Thanks Sue.
I am cautious when there are specific cuts such as Fellowships in exchange for indeterminate benefits. That makes a cost-benefit analysis difficult to do. Maybe this is a good tradeoff, but from the information that's publicly available, I'm still particularly concerned about the loss of the Fellowships. Could those be funded by increasing the amount of the fundraising goal?
Some of the other possible tradeoffs and outsourcing do make sense to me. The loss of the fellowships is my main concern.
Looking at the bright side, I would be very glad if one of the benefits from narrowing focus is that the progress of the Visual Editor is hastened.
Thanks,
Pine
From: Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 105, Issue 1 Message-ID: CAGZ0=LNMvd+mYRLyRxOVxcFMPcHhhD4iUaxodgFF6dw=Mmdrbw@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Pine,
We haven't articulated specific and measurable benefits: that's why you haven't gotten an answer to your question. That's because the Narrowing Focus exercise is not a one-off immediate-term event: it's a longer-term decision which will have multiple implications in this year and in future years.
The Board approved the general principle: that narrowing focus would benefit the organization, which had been spread too thinly. But, the precise implications won't be known until the process begins to play out. For example, we've made a decision to outsource some of the WMF work associated with Wikimania, but until we define the terms of the outsourcing, we can't know what the exact implications will be. (Because we don't know what it will cost, or what work the contractor/consultant will be able to do. We *will* know those things in future, and I could make educated guesses about them now, but we can't know with certainty until we run an RFP process or similar.)
Upshot: this is a long-term-focused decision, and it'll take a while for the implications to begin to play out. I've told the Board we shouldn't expect to see too much in the way of benefits in 2012-13 (the current fiscal year) because there will be work required to execute the various components of it, which will offset whatever gain we might otherwise have seen this year. We may see a little pay-off this year, but mostly it will start to happen in 2023-14.
Thanks, Sue On Dec 2, 2012 3:56 PM, "ENWP Pine" deyntestiss@hotmail.com wrote:
Tilman,
Thanks, I always like reading these reports.
Again, I'd like to ask what specific and measurable benefits the "changing focus" changes will accomplish. I've been asking this for awhile.
Thanks,
Pine
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:37 -0800 From: Tilman Bayer tbayer@wikimedia.org To: wikimediaannounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, October 2012 Message-ID: <CAPDdKA5QRw_+kn=Pdb9Ryc9=
VpOeZTxXbGFz5KWnCPHee7me8Q@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2012
and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay updated, by providing a translation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2012 Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome until Wednesday (December 5) at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
As far as I understood the rationale for the narrowing, the idea is not to safe money but to safe people. By focusing on what the Foundation's tasks should be and by letting go of the others, you reduce stress on people as you allow them to concentrate on a smaller set of tasks. Focus brings flow brings happiness.
Another point that was explicitly mentioned was that the Fellowship program can be performed by other movement bodies, as the WMF is explicitly stepping away from it, freeing it up for others. There are some things that only the WMF can do, and these are the things the WMF should focus on. This is how I understood the proposal.
2012/12/3 ENWP Pine deyntestiss@hotmail.com
Thanks Sue.
I am cautious when there are specific cuts such as Fellowships in exchange for indeterminate benefits. That makes a cost-benefit analysis difficult to do. Maybe this is a good tradeoff, but from the information that's publicly available, I'm still particularly concerned about the loss of the Fellowships. Could those be funded by increasing the amount of the fundraising goal?
Some of the other possible tradeoffs and outsourcing do make sense to me. The loss of the fellowships is my main concern.
Looking at the bright side, I would be very glad if one of the benefits from narrowing focus is that the progress of the Visual Editor is hastened.
Thanks,
Pine
From: Sue Gardner sgardner@wikimedia.org To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 105, Issue 1 Message-ID: <CAGZ0=LNMvd+mYRLyRxOVxcFMPcHhhD4iUaxodgFF6dw=
Mmdrbw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Pine,
We haven't articulated specific and measurable benefits: that's why you haven't gotten an answer to your question. That's because the Narrowing Focus exercise is not a one-off immediate-term event: it's a longer-term decision which will have multiple implications in this year and in future years.
The Board approved the general principle: that narrowing focus would benefit the organization, which had been spread too thinly. But, the precise implications won't be known until the process begins to play out. For example, we've made a decision to outsource some of the WMF work associated with Wikimania, but until we define the terms of the outsourcing, we can't know what the exact implications will be. (Because
we
don't know what it will cost, or what work the contractor/consultant will be able to do. We *will* know those things in future, and I could make educated guesses about them now, but we can't know with certainty until
we
run an RFP process or similar.)
Upshot: this is a long-term-focused decision, and it'll take a while for the implications to begin to play out. I've told the Board we shouldn't expect to see too much in the way of benefits in 2012-13 (the current fiscal year) because there will be work required to execute the various components of it, which will offset whatever gain we might otherwise have seen this year. We may see a little pay-off this year, but mostly it
will
start to happen in 2023-14.
Thanks, Sue On Dec 2, 2012 3:56 PM, "ENWP Pine" deyntestiss@hotmail.com wrote:
Tilman,
Thanks, I always like reading these reports.
Again, I'd like to ask what specific and measurable benefits the
"changing
focus" changes will accomplish. I've been asking this for awhile.
Thanks,
Pine
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:37 -0800 From: Tilman Bayer tbayer@wikimedia.org To: wikimediaannounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, October 2012 Message-ID: <CAPDdKA5QRw_+kn=Pdb9Ryc9=
VpOeZTxXbGFz5KWnCPHee7me8Q@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Hi all,
please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on
Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2012
and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay updated, by providing a translation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2012 Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole
movement.
Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome until Wednesday (December 5) at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
Regards, Tilman
--
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