On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Mike Dupont jamesmikedupont@googlemail.com wrote:
On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 11:57 PM, MZMcBride z@mzmcbride.com wrote:
From Wikimedia's perspective, I think this is "one down, several hundred to go." Wikimedia has made it clear that its singular focus is the English Wikipedia. All other Wikipedias are peripheral; all other project types are abandoned.
oh that is alarming. can you tell me more?
That is alarming because it is MZM's fear, but it does not represent the views of the Foundation.
(MZM, would you mind finding a more accurate way to express your observations, hopes and frustrations on this subject?)
Not speaking on behalf of the Foundation, but repeating what Erik said earlier and pointing to our five-year plan, the WMF is prioritizing community-driven innovation as one of its core targets for support. There is a language barrier to overcome; as Gerard notes the localisation team should help improve matters there.
And in my experience the WMF spends a great deal of time in public and internally working with, researching, and discussing the smaller projects and languages. Far more than "proportional to current size or readership" -- maybe not as much as some would like. For anyone who wishes to see more work on their favorite project : please suggest a specific way to make that happen. :-)
MZMcBride writes:
Perhaps with the exception of Wikimedia Commons, which is able to pull in grant money, so it continues to receive some level of technical support.
All sister projects are able to pull in grant money if it is pursued. There are a variety of major foundations devoted to, or prioritizing, curation and access to {primary source materials, language and literacy materials, civic journalism, free textbooks, open educational resources, biology and species data, oral histories, &c.}. I would love to see us attract more of that sort of interest. Even projects that we worry about and say "did not achieve critical mass" are often significant successes by the standards of existing grant-supported work elsewhere in the world.
Sam.