Hello all, I've been thinking about how WMUK can communicate better with our community and let Wikimedians communicate with each other. I've heard from some community members that they were a little disappointed that people were no longer using the Water Cooler page for discussions.
I'd like to propose some different options and ask if you have any other suggestions about how you'd like to communicate with us and others in the community. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with some options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four options, so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the Mailing List.
I'd really appreciate if you could take the time to vote which one you'd prefer or reply here or to the Tweet with any other suggestions for how you'd like to communicate with us.
What I'm really keen to communicate are the opportunities for our community to engage with us, propose projects, receive funding and other assistance from WMUK. To this end, it would be good to have an open channel or discussion group of some kind where we can respond to your ideas and allow you to ask us questions about our work. We'd like to be as open as the knowledge we promote, so please let us know your views about how we can do that better.
Have a great weekend!
John Lubbock Communications Coordinator Wikimedia UK
In times gone-by, we used to host "office hours" on the WMUK channel on irc.
For anybody not familiar with it, our channel is at irc://freenode/wikimedia-uk
For anybody not familiar with irc, it requies a client, like mirc or a browser plugin like chatzilla. It allows large numbers of participants, is real-time chat, and gives a lot of control over the channel.
It might be considered old technology now, but may be worth a thought.
Ahh, thanks Rex. I was going to propose IRC as a 5th option. I wouldn't be averse to trying to use IRC, but I do think that Slack has many of the same functions and is easier for people to join as you don't need a client. I'm currently trying to start an internal staff Slack channel, but we could also have a community Slack channel which other people could join.
John
On 19 August 2016 at 20:11, Rex X rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
In times gone-by, we used to host "office hours" on the WMUK channel on irc.
For anybody not familiar with it, our channel is at irc://freenode/wikimedia-uk
For anybody not familiar with irc, it requies a client, like mirc or a browser plugin like chatzilla. It allows large numbers of participants, is real-time chat, and gives a lot of control over the channel.
It might be considered old technology now, but may be worth a thought.
-- Rexx
On 19 August 2016 at 19:53 John Lubbock john.lubbock@wikimedia.org.uk
wrote:
Hello all, I've been thinking about how WMUK can communicate better with our community and let Wikimedians communicate with each other. I've heard from some community members that they were a little disappointed that people were no longer using the Water Cooler page for discussions.
I'd like to propose some different options and ask if you have any other suggestions about how you'd like to communicate with us and others in the community. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with some options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four
options,
so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the Mailing List.
I'd really appreciate if you could take the time to vote which one you'd prefer or reply here or to the Tweet with any other suggestions for how you'd like to communicate with us.
What I'm really keen to communicate are the opportunities for our
community
to engage with us, propose projects, receive funding and other assistance from WMUK. To this end, it would be good to have an open channel or discussion group of some kind where we can respond to your ideas and
allow
you to ask us questions about our work. We'd like to be as open as the knowledge we promote, so please let us know your views about how we can
do
that better.
Have a great weekend!
John Lubbock Communications Coordinator Wikimedia UK _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
On 19/08/16 19:53, John Lubbock wrote:
. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with some options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four options, so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the Mailing List.
It is clear that one choice is already out in front!
:-)
Facebook is a very poor medium. Never heard of Slack.
How about Discourse?
"Civilized Discussion"
Gordo
Gosh, I'd didn't realise how difficult preference voting was on twitter. I had to log on as 6 different IPs to vote for my third preference once, my second preference twice, and my first preference three times.
So I plan to start using the IRC channel freenode/wikimedia-uk to post some announcements and see what kind of engagement there is there. Everybody's welcome to join. I'll have it open during office hours.
John
On 20 August 2016 at 23:03, Rex X rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
Gosh, I'd didn't realise how difficult preference voting was on twitter. I had to log on as 6 different IPs to vote for my third preference once, my second preference twice, and my first preference three times.
-- Rexx
On 20 August 2016 at 20:08 Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
On 19/08/16 19:53, John Lubbock wrote:
. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with some options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four options, so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the Mailing
List.
It is clear that one choice is already out in front!
:-)
Facebook is a very poor medium. Never heard of Slack.
How about Discourse?
"Civilized Discussion"
Gordo
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
We set up a page in 2011 for coordinating IRC meetings and used to have #wikimedia-uk-board for the community to be able to raise discussion directly with Trustees, so questions could be raised live during our meetings and there could be discussion about chapter affairs away from the main channel. See https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Community_IRC_meetings, there was some discussion about choosing the best communication channels for the chapter that you can probably find in the board minutes for that time; the issues are no different today. The transient nature of IRC, and it's public openness, is a benefit for some users, while the persistence of posts to Facebook groups along with privacy and closed groups is preferred by others.
The most successful past use of the wikimedia-uk channel was when it was used as live support for edit-a-thons. It was an excellent way to offer advice for remote contributors, including on-project sysop support without having to permanently publish questions on-wiki, and was something we could point to as evidence of not expecting volunteers to travel across the country for events.
You may want to update the wiki page for online meetings. I or another IRC op can add it back to the channel notice if it starts to get maintained or another page does.
Keep in mind that similar to this email list, the IRC channel is for the UK community of Wikimedians, rather than only for Chapter matters and events. It's worth also noting that it may take a day for someone to notice a question or comment on IRC, so be prepared for significantly asynchronous chat and it's worth staying logged in for days at a time if you expect to have a discussion.
Thanks, Fae
On 22 August 2016 at 18:04, John Lubbock john.lubbock@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
So I plan to start using the IRC channel freenode/wikimedia-uk to post some announcements and see what kind of engagement there is there. Everybody's welcome to join. I'll have it open during office hours.
John
On 20 August 2016 at 23:03, Rex X rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
Gosh, I'd didn't realise how difficult preference voting was on twitter. I had to log on as 6 different IPs to vote for my third preference once, my second preference twice, and my first preference three times.
-- Rexx
On 20 August 2016 at 20:08 Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
On 19/08/16 19:53, John Lubbock wrote:
. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with some options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four options, so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the Mailing List.
It is clear that one choice is already out in front!
:-)
Facebook is a very poor medium. Never heard of Slack.
How about Discourse?
"Civilized Discussion"
Gordo
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Hi Fae, I'm happy to keep IRC for remote assistance during editathons. The problem I think is that it is slightly anachronistic and mostly appeals to people who have a slightly more tech background. If we are going to include younger people and those without as much of a tech background, I can't help but feeling it's not going to be ideal for those people. I don't think there's really an ideal single solution to this problem, because different groups will want to use different means of communicating with each other and with staff. Still, I'm happy to try anything out and use a bunch of different methods to see which are more effective at engaging people.
John
On 23 August 2016 at 12:39, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
We set up a page in 2011 for coordinating IRC meetings and used to have #wikimedia-uk-board for the community to be able to raise discussion directly with Trustees, so questions could be raised live during our meetings and there could be discussion about chapter affairs away from the main channel. See https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Community_IRC_meetings, there was some discussion about choosing the best communication channels for the chapter that you can probably find in the board minutes for that time; the issues are no different today. The transient nature of IRC, and it's public openness, is a benefit for some users, while the persistence of posts to Facebook groups along with privacy and closed groups is preferred by others.
The most successful past use of the wikimedia-uk channel was when it was used as live support for edit-a-thons. It was an excellent way to offer advice for remote contributors, including on-project sysop support without having to permanently publish questions on-wiki, and was something we could point to as evidence of not expecting volunteers to travel across the country for events.
You may want to update the wiki page for online meetings. I or another IRC op can add it back to the channel notice if it starts to get maintained or another page does.
Keep in mind that similar to this email list, the IRC channel is for the UK community of Wikimedians, rather than only for Chapter matters and events. It's worth also noting that it may take a day for someone to notice a question or comment on IRC, so be prepared for significantly asynchronous chat and it's worth staying logged in for days at a time if you expect to have a discussion.
Thanks, Fae
On 22 August 2016 at 18:04, John Lubbock john.lubbock@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
So I plan to start using the IRC channel freenode/wikimedia-uk to post
some
announcements and see what kind of engagement there is there. Everybody's welcome to join. I'll have it open during office hours.
John
On 20 August 2016 at 23:03, Rex X rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
Gosh, I'd didn't realise how difficult preference voting was on
twitter. I
had to log on as 6 different IPs to vote for my third preference once, my second preference twice, and my first preference three times.
-- Rexx
On 20 August 2016 at 20:08 Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:
On 19/08/16 19:53, John Lubbock wrote:
. So I've put a poll on Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimediauk/status/766703544275767297 with
some
options for communications channels. I couldn't put more than four options, so I chose Facebook, the Water Cooler, Slack and the
Mailing
List.
It is clear that one choice is already out in front!
:-)
Facebook is a very poor medium. Never heard of Slack.
How about Discourse?
"Civilized Discussion"
Gordo
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
On 22/08/16 18:04, John Lubbock wrote:
So I plan to start using the IRC channel freenode/wikimedia-uk to post some announcements and see what kind of engagement there is there. Everybody's welcome to join. I'll have it open during office hours.
John
Excellent. I am on now.... listening....
Gordo
On 22/08/16 18:04, John Lubbock wrote:
So I plan to start using the IRC channel freenode/wikimedia-uk to post some announcements and see what kind of engagement there is there. Everybody's welcome to join. I'll have it open during office hours.
John
At the moment there are 14 "nicks" (earlier 18).
Gordo
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org