[Wikimedia-l] The new narrowed focus by WMF

[Andrea Zanni]

I'm kind sad to see the my personal view of the Wikimedia movement
increasingly distant from Sue's view...

I believe sister projects are deeply important and potential (we have a
Universal Library (Wikisource), a Universal Media Archive (Commons), a
Universal Dictionary (Wiktionary), etc.) They are worth some attention and
WMF has never given it to them.
I believe WMF should understand that his job focus it's not English
Wikipedia. There are other Wikipedias and there are other projects. Oh,
there are other languages too.
I believe the Movement to be deeply international and diverse, and that
keeping and enjoying this diversity is hugely hard but hugely important.
Both fellowships, attention to developing countries and Wikimania cover
that.
I believe Wikimania is a awesome occasion to become a WikiMedian, and to
fell being part of a Movement. It is wonderful to get new ideas, to talk to
people, to understand and learn, and to take back this experience in
Chapters and Wikiprojects. Ask anyone who participated in a Wikimania
event.
I feel that keeping the Fellowhip Program open would be a way to let the
community express itself, propose original and innovative ideas and focused
projects. I do believe that some of them had an impact (GLAM, anyone?), and
will have for years. We just scratched the surface.
I regret deeply the distance between WMF and Chapters: they were not
allowed to participant in the fundraiser, put in the uncomfortable
situation to ask the grants in a burocratic way staying under stricts
agreements (ie, California laws AND national laws). It is a complex topic
(accountability and so on), but could have be dealt with much better.
I believe that money should be much better distributed that centralized, I
believe that ''no one, neither the Chapters nor the Foundation, is really
entitled to get the money.'' No one really deserve the donations we get as
Wikimedia. We did not earn them. They are for Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is a
commons, and is common-produced. If we could distribute the money to all
the editors around the globe, as a reward, we should do it.. It's
impossible, so it's OK, but, still, I hope you get the idea that we are not
entitled, we just get them. And we should be aware of that.

Aubrey

PS: full disclosure: I had in mind to ask for a fellowship about
Wikisource, and I'm a chapter member. So there is some personal
disappontment, going exactly in the opposite direction of WMF.