[Foundation-l] A Wikimedia project has forked

[Samuel Klein]

On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Mike  Dupont
<jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 11:57 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>
>> From Wikimedia's perspective, I think this is "one down, several hundred to go."
>> Wikimedia has made it clear that its singular focus is the English Wikipedia.
>> All other Wikipedias are peripheral; all other project types are abandoned.

> oh that is alarming. can you tell me more?

That is alarming because it is MZM's fear, but it does not represent
the views of the Foundation.

(MZM, would you mind finding a more accurate way to express your
observations, hopes and frustrations on this subject?)

Not speaking on behalf of the Foundation, but repeating what Erik said
earlier and pointing to our five-year plan, the WMF is prioritizing
community-driven innovation as one of its core targets for support.
There is a language barrier to overcome; as Gerard notes the
localisation team should help improve matters there.

And in my experience the WMF spends a great deal of time in public and
internally working with, researching, and discussing the smaller
projects and languages.  Far more than "proportional to current size
or readership" -- maybe not as much as some would like.   For anyone
who wishes to see more work on their favorite project : please suggest
a specific way to make that happen.  :-)


MZMcBride writes:
>> Perhaps with the exception of Wikimedia Commons, which is able to
>> pull in grant money, so it continues to receive some level of technical support.

All sister projects are able to pull in grant money if it is pursued.
There are a variety of major foundations devoted to, or prioritizing,
curation and access to {primary source materials, language and
literacy materials, civic journalism,  free textbooks, open
educational resources, biology and species data, oral histories, &c.}.
 I would love to see us attract more of that sort of interest.  Even
projects that we worry about and say "did not achieve critical mass"
are often significant successes by the standards of existing
grant-supported work elsewhere in the world.

Sam.