[Foundation-l] Re: Information flow

[Anthere]

Dan Grey wrote:

> On 18/08/05, Anthere <anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:  
> 
>>Now that several people have expressed their feeling we are non
>>transparent, I would like that they go further than just stating a
>>situation, and make suggestions to improve. 
>>
>>Michael is mentionning that "with the developers, they struggle
>>constantly with more pressing issues". And that "we could use three or
>>four times as many developers".
> 
> 
> Hackers rarely communicate outside of themselves. Fact of life in that
> arena. However, the server log:
> 
> http://wp.wikidev.net/Server_admin_log
> 
> isn't too bad.

What is funny is that it is assumed allright that developers only 
communicate in their area, but it is not allright for others. Why ?


>>I have a problem with the equation
>>
>>board : amount of time spent answering personal mails + amount of time
>>spend on OTRS + amount of time spent writing board meeting reports +
>>amount of time spent writing to this list + amount of time spent on
>>setting up a wikimedia foundation website + amount of time spent writing
>>Quarto
>>
>>With
>>
>>Wikipedians : we are not informed.
>>
>>It does not fit :-)
>> 
>>
>>So my questions are
>>
>>* exactly on which topic do you feel you are not informed ? 
> 
> 
> Everything. The WMF wiki is a shambles and so are the related meta pages. 


Everything is frankly not a valuable answer :)
Please be more specific. There is so much to do that we CAN NOT start on 
everything all at once.


I do not know what a shamble is, but I can imagine.

When you say "so are related meta pages", I do not follow you. Please 
again be more specific.


--------

Since you consider you are lacking information on every point, let's 
start by one example to try to evaluate the damage.

Here is a meta page listing the board meeting reports :
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Board_meetings

Look at it please.

On the right side, there is a nice and clear navigation tool, leading 
you to major pages. Is that navigation tool sufficient ? Or not ? 
Suggestion for improvement ?


On the left, a very very very straight forward and clear list of all 
board meeting held.
Good news, when you click on the links, it actually goes somewhere... 
and there, you will find each time a summary of each board meeting, made 
by Angela (who, incidently, is no more secretary. She was a good one. 
Did anyone ever thanked her for taking the time to organise our meetings 
? take the time to thank her for these very clear reports ? Well, she is 
no more secretary. I hope next reports will be as accurate and clear 
than Angela's. Thanks Angela :-)).

The reports are hosted on the Foundation website.

Are they sufficient ?
	if not sufficient, please explain Tim Shell how they can be improved, 
for he will now be our secretary
Are they clear enough ?
	If not, please explain how to clarify them.
Are they translated enough ?	
	Probably not. Well, The board only speaks two languages, so please help 
us find more people to help with translation.
Are they easy to find enough ?
	Probably not. What do you suggest ? I have been caressing the idea of 
re-doing all the foundation meta pages and foundation website pages for 
clearer access, but could never find the time to do it yet.
Are they well advertised ?
	Angela mentionned all of the board meeting on this mailing list. Do we 
need more place to advertise these for example? Or relays ? Did you 
yourself advertised them on wikinews ?


> I suspect a lot of the information people want *is* actually out
> there, it's just very hard to find.
> 
> 
>>* please cite some examples of how we could inform you. Please not "I
>>want to be more informed", but HOW, WHERE, WHEN and under WHICH form.
> 
> 
> 1. Start the announce-l list, and use it

It is unclear for me if the announce list should be the list for the 
foundation to announce things. Right now, we announce things on this 
mailing list, which allow you to comment on what is announced (while 
announce-l will not allow this). But I am open to this suggestion.


> 2. Make the WMF wiki useful

Ah, good point. Now, next good point : who is concerned ?
How many people are editing this website ? Are you yourself an editor 
over there ? Did you help for any of the translations done there ? Any 
one can help with translation as these are done on meta.


> 3. I understand that there is now code to transclude templates between
> wikis. This would make "broadcasting" info to individual wikis's
> village pumps easy, if it were to be enabled. This would be
> *extremely* powerful.

I absolutely agree. I am sorry to say I know nothing about these new 
templates. I am definitly interested by the prospect. Can you tell me 
more about this ?


> 4. Y'know, a "board and officers" blog would be very useful. Perhaps
> the blogging extension could be turned on on the WMF wiki.

I also agree. This has been discussed a year ago, and not kept. I would 
agree it might be a solution.

This said, a blog only lives because people think of adding stuff to it.
On the WMF, I started a news template which might be a sort of a blog 
(except that it is not).

Look : http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home

It is in the right side, blue background.

It intends to give short news of major events. Now, two issues about this

First, do people think of going there to read information (or to read 
Quarto ?). I fear not. So, what do you suggest we do to push people to 
come here for information ? Having more news will certainly help.

Second, this is definitely a place for board, officers and chapters to 
add information. Overall, chapters included, that might sum up to 30 
people. The fact is few of them think of adding information here. How to 
  clarify the fact they can ?



> As someone who is a) disappointed with the foundation and it's lack of
> openess, real or percieved, and b) is a whizz with wikis and how to
> make them easy-to-follow, I would be very happy to sort out the WMF
> wiki.

Sorry, I am not sure I understand well what you wrote. What does "being 
a whizz with wikis" mean, and what do you mean by "sort out the WMF wiki" ?
Do you mean to close it, or do you mean to participate to help its 
development ?

If you have ideas about developping it, your help will be welcome. Be 
certain of that Dan.



> Dan