > > der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für > > Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207 > > ______________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org and > > meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.or > > Unsubscribe: lists.wikimedia.org lists.wikimedia.org > > <mailto: wikimedia-l-request@li > ______________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org and > meta.wikimedia.org meta.wikimedia.org > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.or > Unsubscribe: lists.wikimedia.org lists.wikimedia.org > <mailto: wikimedia-l-request@li -- Nicole Ebber Adviser International Relations Program Manager Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin wikimedia.de wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. 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