[Foundation-l] How bureaucracy works: the example - Wikimedia-l

25 Sep 2010

If I understood well, Americans don't have such bad feelings toward
the word "bureaucracy" and its derivatives. In Europe it is different.
When I tell to Gerard that he is better bureaucrat than me, he feels
offended; although I thought about specific virtues, not defects; and
although I've defined myself a number of times as a Wikimedia
bureaucrat.

That difference lays probably in 300 years of different developments
of societies. Franz Kafka wasn't living in 18th century, but in 20th.
Horrors of bureaucracies wasn't so obvious in 18th century because it
is hard to say that any kind of sensible bureaucracy existed then.
Arbitrariness of feudatories and rulers was much bigger problem. And
at least in the case of bureaucracy, Americans had much more luck.

As you could see I am usually use the "American" meaning of the word
"bureaucracy" and its derivatives. Complex societies can't exist
without more or less good bureaucracies. Unlike many of my friends, I
appreciate good formal bureaucracy. This is the minimum and it is much
better to deal with formal bureaucracy than with informal relations.
As a user of [social] institutions you can count on formal
bureaucracy, while it is not possible with informal relations.

However, to be effective, bureaucracy has to be managed. This is
particularly true for very complex bureaucracies, and Wikimedia is
already a very complex bureaucracy. And it (bureaucracy) is not
managed well.

The main problem with not well managed bureaucracies are not well
defined responsibilities. In other words, it is not possible to say
that one person or one group is responsible for some malfunctioning.
It is the product of the right decisions at the lower level of
complexity, which creates malfunctioning at the higher level of
complexity.

That means that I am not blaming anyone particularly, but that we have
increasing number of the problems of that type; which means that all
of us have to think how not to make such mistakes.

Last couple of months I am not uploading images to Commons as I would
like to do. Not counting that I block all of my upload link for ten or
more minutes per one high resolution photo, it is very painful process
even for 20k logo.

Today I am working from my netbook. It is not so easy to find the
right button and the screen is small. I wanted to upload 20k logo for
new Wikipedia edition (in Banjar) [1]. I wanted to find the right
copyright tag (logo is trademark of WMF). So, I clicked on
"Permissions" link, instead on question mark. When I went back all of
the form was blanked.

Note that I did that because I didn't want to be arrogant bureaucrat.
People who want that project have already created SVG logo and I
didn't want to insist that they have to create PNG derivative; I can
do that, it should be easier.

So, I wanted to do that as I treat that as my responsibility. I filled
the form once again and I had to spend next ~15 minutes while trying
to upload the 20k logo: license is not correct, author is not correct,
this is not correct, that is not correct. And I am using Commons from
the time when it started to exist.

There is no way that I would be willing to upload any file on Commons
because I would like to do it; just if I have to do it.

The logical question is, of course, have I complained about it? This
problem exists for a year or so. And I am sure that I am not the only
person who complained about it in various ways.

The first step in solving the problem is to ask one of the responsible
persons to fix it. So, maybe a year ago, I've asked that person. He
told me to fill the bug. No, I am not willing to fill the bug. (Note
that I am doing that regularly as a LangCom member.)

There are three types of [technical] bugs in process: (1) mostly,
nothing has been done; (2) my bug is redundant, someone is working [or
not] on this issue already (in this case for a year or so); (3) if I
am lucky and someone responds to the initial bug request, I would have
to spend hours in defining, explaining etc.

And I just wanted to upload a photo or logo. It should last for 5-15
minutes, depending on my upload speed. Not hours in explaining what
the problem is.

And if I have to spend hours every time when I see a problem, I think
that it is much more reasonable to spend hours in talking about the
problem in general.

This particular problem has and doesn't have responsible persons or
groups. The problem lays somewhere between Commons community and WMF
tech staff. And the point is that any of those groups could make our
life easier, while I suppose that all of them think that it is not
their problem, but the problem for which another group is responsible.

Both of the groups made right decisions at the lower level of
complexity. The first one wanted to be sure that there are a lot of
explanations, the second has put upload form with more useful
features. However, the final product is a nightmare from the point of
the basic usability: you can't upload file effectively, which is the
main purpose of the upload form (and Commons).

I am sure that there are a lot of similar problems all over Wikimedia
projects. Something has to be done generally. And once again, I don't
know who should do that. Who should lead the synchronization process
between various Wikimedia groups? Or, who should delegate that problem
to a particular person or group?

[1] - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lambang_Wikipidia_Bahasa_Banjar.png