On 02/04/2014, Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
Great! We are starting to have the conversation we need to have!
So: What is the purpose of the Wikimedia Conference?
This has never been clearly defined, in my view.
I certainly found attending last year useful as it was a chance to get to know face-to-face people I only knew over email, to share some useful experience of Wikimedia UK's with other chapters, and to get an insight into how others were thinking, and have some meetings which needed to be done face-to-face.
In general those are very useful things. But is that what the conference is for?
Chris
This question neatly demonstrates the fundamental issue for me.
I am genuinely puzzled as to why, if nobody on the WMUK board (such as the CEO or the current Chairman) is sure what the purpose of the conference is, they should chose to invest the donor's money in sending 5 trustees and 3 full time employees to it (presumably the employees are being paid for their time rather than going as volunteers).
If the key benefit claimed is to do social networking, it should be recognized that all the same faces will be at Wikimania London in 4 months, and socializing is part of the defined benefits of Wikimania.
Considering the conference is a week away and it appears that flights and accommodation have been paid for, re-framing this as good news, rather than admitting it is a problem, appears to be replacing pragmatism with sophistry.
Fae (writing from the grave)