I actually agree with Pine on this one.
I’m actually very disturbed that no chapter from a developing country (with the possible
exceptions of Mexico and Argentina) signed off on this letter during Wikimania, despite
the presence of a number of affiliates from those countries at Wikimania. Inasmuch as I
agree that Wikimania should be held yearly, the way this statement is worded makes it
appear that we all agreed to it when in fact not everyone did. In fact, did the people
who attended this meeting even try soliciting input from affiliates in developing
countries, whether they be the ones who were at Wikimania or who weren’t?
Thanks,
Josh
On Jul 8, 2016, at 11:33 PM, Pine W
<wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you. I find it confusing that the letter starts with "The chairpersons of the
Wikimedia chapters state that Wikimania needs to be arranged every year," which
implies that all of the chapter chairs are united in agreement, but it appears several
chapters didn't sign the letter. Looking further at the content of the letter, I would
have some questions about some of the statements that were made there. In the future, I
would encourage chapter chairs to have discussions about matters such as this on the
Affiliates mailing list so that we can have more inclusive discussions among more
affiliates before sending letters like that. The Wikimania situation is already
convoluted, and I believe that letters such as this should get fuller discussion among
affiliates before they are sent to WMF.
Thanks,
Pine
On Jul 8, 2016 20:04, "Christophe Henner" <chenner(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:chenner@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
My bad I forgot it already is on meta
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Statements/Chapter_chair…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Statements/Chapter_chairs_statement:_Wikimania_needs_to_be_arranged_every_year>
Le 9 juil. 2016 4:50 AM, "Pine W" <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com
<mailto:wiki.pine@gmail.com>> a écrit :
Thanks Christophe. I, for one, have had difficulty figuring out what is going on with
Wikimania in regards to varying decisions in different parts of WMF and the community, so
I look forward to the clarifications.
Personally I am currently neutral on the decision of whether to have annual Wikimanias,
or alternate Wikimanias with years in which there is emphasis on national or regional
conferences. My hunch is that some research about costs and benefits is needed so that we
have reliable data about a variety of scenarios before making a decision.
Thanks again for working on this.
To the board chairs: I would be interested in seeing that letter. In the spirit of
transparency, would you please publish it on Meta? As you know I am an advocate for much
more transparency from WMF, and I would like for the affiliates to also to be transparent
about governance matters such as this one.
Thanks,
Pine
On Jul 8, 2016 19:18, "Christophe Henner" <chenner(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:chenner@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
Hi everyone,
The same question was raised to the board a few days ago by chairs of Wikimedia
organizations asking Foundation's board to make sure there's a comprehensive
decision on this very topic.
The chairs letter wasn't public, I let them share it on meta or here if they want to
:)
First step, in my opinion, is to set expectations and define the scope (in the role of
the event but also in the ressources (both human and financial) we commit to the event.
Katherine is working with the staff to provide groundings.
Here is the answer I provided them with.
----
Hi chairs!
First of all, thank you with the email, the feedback is clearly useful and raises
interesting point.
Now, the Wikimania discussion definitly is on the table. Living by what we said during
Wikimania, we, as WMF, will make sure we end up with a clear answer to your questions but
also to the different points you raise.
Wikimania is an important time in our movement, but as you said it also comes with costs
and challenges that we have to adress. Katherine is going to meet in the coming days with
the staff in charge of that topic to start that discussion within WMF and provide
groundings for a comprehensive decision.
We will try to be as diligent as possible on that topic, but I would ask you to keep in
mind that as we're in a transition phase and that might take a little more time than
you could expect.
Again thank you for your email, I love the fact that he raises issues but also includes
the challenges we have to take care of :)
We'll get back to you as soon as possible to continue that discussion.
Have all a really great day / night :)
Christophe
While I concur with Coren’s conclusion, I’ll try to neutrally report on the events at
Wikimania which led to this result. :)
Full disclosure: I’m a fan of Wikimania being yearly, and was asked to serve on the
Wikimania Committee after Esino Lario. I was also the main moderator of the Wikimania 2016
session on the “Future of Wikimania.” These views are my own, and not anything official
from the committee.
Background: Many folks (I’d say a majority) who I talked to in Esino Lario early in the
conference thought that the decision to do Wikimania every other year was a done deal, as
a result of the IdeaLab consultation. I told them that might not necessarily be so. The
vote was close, not particularly widely known, and we could still be heard. Chris
Schilling from the WMF, who oversaw the Idealab consultation, sought me out specifically
at the start of the conference and to my delight, said that the consultation was “just
another data point,” and that it was by no means the final word on things. Obviously, this
was good news to people who were interested in keeping a yearly Wikimania.
I was scheduled to moderate the “Future of Wikimania” discussion session [1] at the very
end of the conference, and encouraged people to let their views be heard. It was under
these conditions that we entered into the final discussion room and I asked Chris
Schilling to give an opening statement to the room. Most people were happy to hear him say
that it was “just another data point.” During the discussion, there was overwhelming
support to keep Wikimania going every year, which is not a surprise considering this was
*at* Wikimania. I encourage folks to peruse the Etherpad notes, which are quite extensive
and expertly done by several folks there.
Some views I’d highlight:
- Having yearly Wikimania is important to keep the momentum of the movement going,
according to many
- A case for cancelling yearly Wikimania was to encourage/fund regional meetups. However,
there is no guarantee that those regional meetups would actually take place, or that WMF
would necessarily take the money saved from Wikimania to fund them. Some folks from Asia
specifically said that there is weaker linguistic, cultural and geographic synergy for an
“Asian” conference like there is in Europe and Africa, which is why it has been hard to do
one.
- One person noted that one trip to Wikimania served the same role as several
international trips to get the same benefit from meeting other Wikimedians/developers, so
there are indeed cost efficiencies in having a central conference.
Thanks.
[1]
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discussions/The_future_of_Wikimania
<https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discussions/The_future_of_Wikimania>
[2]
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Wikimania2016-discussion7b
<https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Wikimania2016-discussion7b>
-Andrew Lih
Associate professor of journalism, American University
Email: andrew(a)andrewlih.com <mailto:andrew@andrewlih.com>
WEB:
http://www.andrewlih.com <http://www.andrewlih.com/>
BOOK: The Wikipedia Revolution:
http://www.wikipediarevolution.com
<http://www.wikipediarevolution.com/>
PROJECT: Wiki Makes Video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wiki_Makes_Video
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wiki_Makes_Video>
On Fri, Jul 8, 2016 at 10:18 AM, Marc-Andre <marc(a)uberbox.org
<mailto:marc@uberbox.org>> wrote:
On 2016-07-08 10:01 AM, Chris Keating wrote:
Interestingly, I couldn't see any sign of the Committee's decision being informed
by the WMF's consultation on the future of Wikimania, or anyone from the WMF's
community engagement department being present.
Wikimania is, and always was, a community led and organized event. The WMF, as its
traditional biggest sponsor[1], has a great deal of influence in the matter - but
ultimately no decision power beyond "fund and resource or not".
The committee's decision has indeed taken into account the consultation you refer to
- as well as the roundtable discussion on the "Future of Wikimania" that took
place earlier[2]. Our evaluation, which is reflected in that resolution, is that the
consultation was clearly flawed and that its conclusion does not reflect consensus -
neither of the community members who organize nor of those who attend Wikimania.
-- Coren / Marc
[1] Although "underwrite" might be a better term - the WMF has pretty much
shouldered the vast majority of the costs and given the most logistical support year in
and year out.
[2] Where the consensus was to overwhelmingly reject that consultation's conclusion
in favor or continuing with Wikimania as a yearly even given its irreplaceable role in our
movement.
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