I think this makes sense. It is easy for experienced Wikimedians to lose sight of the fact that wikis are not the most welcoming environment to newbies. Meanwhile, people who otherwise might've had something to contribute to WMUK but got lost in the weird world of the wiki will now have a resource to access.

Obviously for the more regular, hardcore WMUK volunteers, the wiki will remain the primary resource, and if someone wants to become a hardcore volunteer then they'll need to deal with that. But for other casual volunteers, having the wiki not be a barrier to entry sounds good to me.

Dan


On 10 June 2014 10:28, Stevie Benton <stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
There's a few points I made on the wiki that I think are worth repeating here and that I hope can help:

  • The wiki is not going anywhere and will remain the primary resource. 
  • For those who wish to go straight to the wiki, there will be a simple option on their first visit to add a cookie which will take them to the wiki at every subsequent visit. This is a requirement of the brief. 
  • Each page of the website will directly link to the wiki, especially the volunteer, GLAM and education areas. 
  • The website will include portals for GLAM, education and volunteering as well as a home page and an about page. These pages will build on existing, community-driven content. 
  • This is not an abandonment of our values. Several other significant chapters, including many listed in the brief itself, have websites as well as wikis - this is very much bringing us in-line with the work of other chapters. It is not something new or something that is a departure from the work elsewhere in the movement. 
  • It is also a chance to make sure that stuff that is really important for those new to Wikimedia UK, and aren't Wikimedians, is highly accessible. Our wiki, like pretty much any Media Wiki installation I can think of, is not very accessible. We haven't really made any progress with this and it is extremely important that we do so, one way or another. 
I also want to clarify that existing Wikimedians are not the key audience for this and will be unaffected. We want to have a space for newcomers, too. I'm confident this will help us actually grow our volunteer community. I hope this helps, and I'm happy to answer direct questions on my talk page if you would like me to, although here is obviously fine as well, as is the Wikimedia UK wiki. Thank you.

Stevie


On 10 June 2014 17:51, Dan Garry (Deskana) <djgwiki@gmail.com> wrote:
If someone makes a mistake when putting content into the new website, then that mistake will remain for longer as volunteers won't be able to fix it. On the other hand, a wiki isn't a great primary website for an organisation, and WMUK should gain a lot from having a website that's easier to navigate and use.

Whether this tradeoff is worth it or not depends on the structure of WMUK's plans and how much the website and wiki are used in conjunction with each other, so I think there's insufficient information to draw a conclusion either way at this stage.

Dan


On 8 June 2014 09:58, Fæ <faewik@gmail.com> wrote:
Do any fellow unpaid volunteers have a view on the changeover of the
charity from using the volunteer controlled wiki as a front end, to
using a fixed employee controlled website?

I feel this will be the end of the UK wiki in terms of being a public
landing site with immediate engagement with fellow volunteers.
Instead, we will have a public relations website subject to control by
the Chief Executive, presumably full of good news, and hidden behind
it will be the UK wiki, now acting only as a forum rather than a space
where volunteers could create pages that support fund-raisers, openly
discuss real issues, problems and so forth.

As a community of volunteers, we seem to have let the charity
gradually drift away from being volunteer driven and volunteer centric
and become overly sensitive to public relations. I am not sure why we
let that happen.

Link
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required

Fae
--
faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae

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-- 
Stevie Benton
Head of External Relations
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton


Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).



Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.

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