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,
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@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 ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
I like the idea of more transparency, and I think that opening processes can often help to reduce surprises and increase the quality of decisions.
I wonder whether a reason that people hide information, including drafts and plans, is that they are afraid that if they share information then someone will criticize them bluntly for perceived shortcomings.
I think that some courage is necessary to publish work while knowing that the work may be criticized. Public speaking is a common fear, and I wonder whether we should do more to encourage people and to train people how to present in public even when there is a risk of criticism. I have drafted some additional comments regarding this point that I may share later.
At the same time, I understand that the level of frustration in the Wikiverse can be high, and it's easy to snap at someone else who may be generally competent and have had good intentions when they share something, make a comment, or ask a question. (My guess is that if I review my own emails then I will find a few emails that I wish that I had worded differently.)
I also wonder if, collectively, we should work on improving our listening and one on one conversation skills. By listening I do not necessarily mean "create a survey and obtain analytics", although surveys and analytics can be useful tools. Listening includes hearing comments that are unpleasant, and hearing criticism that may be delivered coldly. Listening may difficult, but my guess is that improving our collective listening skills would decrease the average level of stress and frustration in the Wikiverse. People who feel heard and are given a chance to shape decisions, in my experience, sometimes become more understanding and accepting, while people who feel ignored may also feel frustrated and resentful.
Regarding WMF specifically, I think that some teams in WMF do a good job of listening, while others seem to regard listening as something that is best done exclusively through surveys and analytics. I think that surveys and analytics can be good, but also that one on one conversations are often necessary for enriching mutual understanding, for the greatest chance of producing good outcomes, and for decreasing the average level of frustration and stress in our shared environment.
On this note, here's an essay I wrote along similar lines in 2016. I think things have improved significantly since then, but most of the observations are still true...
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:The_Land/Why_do_They_always_do_It_wrong
On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 7:01 PM Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
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 ) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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