--- On Tue, 10/28/08, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
From: Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] We have the problem To: birgitte_sb@yahoo.com, "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 7:15 AM On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 4:05 AM, Birgitte SB birgitte_sb@yahoo.com wrote:
I must disagree that the systematic problem is that we
don't care enough. I would say it is that we cannot communicate effectively. The barriers to communication throughout Wikimedia are real and not just due to some lack of caring.
From my experience, a lot of Wikimedians don't know for this list. When I am the first person who introduces a Wikimedian with 2 years of experience (and I didn't do that just once) that this list exists and that it is the right place for talking about general issues -- I may conclude that we have a [systematic] communication problem.
If you think about languages as barriers, they are not *so* significant to become a "real problem". The most of Wikimedians are able to read English. Also, there is no need that every Wikimedian knows English, there is a need for just one or few of them per community.
I don't think languages alone are the main barrier to communication and I did not mention language in my email. When someone picks on the exact words someone like Gerard M or Anthere uses in a second languages to dismiss the more general message they write we are not communicating effectively. When people approach an issue from either a position of condescension or one of mistrust they will not communicate effectively. I personally struggle to effectively communicate with native English speaking developers. Communication amoung people who care is a problem outside what languages they speak.
Birgitte SB