Actually, I'm afraid it runs a bit deeper than who's represented in the
group. The way the questions were set up are considered to be 'leading' and
there was no choice between the outcome and the status quo. Maybe this is
indeed obvious to all - and I'm happy if that is the case. But I cannot
conclude that from your emails (the opposite is suggested actually), and
also at the discussion in Esino I didn't get the impression everyone was
aware of what those flaws exactly were. So hopefully superfluously -
pointing it out again. Sorry if I get boring or obnoxious!
Best,
Lodewijk
2016-07-09 23:57 GMT+02:00 Deryck Chan <deryckchan(a)gmail.com>om>:
I think everybody on this thread agree that funding
in-person conferences
is a crucial way to invest in our community ;)
And I think most of us agree too that we now know the survey results were
unrepresentative of the actual distribution of community opinions. I'm
simply making suggestions about what we can learn from the imperfections.
Deryck
On 9 Jul, 2016 9:49 pm, "Lodewijk" <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Hi Deryck, all,
While you can agree or disagree on the usefulness of the letter, I would
like to
make one point about the idealab survey. One thing that is not
pointed out clearly, is that there was a lot of criticism on the
methodology of that particular survey, and how the conclusions were drawn.
Please take a look at the talk page attached to that outcomes page that you
linked, and consider that much of the criticism wasn't even responded to. I
think Marc was kind but correct in his characterisation as 'clearly
flawed'. There was some useful data in there, but the conclusions that were
drawn, were a few bridges too far.
Another thing that was mentioned in private conversations a lot, but not
in many
public discussions is that Wikimania is and should be primarily an
investment in our community. Our community is by far our biggest asset.
Having a healthy community is essential, and it is important that different
communities learn from each other, exchange ideas and methods, interact.
Not just with the few neighboring languages, but also with those far away.
You can investigate if this Wikimania structure if the most effective
way, but
please lets not approach this from a 'cost cutting' perspective.
Lets not consider Wikimania as a cost, but as an investment in something
intangible, in infrastructure. The financial picture should be only a very
small part of the consideration - in my humble opinion. I'm not sure who
mentioned this at Wikimania (was it Dimi? Liam?) but if you compare the
amount of money we spend on community building, and how much big companies
spend on their staff happyness programmes, annual meetups and all - we're
probably not doing too bad. I would be much happier if we looked at this
from the perspective of the most effective way to have an international,
constructive, interactive and exchanging community.
Best,
Lodewijk
2016-07-09 21:50 GMT+02:00 Deryck Chan <deryckchan(a)gmail.com>om>:
>
> I find it a bit over the top too to have such a letter, so strongly
worded,
and signed by so many board chairs.
>
> It reveals a divide between those who participated in the IdeaLab
survey[1]
and those who were at the Future of Wikimania session in Esino.
>
> It would perhaps be interesting to see if correlations can be revealed
as to
what demographic of Wikimedian prefer 1 year per Wikimania and what
demographic prefer 2 year per Wikimania - like geographical distribution,
involvement in local Wikimedia groups (staff / board / other volunteer /
not a participant), and past attendance at regional Wikimedia conferences
and Wikimania.
>
> [1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Towards_a_New_Wikimania/Outc…
>
> 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
>
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