[Foundation-l] More on Wikimedia strategic planning

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/5/2 geni <geniice at gmail.com>:
> 2009/5/2 Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>:
>> What would they spend it on? Talk is cheap, after all! Having
>> conversations is easy, having focused conversations that actually
>> reach useful conclusions is a little harder, but it isn't more
>> expensive.
>
> Data gathering, test setups whatever. If there isn't a budget there is
> little incentive for wikipedians to deal with a a system that even by
> wikipedia standards is painfully bureaucratic.

Without a little bureaucracy, this kind of thing doesn't work.

> Consider I can spend time messing around with working groups and
> subgroups that are somehow meant to work on the problems of "Reach,
> Quality and Participation" with zero budget and annoying bureaucratic
> barriers.
>
> Or I could join:
>
> Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia Outreach
> Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team
> And probably Wikipedia:WikiProject Community

Those are about doing stuff now, this is about planning for the
future. Both are worthy of your time.

> With out a budget what can the committees offer that doesn't appear
> through existing channels? Focus talk? Perhaps but there is no way to
> enforce that and keeping a group of wikipedians focused on anything
> for any length of time is pretty much impossible. Access to foundation
> personnel? Doesn't appear to be on offer and it's hard to guarantee
> useful access.

Focusing talk is precisely what they are meant to do. I agree it is
not something we are generally very good at, but it is worth making
the effort.

Some active research may be worthwhile for some parts of this process
(and some money for that would be good), but I think talk is the most
important part.