[Foundation-l] Where we are headed

[Cormac Lawler]

On 6/1/06, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > "I have never seen the WMF foundation asking the
> > communities
> >   for anything besides money and trust.  I believe
> > the
> >   communities have much more to offer. "
> >
> >
> > You probably have limited memory. I remember
> > explicitely calling loudly
> > for help for many topics and various skills.
> > Hell, I remember distinctly I called *you* Birgitte
> > to help for setting
> > up decent rules for new languages creation. Hardly a
> > month ago. On this
> >   list. After I asked you help, you basically
> > answered "errr, not now.
> > Sorry ".
> >
>
> Yes you did.  I was more thinking of asking across
> projects not just asking people who already are in
> contact with the mailing list.  A site-wide note
> similar to fundraising, but a call for volunteers.
> With a page asking for people with specific skills
> sets or experience.  To bring in people who have not
> already sought out the Foundation themselves
>
[snip]
>
> I am very sorry my email upset you.  I do not mean to
> imply in any way that I felt my help was unwelcome, or
> that my help was not asked for.  I was really not
> talking about me or any one who's name you might
> recognize from this list.  I meant a direct appeal to
> all the people out there who do not know what the
> Foundation is doing much less what it needs doing.  I
> meant recruiting from the untapped reasource of people
> who use thes projects.  Recruiting.  Not asking people
> who have already show interest.
>
> I am do not mean this to be taken so critically.
> Trully it is impressive what so few people have
> accomplished here.   And also did not mean that I
> thought no one should be hired.  Just that hiring
> professionals is not a panacea.  It will take a very
> special sort of professional to work in this
> enviroment.  I really want to see a middle ground.  I
> am not against things being closed either.  It is just
> a matter of degrees.
>
>
> Birgitte SB


Yes, if I may just chip in at this point, I think that your point was
taken unfairly, Birgitte. I agree with you that we need to better seek
out and recognise the talent/initiative we have within the community,
and use this as best we can for the furthering of our goals, which we
are achieving through the organisational front of the Wikimedia
Foundation (including its chapters and committees). Obviously, we have
achieved so much, as individuals contributing to our projects of
passion, but many of us do other work besides all this - writing grant
proposals, answering OTRS mails, evaluating and answering proposals
from external businesses/charities, addressing legal concerns/threats,
organising conferences - to name just a few activities that are going
on. These are jobs that are being done by *community* members, who
have volunteered themselves or themselves been volunteered by other
people ;-). Essentially, my point (echoing Anthere's) is that some of
the people who complain that the organisation is moving on without
them, either haven't bothered to get involved (yet), or don't know
how. Possibly we need to have something like a page on Meta which
outlines what our talents/expertise/interests are, so that, when the
need arises, they can be called on to help out? Dunno, maybe somewhere
like: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_volunteers (?)


Cormac