[Foundation-l] strategic planning IRC office hours

[Erik Moeller]

2009/7/21 Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com>:

> (speaking of which, engaging public grants discussions is a
> good idea to bring up during planning -- since some of the most active
> community work in support of grants happened when community members found
> out about, and were excited by, a potential NEH proposal back in '04...
> before a barrier to participation was thrown up.)

An interesting framing. ;-) I agree that a discussion about when
grants make sense, and how to effectively apply for them and execute
them, is important. I don't think there are any easy answers. The NEH
grant, as you may recall, was unsuccessful, and WMF has been
successful at actually obtaining significant grant support only
recently. And obtaining a grant is only a small part of the work; you
actually have to be able to meet your obligations and report on your
progress according to the grant-givers' requirements, which vary. For
restricted support, you have to make sure that the grants you apply
for are things that make sense as organizational priorities.

We used community input in developing the Ford multimedia upload
proposal - specifically, I created
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Case_for_Commons and invited
public feedback in a number of places, which was helpful for the core
section of the proposal. In general, I think community participation
is great for the "meaty" pieces of a proposal, about the substance of
the work or the justifications for it, while externalizing the
knowledge about the procedural requirements of various foundations
seems potentially wasteful. If you can point to successful relevant
collaborations inside and outside WMF, that would be a good start in
further developing our knowledge base.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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