[Foundation-l] Movement Roles: my suggestion of "Language Contact Persons"

[Theo10011]

Hi Ziko

I am not sure if I see the point here. There are 2 issues getting conflated
here, one is representation of languages between national chapters which I
believe, is a much bigger issue. The second issue, where these Language
contact persons serve WMF and the movement in talking about local language
issues, help communicate, translate basically represent their communities is
a different issue.

I'm sorry but I don't see the apparent benefit in this, something similar
already exists unofficially and is done by volunteers. Casey and sometimes
other people in charge of translations, reach out to their language contact
on Meta or locally for translations or similar purposes.

WMF already has minimal interaction in this scenario with anyone. Then there
is the issue of the large and spread out language communities, which at 280
odd language versions of wikipedia would be an enormous task to coordinate
with. The issue is a very large majority of those aren't as active, or
interested in participating. They are volunteers and chose to limit their
involvement.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently only a dozen or a few dozen languages
have active translators that answer calls for participation and help with
general outreach. Casey has to follow through with them personally on
several different places to get them to coordinate already. If the idea is,
somehow officiating their positions as representative of their community, I
can see a small benefit there but I doubt it makes sense to consider them a
separate entities than just volunteers. WMF doesn't interact directly with
those communities to begin with, so having 280 LCPs (and 280 Deputies) for
tasks already done by volunteers doesn't make sense, maybe it's just me.

This might however, make sense for the fundraising team, to have designated
LCPs for translations.

Theo

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 1:46 AM, Ziko van Dijk <zvandijk at googlemail.com>wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> One element of the discussions on "Movement Roles" was about other /
> new entities within our movement, aside the already existing
> Foundation and the Chapters, which I prefer to call "national
> Wikimedia organizations". I would like to present to you here my idea
> of "Language Contact Persons" who form a link between the Foundation
> and the Wikipedia language versions.
>
> == New entities?==
> James Forrester and his group (sorry, I don't remember who was the
> official primus inter pares) presented in/before Haifa a list of new
> kinds of Wikimedia entities:
> * Chapters not based on national boundaries, but subjects such as
> railways, art, ethnic cultures, mathematics etc.
> * informal groups
> * Official partners, e.g. a museum we (the Foundation? a national
> Wikimedia organization?) that already exists outside our movement
>
> ==Scepticism==
> I myself, and also some people I have talked to, are very sceptical
> about such new entities. I believe that in theory it is possible to
> create and maintain them, but in practice there can come up a lot of
> problems. Imagine that a group wants to join that is occupied with
> Marxism, or Zionism, or other potentially controversial subjects. And
> then groups with antimarxism, antizionism etc.  What subjects exactly
> (and what kind of behavior) do we want to allow? And what actual
> problem we would try to solve with such new entities?
>
> One particular question is the organization of ethnic or linguistic
> groups which cannot have a national Wikimedia organization (chapter),
> but which also cannot or don't want to integrate into existing
> national Wikimedia organizations. The best known example are the
> Catalans together with the Scottish Wikipedians (or just some of
> them?).
>
> == A concrete problem to be solved ==
> I must mention here my personal interests. I am an editor of Wikipedia
> in Esperanto, a small, transnational language that never can have a
> national Wikimedia organization. We Esperanto-Wikipedians can also not
> easily integrate into existing national Wikimedia organizations
> because we live in many different countries, where other (national)
> languages are dominant. So, as an Esperantist I would like it very
> much to see a Esperanto "chapter" of Wikimedia, but as a Wikimedian in
> general I am afraid that it would open a box of Pandora.
>
> Thinking of practical problems, I remember that we small language
> Wikipedians often don't have good connections with the Wikimedia
> organizations. We don't know well how to make use of the existing
> material and other ressources. And the Foundation and the national
> Wikimedia organizations know little of us. When I go to the Foundation
> and ask whether we are allowed to use the logos for a flyer in my
> small language, then the Foundation might ask itself: *Who is this
> Ziko, can we trust him, does he speak for more people than only
> himself?*
>
> == Language Contact Person (LCP) ==
> I would like to suggest a small solution to solve a part of the
> problems. Every language version of Wikipedia should designate a
> "Language Contact Person" for relations with the Foundation (and
> national Wikimedia organizations). This LCP is to be elected by a poll
>  with the same requirements as for admins.
>
> A deputy LCP is also to be elected, in order to replace a LCP when
> necessary. If one of both is no longer active, it will be the task of
> the remaining one to take care of a new election of that other
> position.
>
> You know, originally it is often an admin who represents a language
> version in one way or other. But that is not really the task of an
> admin, and other people might be a suitable LCP but are not
> interesting in becoming an admin. The LCP would be only a liaison
> officer, he won't "officially represent" the language version. Like
> adminship it will be less a position of honour but of work.
>
> The LCP has to report to the Foundation about the language version and
> its community and outreach, monthly or at least once a year. (Think of
> my "Tell us about your Wikipedia" project on Meta.) And when the
> Foundation wishes to contact that language version, for example when
> it needs a translation or wants the whole movement to know about
> something important, the LCP is the best way to take care of that. The
> LCP knows the village pumps and mailing lists etc. of his language.
> So, in future, Casey Brown does not have to search and contact all
> those language versions and their activists, but will simply post to a
> common mailing list of all LCPs and they will do the rest.
>
> On the other hand, when the Wikipedians of a particular language
> version have a specific problem and seek for help from the Foundation,
> they can do that most efficiently via their LCP.
>
> Of course, a LCP is not only useful for small languages. Think of
> Spanish, a global language. Some Spanish speaking countries have a
> national Wikimedia organization, others have not. A Spanish Wikipedia
> LCP can be the coordinator of a flyer in Spanish for all of the
> Spanish speaking countries.
>
> == Experimental phase ==
> My suggestion is that the Foundation asks the Wikipedia language
> versions to elect LCPs (and their deputies). After a year, the
> Foundation evaluates the experiences with the LCPs, whether  they
> really make communication more efficient or not. Then,
> * the LCP system can remain the same as it is,
> * or has to be abolished because it caused more work than it helped,
> * or the system will be given a more formal basis, with the LCP
> getting a higher status or more tasks, or even becoming the nucleus of
> language based formal Wikimedia organizations.
> Maybe the LCP experiences can be of value with regard to Wikimedia
> projects such as Wikisource, Wikibooks etc.
>
> Please let me know what you think about the possibility and potential
> usefulness of Language Contact Persons.
>
> Kind regards
> Ziko
>
> --
> Ziko van Dijk
> The Netherlands
> http://zikoblog.wordpress.com/
>
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