[Wikimedia-l] Wikivoyage launch: why no blog post or pressrelease?

[Jay Walsh]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Matthew Roth <mroth at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Jay Walsh <jwalsh at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 6:06 AM, Tom Morris <tom at tommorris.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > Ideally we would have also had the blog post synced up to be online
> > immediately at the same time as the release.
>
> The blog post went up at the same time as the release, 8 am PST, the
> time we had planned to lift the embargo.Sorry Matthew - I should have
> confirmed that point with you.


And to clarify:

* Jay Walsh wrote:
>>I'm amused that this thread commenced with a reflection about the need to
>>distribute press releases at the appropriate global time window and has
>>rolled into this. I've been at this for five years and this is the first
>>time I've seen so much attention paid to the manner we communicate with
the
>>world.

>Putting an extremely large and annoying banner on top of every Wikipedia
>article is difficult to ignore for many people.

I should have pointed out above that I was referring with the way
Communications at WMF communicates with the world. Really the use of
central notice is a separate aspect of the communication of this project,
and one that was led independently, outside of the Foundation.

Which honestly is a good thing - I appreciate that our community has the
ability to develop and direct a message to millions of people, and that for
the vast majority of situations (whether it's WMF or a volunteer, chapter
etc) we are really respectful of people's attention, the project values etc
when issuing a message on central notice etc.

And I will also confirm that, yes, it would be totally ideal to have all
ducks in a row (press, blog, social media, central notice) so that true
communications strategy can unfold. Stuff like this is always going to be
slightly imperfect - but honestly, this is what I like about our overall
approach to corporate communications (that is, the kind of communications a
group does on behalf of a specific org, institution, business) - that we
are not in complete control like a corporation would be. I try to do our
absolute maximum to be open, transparent, professional, and responsive when
it comes to communications, but I'm glad we're not air-tight and
straight-laced and message-managed. Our movement is really at the fringe
when it comes to open and direct communication with our audience. That's
what makes being a part of the movement really fascinating.



-- 
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw