Anna,
Generally, I am thinking about community service training across the
organization. I would love your help with that. I can do little about
the
past. I can address the future. To properly address the future, ad hoc
and
particular solution sets won't suffice. We'll need coherent and general solution sets, with enough particulars to keep the solution set honest.
I am not sure what you mean by "community service" here. In the UK, it
is
a form of punishment given to young offenders for anti-social
behaviour. I
assume you mean something different?
I definitely mean something different. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify. How do we engage staff in learning to interact with our communities? Where are ideal opportunities for exchange (e.g., the best places to collaborate) and where is collaboration least valuable, potentially even disruptive? I have no answers yet.
I had a discussion on these matters, as I recall, with Rachel di Cerbo at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Community_Liaisons/Wikimania_2015 which may provide you with some background. I suggested some ideas about centralisation of discussions, machine-assisted tranlsation and other process-oriented points. Pulling back to a more cultural point, I woud identify three aspects that you might address.
Staff must actually want to engage, to co-create and to acknowledge that the community is a partner in the entire enterprise. Of course the community is not homogenous and the balance of work and responsibility is not identically equal in every single aspect of the enterprise. Nonetheless, the model of an active staff supporting and directing a passive community is both factually wrong and will inevitably lead to disaster.
One misundertood word is representation. I believe that some staff members believe that they can represent the community simply by having been volunteers in the past, and even that they can timeshare between their staff and volunteer identities. This is so far from true that it only needs to be articulated to be seen as incorrect – indeed, the attempt to split their identities may be positively dangerous to their psychological well-being. The notion that only those with Wikimedia project experience should be hired, and that having hired such people they need no further contact with the community is utterly disastrous. Those with community engagement responsibilities must engage, actively, and in a genuine spirit of enquiry. It is not an unnecessary overhead on getting their work done, it is their work.
The WMF is distinctly less planful than I would expect. Genuine interaction on planning does not mean asking a few closed questions of a few community members about which of a few predetermined options they prefer. It means doing a lot of work and being genuinely transparent. It also requires internal coordination of a kind which I do not always detect within the WMF.
Finally, the culture of complacency needs to be addressed. Being involved in a meritorious project does not automatically make the work done meritorious. Too many technical and community projects are initiated and then allowed to drift, or fade away, after having wasted staff time (which is donor money) and community time effort and goodwill. The WMF cannot afford to be as slack as this any longer.
I will look into this. I will seek to understand the Tech position on three
questions:
- What do we philosophically believe: to roadmap or not to roadmap?
- What do we currently have in terms of planning?
- Will that change?
I’ll get back to you. It may take me until the beginning of April. It may be sooner, but I can’t promise anything sooner.
Thank you.
I received another email from another lovely wiki elf explaining to me that
it could be seen as though I were making fun of your fictitious name. If it came across that way, I really do apologize. That was not my intention. I was not laughing at your name. What I found funny was that people had a series of pronunciations that were different and yet they were all sure that they were correct.
I am not at all bothered but thank you for your consideration.
"Rogol"
On Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 7:46 PM, Anna Stillwell astillwell@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello Rogol,
On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 2:04 AM, Rogol Domedonfors domedonfors@gmail.com wrote:
Anna,
Sometimes I wonder if hope isn’t at the base of it all. Perhaps hope is necessary but certainly not sufficient for it all to transpire. Hope is
not
a strategy. But maybe it's a foundation.
Certainly, but there is an old saying about "the triumph of hope over experience". The general tenor of your comments suggest that you are
less
interested in learning from the past as you are planning for the
future. I
merely suggest that the two go hand in hand.
I agree with your suggestion that they go hand in hand. I think perhaps I solve problems differently than you and I come to this conversation from a slightly different angle. I have a question on my mind, how do we build an org and a culture for the future? I’m scanning my environment to see what I hear, what people are talking about. I’m reading a lot. Entertaining many ideas. Given what I am hear, read and my specific role, where should I focus? I am still ascertaining which issues I might take on.
Specifics, including past successes and errors, would be something that I would investigate at a later stage. Your information is relevant to me, just not at this stage.
What I said was,
"I can do little about the past. I can address the future. To properly
address the future, ad hoc and particular solution sets won't suffice. We'll need coherent and general solution sets, with enough particulars to keep the solution set honest."
[stuff]] I don't have time to investigate this statement and work to piece
together
what happened, and since I don't have that time, I will not comment in
any
way on this particular instance.
That is your decision, but it means that you will learn nothing from it.
You have such a gentle touch. :)
Generally, I am thinking about community service training across the organization. I would love your help with that. I can do little about
the
past. I can address the future. To properly address the future, ad hoc
and
particular solution sets won't suffice. We'll need coherent and general solution sets, with enough particulars to keep the solution set honest.
I am not sure what you mean by "community service" here. In the UK, it
is
a form of punishment given to young offenders for anti-social
behaviour. I
assume you mean something different?
I definitely mean something different. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify. How do we engage staff in learning to interact with our communities? Where are ideal opportunities for exchange (e.g., the best places to collaborate) and where is collaboration least valuable, potentially even disruptive? I have no answers yet.
The underlying quesrion, as was sure you would have recognised, is not
"Do
you Anna Stillwell happen to know whether or not the WMF has a technical roadmap ..." but "Does the WMF have a technical roadmap and if so please will the WMF publish it." Perhaps I failed to make that clear, and you were assuming I was asking a more personally specific but significantly less useful version. My long-standing question, then, remains
unanswered:
*Does the WMF have a technical roadmap and if so please will the WMF publish it.*
If I may be so bold, it seems that your interpretation of my words
lacks
even basic faith. It seems to be the penultimate worst possible interpretation (the worst being lying, the second... evading).
I can only go by what I see as a pesistent refusal to address this issue over many weeks by multiple members of the WMF staff.
But your nearly automatic interpretation may point to a deeper issue. I hear you saying that you don't take me at my word. That you may not
take
us
at our word. And I imagine that we have done some things to earn your distrust. I hear you.
But I assure you that I am telling you the truth now: I do not know.
Do you propose to take any steps to find out? If you do, please will you let the community know?
I will look into this. I will seek to understand the Tech position on three questions:
- What do we philosophically believe: to roadmap or not to roadmap?
- What do we currently have in terms of planning?
- Will that change?
I'll need some time. I have a lot of work right now (that's why I write to you on the weekends). Everybody does. I imagine you would prefer another, more speedy option, but I do not have it right now. We’re revving up the movement strategy and have our annual planning beginning next week. That’s at the org level. On top of that, my agenda is past max. To get a coherent answer and to make sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing, I’ll need to speak with a number of people who may be difficult to get time with.
I’ll get back to you. It may take me until the beginning of April. It may be sooner, but I can’t promise anything sooner.
Ok. How do you pronounce your fictitious name? I asked around, “Hey,
how
do
you pronounce Rogol’s fictitious name”? Everyone pronounced it
differently.
Some had a hard g. Some had a soft one. Some placed emphasis on the
first
syllable. Some on the second.
I couldn’t stop laughing. I said to them, “But he’s made up…. how can
you
be *so sure*?”
Philippe Beaudette pronounced it acceptably it in the July 2015 Metrics Meeting, see, or rather listen to, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXWNGEht9lU&feature=youtu.be
Thank you for the reference. I now know how to pronounce your name. Next time when you send me lovely video references like this, would you be willing to give me a time stamp? (It’s 39:15 in case others would like to hear it). As it was, I listened to Phillipe’s whole talk. Was that your intention? That I listen to Philippe's entire talk? If so, anything else you would have liked me to note?
p.s. I received another email from another lovely wiki elf explaining to me that it could be seen as though I were making fun of your fictitious name. If it came across that way, I really do apologize. That was not my intention. I was not laughing at your name. What I found funny was that people had a series of pronunciations that were different and yet they were all sure that they were correct.
"Rogol" _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret Fuller
Anna Stillwell Chargée d’Affaires / VP Wikimedia Foundation 415.806.1536 *www.wikimediafoundation.org http://www.wikimediafoundation.org* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe