[Wikimedia-l] The GAC wants you!

[Asaf Bartov]

Hi, Rupert.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!  I'm not quite sure I follow your
thinking though.  With that in mind, I'll offer some statements from my
perspective:

1. I don't think we expect anyone to be perfect.  _We_ certainly aren't
perfect...
2. I don't think we incentivize complete spending of grant budgets.
 Underspending is not only acceptable, but often congratulated -- look at
our responses on reports with underspending, and you'll find we often
congratulate grantees on frugality and economizing.
3. Spending does not have to be precise; we allow a 20% variance in smaller
grants, or a 10% variance in larger grants.  That should be enough for a
reasonably-planned grant.
4. "The best-laid plans of mice and men"[1] often go wrong, we recognize.
 That is why grantees can submit a request to change the budget _during_
the grant's execution.  Take a look at a funded grant, e.g. [2], and you'll
see a handy button called "Request changes to budget".  We generally
approve these requests, because they're generally reasonable.
5. The best advice I can give grantees, present and future, is: talk to us!
 Share your doubts, fears, and uncertainties with us -- we're here to help,
and, like you, we want to promote the Wikimedia Mission.  We don't like
paperwork any more than you do! :)  In my observation, the most unhappy
grantees were those who did not seek advice or help, or did not communicate
about difficulties or unexpected events in real time.

Finally, I appreciate your honesty in saying you don't feel you'd be
willing to put in the amount of work the GAC requires.  That's certainly
better than signing up and not doing anything! :)

Cheers,

   Asaf

[1] Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_AM/WikiConference_Yerevan_2013#Benefits


On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 4:10 AM, rupert THURNER <rupert.thurner at gmail.com>wrote:

> hi,
>
> many thanks for that great invitation! i'd really consider this, if
> the GAC process would be less work and would target imperfect people.
> the grants incentive should imo be changed to get more for the bucks.
> what do i mean with this:
>
> 1. if the GAC decides to grant money to somebody, it should be clear
> that this money can be spent.
> 2. if somebody underspends, he has the right to spend it somewhere
> else, without asking for approval.
>
> why do i consider this so important? the current incentive is to
> "spend the money exactly as planned". which causes waste in two areas
> (1) people try to spend everything and trick it to spend so it looks
> great. and (2) heavy workload on checking if these tricks all make
> sense. if you do not hit the target or fail somehow, there is heavy
> punishment. and this gives another disadvantage, it (3) makes to most
> important asset vanish, the "core wikipedia people", and it is editor
> dis-engangement.
>
> if people have the right to do what they want with remaining funds,
> there is an incentive to save, and an incentive to get more out of the
> bucks. it might be to additional squish an activity in. it makes room
> for imperfection, cover losses from other disorganized people. this
> makes the numbers reported back more honest. additionally, it's a good
> faith approach, and it attracts typical content providing persons.
>
> i used "imperfect people", "core wikipedia people" and "typical
> content providing person" in the last paragraphs, which probably needs
> a little explanation. wikipedia is built traditionally by imperfect
> volunteers, error-prone, partially educated, school or university drop
> outs, poor in project management, time management, financial
> management, constantly failing, redoing, miscalculating. the current
> process specifically targets these people with great accuracy and
> punishes them. it attracts a different type of person, and with it
> risks wikipedias lifeblood: the contents. the contents attracts
> donors, and it's the heart of the money flow. like you i would love to
> see that angela merkel, barack obama or bill gates edit wikipedia -
> but up to now they did not show any sign of having enough time for it
> :)
>
> rupert.
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 1:48 AM, Asaf Bartov <abartov at wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
> > Hello, everyone.
> >
> > We could use some fresh b--- er, volunteers! -- in the Grant Advisory
> > Committee (GAC).  As you may know, the GAC are community volunteers who
> are
> > explicitly invited[1] to review and evaluate grant proposals made in the
> > Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program[2], and offer advice to both grant
> > applicants and the Foundation.
> >
> > Read all about it on the Candidates page[3].  New members will be
> inducted
> > Aug 20th 2013, so be sure to step forward before then! :)
> >
> > Please help this message reach as many people as possible, by relaying it
> > to appropriate lists and village pumps.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> >    Asaf
> >
> > [1] _everyone_ is implicitly invited!
> > [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index
> > [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grant_Advisory_Committee/Candidates
> > --
> >     Asaf Bartov
> >     Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
> >
> > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> > sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
> > https://donate.wikimedia.org
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-- 
    Asaf Bartov
    Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org