IMHO, the idea of the user groups is not to divide the community, the main goal is to
create the opportunity for small communities to work in the same direction, learn with
each other and have a framework to work together, learning from and sharing experiences.
The user group is an important step to move forward to a thematic organization or chapter
based on the learnings and experiences acquired after some projects and activities. It can
be a good opportunity to professionalize the community and avoid frustrated attempts to
create a chapter or thematic organization with no previous experience.
For sure we will need more guidance and dedicated activities during the next conference in
Berlin. Having a dedicated event, IMHO will not generate the same opportunity that we have
to learn from chapters like WM UK, WM MX, WM DE and etc in an event like WMCON.
For me, the opportunity to see what active chapters are doing was crucial to organize here
in Brazil 2 editions of WLE and our first edition of WLM.
I guess we are in the right direction and the types of grants available, including the new
simple annual plan project, will generate excellent impacts to the movement during the
next years.
Rodrigo Padula
Coordenador de Projetos
Grupo Wikimedia Brasileiro de Educação e Pesquisa
http://www.wikimedia.org.br
21 99326-0558
---- On Dom, 18 Out 2015 12:08:54 -0200 Gnangarra <gnangarra(a)gmail.com>
wrote ----
Any process that divides the community isnt good for the community, we
already seeing the effects of poor decisions being taken by groups and
individuals acting in isolation
On 18 October 2015 at 20:02, Leigh Thelmadatter <osamadre(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Im not sure now is the right time to divide affiliates. Thematic
> organizations and user groups are still new and there is still a heavy
> preference towards chapters. User groups are not necessarily small, and
> chapters are not necessarily large.
> I hear what you are saying about resources being stretched thin. Wiki
> Learning was one of the first to get approved as a user group after years
> of trying, but we have not received any mentoring as of yet. Fortunately,
> we are already pretty well-organized and receive support from the Tec de
> Monterrey.
> Im worried that separating affiliates would marginalize groups that just
> now got some kind of recognition and voice.
>
>
> > Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 03:00:31 -0700
> > From: wiki.pine(a)gmail.com
> > To: maorx(a)wikimedia.org.ve; Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > CC: kharold(a)wikimedia.org
> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Number of new User Groups
> >
> > It's nice to see the recent momentum in the formation of user
groups. Can
> > Affcom shed some light on what may be causing the burst of announced
> > formations?
> >
> > Relatedly, I'm wondering if the number of UGs is now so high that
the
> > budget and/or programmatic capacity of WMCON will be a bit stretched to
> > accomodate all of the UGs in addition to the larger affiliates. I was
> > thinking that it would be good to have a track at WMCON devoted to
small
> > affiliates, but now I'm starting to wonder if there are so many of
us,
> with
> > interests and concerns hopefully now more visible on WMF's radar due
to
> our
> > increased numbers, that it would make sense to have separate
conferences
> > for the large and small affiliates so that undivided attention from WMF
> can
> > be given more evenly to both size classes of affiliates for the
duration
> of
> > a conference. Any thoughts about those options, from Affcom, WMF, WMDE,
> or
> > others?
> >
> > Pine
> > _______________________________________________
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--
GN.
President Wikimedia Australia
WMAU:
http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra
Photo Gallery:
http://gnangarra.redbubble.com
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