On 25 June 2012 15:54, Jon Davies <jon.davies(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
A matter of timescales - getting really close to the
fundraiser and other
things.
Lots of opinions from different people and yet a decision had to be made.
Not an easy decision to make and those making it have shown leaderships I
think. You can't please all the people all of the time and this discussion
has been going on for all of the nine months I have been here. A long
gestation, time for a baby.
Two points for fairness (to both sides):
* Mike contacted me the other day to organise a time for us to chat, which
we will be doing. I'm hopeful that there is still time to reconsider some
of the options at hand. I think Mike's doing a great job in a difficult
situation.
* However; there didn't seem to be a lot of discussion r.e. the decision (I
appreciate some of it might have happened internally, but I obviously have
no knowledge of that). I posted in detail on the WMUK wik development
strategy talk page which generated zero responses. And although Mike
responded, very realistically, to my concerns there were still others,
larger, that weren't responded to by anyone - there were a number of key
things that could have been done to at least tweak/improve the job
description. None of which happened.
I still think this is a really poor approach and a big waste of funds which
will hampers us in the medium term. But hopefully Mike and I will have a
fruitful discussion tomorrow :)
As a point of interest; what *exactly* does need to be done for the
fundraiser? I've seen no actual specification; and what I was suggesting
when we last had these discussions is that we outline more specifically the
needs in this area.
I'd really like to see that specification publicised as part of the process
of involving the community in the development side of things.
And if that specification doesn't exist I'd question why a developer is
being hired ;)
Tom