I agree with Ad and keyed on the same objection when reading Pine's
complaint. The WMF has been the primary organization responsible for
developing the community since the inception of the Wikimedia movement.
That isn't changed by the titles of any particular position. To the extent
that conflicts of interest develop between the WMF and affiliates, I
question the objectives of the affiliates. Affiliates that fund Wikidata,
GLAM projects and other efforts that source significant volumes of high
quality content do good work. The value of edit-a-thons, "management
effort" dedicated to organizing organizations and paying staff and all that
entails and other soft efforts is less well established. I don't think the
creation of a management layer position over existing staff and work at the
WMF is a great moment to consider the pros and cons of these efforts,
however, whether at the WMF or affiliates. That opportunity is the strategy
development process.
On Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 5:58 PM Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ad,
I agree that WMF support for training can be beneficial (although, given
the choice, I would prefer non-WMF funding sources in order to minimize
conflicts of interest between community/affiliate goals and WMF). However,
the more firmly that WMF tries to elevate itself as the manager of the
wikiverse and to tell community members what to do, the more strongly I
object. Community autonomy should be respected, and WMF's purpose in the
wikiverse is to offer support rather than to assert centralized management.
I have been thinking about these issues for a few days. I think that WMF
providing technical support and training, such as a document regarding "How
to create a citation", is much safer than non-technical training, such as
"How to apply notability guidelines" which may refer to policies and
practices that are almost exclusively established by community consensus
instead of WMF edict.
Regarding WMF involvement in community health, I think that there are ways
that WMF can be supportive without placing itself in control or asserting
leadership. For example, WMF can usefully and safely improve technical
tools for sockpuppet detection, and WMF can research the prevalance of
incivility on wikis over time, and WMF can research the effectiveness of
interventions that the community decides to implement.
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
-------- Original message --------From: Ad Huikeshoven <ad(a)huikeshoven.org>
Date: 7/15/18 12:19 PM (GMT-08:00) To: Wikimedia Mailing List <
wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns
about WMF's "Manager of Community
Development" job posting
Dear friends,
Pine wrote "The idea of WMF placing itself in the position of managing
community development is problematic."
I disagree with Pine. It has been recognized in the past that community is
the key asset in the movement. I do belief that it is a fiduciary duty to
manage your key asset wisely and responsively. Editing / contributing to
Wikimedia projects has a radically decentralized nature. Your concern
regards paying due respect to that radically decentralized nature.
Community health has been or is an issue for example. I am very glad there
is going to be a person leading a team of professionals to provide guidance
to volunteer leaders. And the person will have a challenge to gain trust of
the community, and to build trust within the communities.
Have a nice weekend,
Ad
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