Hello all,
I’m really happy to announce that Fabrice Florin is joining the Wikimedia Foundation as Product Manager for New Editor Engagement.
In this position, Fabrice will take the lead in articulating and refining, in partnership with the community and the engineering team, the requirements for some of our most important features: those which will help us increase the engagement and retention of new contributors to Wikimedia projects.
Fabrice has already been supporting us as a contractor on the Article Feedback V5 project, and I’m really pleased that he’s joining us full-time, starting next week.
Six years ago, Fabrice founded NewsTrust, a non-profit organization dedicated to to helping people find quality journalism. As its Executive Director, Fabrice built the organization and the product from scratch, with a small team. NewsTrust is a fascinating community in its own right, and Fabrice and I first met when we discussed what lessons could be learned for Wikimedia’s own forays into rating/assessment tools.
Before that, Fabrice had a long carreer in the tech and media industry. He was VP of Online Entertainment at Macromedia, CEO of Zenda, Executive Producer at Apple, and President of Videowest. Read more in his online bio: http://bit.ly/fab-bio
Fabrice is perhaps the first WMF staffer with an IMDB entry. He directed the 1984 documentary “Hackers” which featured early tech luminaries like Bill Atkinson, Lee Felsenstein, Richard Stallman and Steve Wozniak.
Please join me in giving him a big welcome to the Wikimedia movement. :-)
Erik
-- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
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On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 00:29, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
I’m really happy to announce that Fabrice Florin is joining the Wikimedia Foundation as Product Manager for New Editor Engagement.
[...]
Please join me in giving him a big welcome to the Wikimedia movement. :-)
< holds up big WELCOME sign >
If I say that this sounds like a hugely important role the rest of the office will fold their arms and rightly harumph at me for the implied negation of their value, so I won't say that. But you can't keep up with Wikipedia news without being made constantly aware that gaining new editors is a serious business. I will be fascinated to see what you make of the ideas for volunteer recruitment we've had so far and any innovations you can come up with.
Congratulations and welcome to the other recent new hires as well.
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
en.User:Bodnotbod
On 10 January 2012 20:57, Bod Notbod bodnotbod@gmail.com wrote:
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
+1
-d.
Bod Notbod, 10/01/2012 21:57:
If I say that this sounds like a hugely important role the rest of the office will fold their arms and rightly harumph at me for the implied negation of their value, so I won't say that. But you can't keep up with Wikipedia news without being made constantly aware that gaining new editors is a serious business. I will be fascinated to see what you make of the ideas for volunteer recruitment we've had so far and any innovations you can come up with.
Congratulations and welcome to the other recent new hires as well.
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
Personal perspectives are perhaps not very suitable for the "official blog" (but may be), anyway engineering reports are being published regularly since a while and they're a very good way to know what's going on at least in the technology department, without having to read MiB of text. https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/technology/wmf-engineering-reports/ The other departments are more obscure. :-)
Nemo
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 21:26, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com wrote:
Personal perspectives are perhaps not very suitable for the "official blog" (but may be),
Ah. OK. I confess I'm more of a Signpost reader than of the blog, so I hadn't thought of it having a particular style or code.
anyway engineering reports are being published regularly since a while and they're a very good way to know what's going on at least in the technology department, without having to read MiB of text.
Yes. To clarify, it's not that I feel a sense of "I don't know what they get up to in that office"... I'm sure most things I'd be interested to know I could find out with judicious searching. I'm thinking more along the lines of not just putting names to faces but also a greater insight into what their current working day is like and projects of note.
Maybe forget the blog and Signpost. If we go here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors
We see that some staff don't yet have pictures. I would respect the choice of anyone who didn't want a pic up but they do go a long way in helping someone retain a name in their mind. Also some of the names are wikified but clicking through doesn't take you to anything substantive in some cases. Other names are not wikified at all. Some of the job titles are wikified and clicking takes you through to the job spec, which is great... but not all have that.
So any work that could be done to standardise the page somewhat would be most welcome. And I would definitely welcome it if staff were to project a bit of their personality in some kind of statement of their own. It all adds to that sense of the Foundation being approachable folk working to help us volunteers.
What I'm calling for, basically, is efforts to retain that feeling that you knew the staff which was easy to achieve when numbers were so small and will naturally lessen as the organisation grows, but a lessening which can be mitigated to some degree.
Bodnotbod
I'm happy to write something up, as the most recent community-sourced hire, if my bosses and comms are okay with it :).
On 10 January 2012 21:59, Bod Notbod bodnotbod@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 21:26, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com wrote:
Personal perspectives are perhaps not very suitable for the "official blog" (but may be),
Ah. OK. I confess I'm more of a Signpost reader than of the blog, so I hadn't thought of it having a particular style or code.
anyway engineering reports are being published regularly since a while and they're a very good way to know what's going on at least in the technology department, without having to read MiB of text.
Yes. To clarify, it's not that I feel a sense of "I don't know what they get up to in that office"... I'm sure most things I'd be interested to know I could find out with judicious searching. I'm thinking more along the lines of not just putting names to faces but also a greater insight into what their current working day is like and projects of note.
Maybe forget the blog and Signpost. If we go here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors
We see that some staff don't yet have pictures. I would respect the choice of anyone who didn't want a pic up but they do go a long way in helping someone retain a name in their mind. Also some of the names are wikified but clicking through doesn't take you to anything substantive in some cases. Other names are not wikified at all. Some of the job titles are wikified and clicking takes you through to the job spec, which is great... but not all have that.
So any work that could be done to standardise the page somewhat would be most welcome. And I would definitely welcome it if staff were to project a bit of their personality in some kind of statement of their own. It all adds to that sense of the Foundation being approachable folk working to help us volunteers.
What I'm calling for, basically, is efforts to retain that feeling that you knew the staff which was easy to achieve when numbers were so small and will naturally lessen as the organisation grows, but a lessening which can be mitigated to some degree.
Bodnotbod
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Bod Notbod, 10/01/2012 22:59:
Maybe forget the blog and Signpost. If we go here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Staff_and_contractors
We see that some staff don't yet have pictures. I would respect the choice of anyone who didn't want a pic up but they do go a long way in helping someone retain a name in their mind. Also some of the names are wikified but clicking through doesn't take you to anything substantive in some cases. Other names are not wikified at all. Some of the job titles are wikified and clicking takes you through to the job spec, which is great... but not all have that.
So any work that could be done to standardise the page somewhat would be most welcome. And I would definitely welcome it if staff were to project a bit of their personality in some kind of statement of their own. It all adds to that sense of the Foundation being approachable folk working to help us volunteers.
If you look at the talk page you'll see that I made the very same comment. ;-) https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Template_talk:Staff_and_contractors#Links_to_user_pages If you add links to user pages on Meta or MediaWikiWiki I'll be super-happy to publish the new version of the page. :-D
Nemo
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:26 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemowiki@gmail.com wrote:
Bod Notbod, 10/01/2012 21:57:
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
Personal perspectives are perhaps not very suitable for the "official blog" (but may be), anyway engineering reports are being published regularly since a while and they're a very good way to know what's going on at least in the technology department, without having to read MiB of text. https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/technology/wmf-engineering-reports/ The other departments are more obscure. :-)
The other departments provide similar updates in the general WMF monthly reports, see https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ (or https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_reports#Monthly_reports ).
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Bod Notbod bodnotbod@gmail.com wrote:
< holds up big WELCOME sign >
If I say that this sounds like a hugely important role the rest of the office will fold their arms and rightly harumph at me for the implied negation of their value, so I won't say that. But you can't keep up with Wikipedia news without being made constantly aware that gaining new editors is a serious business. I will be fascinated to see what you make of the ideas for volunteer recruitment we've had so far and any innovations you can come up with.
Congratulations and welcome to the other recent new hires as well.
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
Hi Bod,
I like the idea of having some kind of "first month at WMF" post, especially from someone in a very community-facing position like Fabrice. Let's plan to do that in February. I don't think it's a blog post but we can broadcast it here and in a couple of places.
Cheers, Erik
Thanks, Bod and Erik!
Great idea.
At your suggestion, I have scheduled this on my calendar, and plan to write an update about my first month at WMF on my MediaWiki userpage in mid-February.
Since I'm still a Wikipedia newbie, I will also will also write up my observations about my own user experience so far as a new editor. This will help identify what works and doesn't work for me as a user, while my perspective is still fresh. Then I will proceed to find solutions that would have made it easier for me to participate -- and see if they could help others as well.
In my experience, participation is an issue for all civic media sites, and Wikipedia has been luckier than most in that respect. Some of the biggest issues that prevent users from contributing typically include lack of time, lack of expertise, fear of rejection, insufficient motivation, abusive behavior, mistrust and cumbersome UI, to name but a few.
We hope to address some of these tough issues by providing a range of tools and incremental improvements to the Wikipedia user experience over time. Can't wait to work with you all to experiment with some of these ideas together.
More on this in a month ;o)
All the best,
Fabrice
__________________________________
Fabrice Florin Product Manager, Editor Engagement Wikimedia Foundation +1 (415) 388-6688 work +1 (415) 860-6484 mobile Email: fflorin@wikimedia.org
Article Feedback Tool V5: http://bit.ly/aft-v5
On Jan 10, 2012, at 3:37 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:
On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Bod Notbod bodnotbod@gmail.com wrote:
< holds up big WELCOME sign >
If I say that this sounds like a hugely important role the rest of the office will fold their arms and rightly harumph at me for the implied negation of their value, so I won't say that. But you can't keep up with Wikipedia news without being made constantly aware that gaining new editors is a serious business. I will be fascinated to see what you make of the ideas for volunteer recruitment we've had so far and any innovations you can come up with.
Congratulations and welcome to the other recent new hires as well.
It would be lovely if each of the new hires could guest post on the Foundation blog and/or write a page for Signpost once they've settled in and let us know what their average day is like and some insight into what they're working on. The staff is now getting to a size where even close followers of Wikimedia are liable to lose track. Some effort to keep the community feeling that they know all the staff would be much appreciated.
Hi Bod,
I like the idea of having some kind of "first month at WMF" post, especially from someone in a very community-facing position like Fabrice. Let's plan to do that in February. I don't think it's a blog post but we can broadcast it here and in a couple of places.
Cheers, Erik
-- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org