More transparency from the side of the WMF (and often, from affiliates as
well) seems like a good way of considerably reducing mistrust, stress and
friction between the Wikimedia communities, affiliates and the WMF. The
fact is that more than often the WMF seem to be at odds with the principles
of transparency and accountability that generally rule our Wikimedia
communities (for the worst and for the better). Take that paradigm of
obscurity that AffCom has become in the last years, for instance - without
any hint it would change (quite the opposite, indeed). Also, when people
know about the WMF (and a LOT of people in the projects do not have any
idea it even exists, let alone in the civil society that surrounds us),
often it is not for the good reasons. I would say the WMF is in dire need
of an efficient PR operation, specially on the points of contact between
itself and affiliates (such AffCom) and the communities.
Best,
Paulo - darwIn
Wikimedia Portugal
Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> escreveu no dia sexta, 22/02/2019 à(s) 19:01:
Hi,
Recent events have brought to mind the recurring challenges of stress and
friction in the Wikiverse that can happen in interactions, or lack of
interactions, between WMF, affiliates, and community members.
I realize that some friction is inevitable, but the feeling that I get is
that the levels of stress regarding these interactions are, on average,
fairly high.
This stress can happen on both sides. My understanding is that some staff
are afraid to communicate in public because they worry about making people
angry for unpredictable reasons. Affiliates and community people may feel
frustrated or ignored.
For me, this situation is painful and frustrating, and I'm currently
feeling worn by the friction of our groups.
The Wikiverse will probably always have a some friction, and some of that
friction may lead to insightful conversations and good refinement of ideas,
but the average level of WMF-affiliate-community friction feels high.
I'm not saying that there should be no conflicts or no difficult
conversations. Sometimes I think that being frank is the best thing to do,
and a high level of stress is difficult to avoid in certain situations.
However, I would like for the average level of stress and friction in our
interactions to be more moderate. I would like for staff to feel generally
okay regarding communicating in public, and I would like for affiliates and
community members (in which I include myself) to feel less pain.
I think that the mission to share verifiable and reliable knowledge with
the world is amazing, and I'm grateful that we do this. However, the stress
level regarding WMF-affiliate-community interactions feels high in a way
that I think that this is a problem. Maybe a question to ask about our
interactions is, "How can improve the quality of our interactions in a way
that is generally beneficial for all groups and beneficial for our common
goals?"
Would anyone like to make suggestions?
Thanks,
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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