Hoi,
Ravi, I am not a professional. I am a volunteer.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 2 May 2014 09:47, Ravishankar <ravidreams(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi Gerard,
The disucssion in the mail thread is about cost / benefit comparison of
two similar outreach events
1.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Draft_Work_plan_J…
and
2.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Tinucherian_and_Shijualex/Wiki_C…
For which Vishnu suggested the following:
// Going forward we will not be able to contribute actively in these
community building efforts due to our current personal and professional
priorities.// which requires some introspection.
This amounts to saying that since we don't have continuous supply of
capable volunteers to do such outreach work, we can justify the involvement
of paid professionals.
This is a dangerous trend which will end up in justifying paid
professionals involved in all aspects of Wikipedia work except directly
writing articles.
This is already happening as can be seen at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/…
This is no way to build a sustainable and self run organic community.
A community doesn't evolve strong leadership and ownership just by
writing articles.
Occassional vaccum in particular aspects of community activity is
perfectly acceptable.
Actually, many times we intentionally create this vaccum to motivate new
comers and take responsibility. Otherwise, they will think there is always
someone else to take care. And if that someone is paid, there won't be any
initiative and nurturing from the community at all.
Do you know the most frequently asked question when we do outreach?
* What do you get for doing this?
* What do I get for doing this?
When we say we both get nothing and insist this is a volunteer service,
immediate trust is established.
When the person doing outreach is getting paid, then this is nothing but
a sermon and throws away the balance in equation.
//Your assumption that it is about building a better Wikipedia indicates
to me how limited your notion is about what it takes to "share in the sum
of all knowledge". //
You make it sound as though you are teaching rocket science to cave men
about the need for having paid professionals in the context of your WMNL
experience.
Let me assure you that the Indian community is well aware and capabale of
the whole context in which the movement works.
We have a very capable chapter that has run hugely successful programs as
can be seen here at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Wikim…
Tamil and Malayalam Wiki communities have worked with their respective
State Governments, MNCs like Google, built institutional partnerships, got
content donations all on their own with no formal Wikimedia organization
involved and ZERO COST. I am sure that the Wikimedia Bangladesh community
is also quite resourceful.
The need for involving paid professionals arises only when you have a
formal organization with time bound targets and specialist work for which
the community members need not always be the best fit or available 24x7.
So, I am not discounting the need for paid professionals.
But the current trend of employing professionals in volunteer domain is
disturbing.
We need to have a discussion on what should be strictly in the volunteer
domain considering the long term effects.
Ravi
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