[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: Building a new Legal and Community Advocacy Department & Promotion of Philippe Beaudette

[Erik Moeller]

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 8:44 PM, Casey Brown <lists at caseybrown.org> wrote:
> "Advocacy" is a much more general term in this context than people
> seem to be taking it as. It does not mean lobbying or fighting for
> something controversial with outside organizations. As I understand
> it, it's the opposite: advocating to the Wikimedia Foundation on
> behalf of the community.

Yeah, that's my understanding of the game plan here as well. I think
the announcement could have been clearer in that regard, but that's
pretty much what Philippe and Maggie have already been doing, and what
they'll continue to do in a structure that's set up for growth.

Sometimes we have a tendency to speak in management lingo when we
should be choosing simple, crisp & clear terms. Honest feedback: Burn
the chart on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/LCA_Announcement
and draft a super crisp mission statement to slap on the first page
for this group. I know, I've been guilty of this as well -- no
criticism of the team. When working in an organization this kind of
communication style is often expected from you in day-to-day work, but
it's not necessarily helpful when communicating with people who have
very little time and interest to parse it.

I think the brainstorming page is a great start and hope it'll be
utilized and further advertised in coming days:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/Community_Advocacy

Congratulations to Philippe and Maggie for their new roles. I think
it's about time that we're creating this structure, and I think it'll
generate lots of tangible value for the community.

-- 
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation

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