Hi all,
I think some clarification is needed by people who are in charge for the
grantmaking process. There is a difference between "shutting down the
grantmaking process (PEG) and (IEG) for three full months" and adding a
voluntary gendergap "theme" to a project to get better funding chances.
So I really would like to see some clarifications about these leaked plans
before having a propably heated debate about it.
Needless to say that adding ideologically driven must-haves to a general
grantmaking process which only purpose is to serve the voluntary work on a
supposed-to-be-free encyclopedia would leave a disturbing impression on
many people.
best regards
Jens Best
2015-01-03 15:46 GMT+01:00 Romaine Wiki <romaine.wiki(a)gmail.com>om>:
There are multiple ways in how to define the
Gendergap, in this case it is
about female participation.
I do think it is a problem that the number of female participants is
dramatically lower than those of male contributors, but still this does not
give any good reason to exclude good projects who are not particular aiming
for female contributors.
WMF wants to solve the Gendergap by excluding good other projects. That is
a very bad situation.
Trying to solve the Gendergap by enlarging the Community Gap.
Bad idea.
Romaine
2015-01-03 15:33 GMT+01:00 Jane Darnell <jane023(a)gmail.com>om>:
Nope. Gendergap is about the gap in female
participation, not in
female-related topics. The Dutch Wikipedia has a severe gap with only 6%
female participation. I would say this is a pretty urgent problem for the
Dutch and Flemish community, so I was very glad to see this as a main
theme
for the coming three months.
On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 3:17 PM, Romaine Wiki <romaine.wiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello Jane,
>
> Sorry, but I think you miss the problem here.
>
> As I said before, I am fine with more projects that improve the
coverage
of
so-called female topics, but not if this is
damaging the projects which
do
not aim for such.
I hope this campaign in this form is cancelled and witdrawn and that
never
ever such situation appears again. This way of
working is damaging the
trust in WMF, discouraging many volunteers, worsening projects, etc.
Having a Gendergap campaign in this form is NOT in line with the vision
the
> Wikimedia movement has.
>
> > The current campaign is scheduled to be one of hopefully many,
targeted
at the
community in order to generate themed proposals.
If it was really targeted at the Wikimedia community, it would not have
excluded other projects.
I propose everyone to refuse to take part in this as this is a move in
the
wrong direction.
And how WLM to attract more female particpation? By having a special
category for pink buildings.
Under this condition, a question as such can't be taken seriously.
Romaine
2015-01-03 14:58 GMT+01:00 Jane Darnell <jane023(a)gmail.com>om>:
> As a member of the IEG committee I am happy to say that there is no
need
> to
> > panic. WLM is highly successful project and no one is talking about
> > shutting it down, or any other project for that matter. The current
> > campaign is scheduled to be one of hopefully many, targeted at the
> > community in order to generate themed proposals. The current growth
of
>
highly diverse and inspirational proposals takes increasingly more
energy
> to manage, judge, and maintain. By
introducing a three-month long
theme,
it
> is hoped that the following will occur:
> 1) Grant committee members in their voluntary role as proposal
reviewers
and
community sponsors will experience less burn-out in managing
proposals
> as their will be more cross pollination per cohort of proposers and
their
> > proposals.
> > 2) A targeted campaign to attract proposals will enable easier
> translation
> > across projects if the target audience can be identified in advance
> > 3) A targeted campaign will attract more volunteer committee members
to
>
manage proposals, hopefully attracting local experts in various
Wikimedia
> projects.
>
> The Gendergap will be the first theme. I think it's a great idea! How
can
> > WLM attract more female participation? Any ideas?
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 11:26 AM, Romaine Wiki <
romaine.wiki(a)gmail.com>
>
wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Some disturbing news entered my mailbox the past days. The grant
making
> team
is going to shut down the grantmaking process for Project and
Event
> > Grants (PEG) and Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) for three full
> months!
> >
> > They have decided that they want to focus only on a specific
strategic
> > priority: the gender gap, and that all
other good projects are
refused
for
> 3 months (February-April).
>
> Having more attention to a strategic priority is fine to me. Having
more
> > attention to the problem of the gender gap, sounds good to me as
such,
> we
> > > can use much more projects and content in those areas. But that
does
not
> > mean that many many volunteers who are organizing other projects
should
> > > become the victim of other projects.
> > >
> > > This is a negative signal to all those volunteers who are currently
> > working
> > > on project plans to be submitted in February, March and April. Good
> > > projects to be ignored, just because the WMF think those are less
> > > important. They say this is a positive campaign, but this sounds
as
a
> > > negative campaign to me. This
discourages many volunteers in doing
> > > projects.
> > >
> > > And even worse: this is only to be generally announced 2 weeks
before
> > that
> > > period of shutting down starts! (this sounds like a joke, sadly it
> isn't)
> > >
> > > To organize a good project volunteers (yes, we are still unpaid!
and
> > > organize these projects in our
spare time!) we need the time to
> > communicate
> > > well with all our partners and sponsors, and need the time to come
up
> > with
> > > a good project plan with a stable basis. Rushing a project in just
a
> > couple
> > > of weeks time is very unpleasant and does not help in getting a
good
> quality project. And announcing it two weeks
before the period
indicates
> > that organizers aren't taken seriously (enough).
> >
> > For example, we are currently planning to organize Wiki Loves
Monuments
> > in
> > > 2015 again, the world wide contest to have a better documentation
and
> > > better display of all the cultural
monuments worldwide, recognised
as
> > > largest photo contest in the world
by Guinness World Records. We
are
> >
currently working on forming a team and want to have a good stable
plan
to
> be submitted within some weeks, but now we need to rush. And yes we
need
to
> start in January/February or it will be too late to organize it
properly.
> >
> > Also all the national teams of Wiki Loves Monuments, the
international
> team
> > recommend all the national teams to start in January/February, to
have
a
> > proper organisation together with various local partners and
sponsors,
> > but
> > > now all these teams are delayed for three months.
> > >
> > > And a personal project of mine in Belgium, I am planning to
organize
> Wiki
> > > Loves Art in Belgium, together with various partners and sponsors.
We
> > > intent to start in February, but
now have to rush to get such done.
> > >
> > > By the way: did you know there is a Belgium Gap? Belgian subjects
are
> >
relatively less and worse described on the various Wikipedias.
> >
> >
> > This shutting down results in:
> > * Discouraging many volunteers who are planning to submit good
project
> > proposals.
> > * Having volunteers rushed with project plans, which lowers the
quality
> > of
> > > the plans.
> > > * Having volunteers being late and delayed with projects, for no
good
> > > reason.
> > >
> > > Grantmaking is intented to support the communities, not frustrating
> them.
> > > WMF: stop this negative campaign!
> > >
> > >
> > > And for all project teams who want to organize a gender gap
project:
great
> you organize this, it is very very welcome! But I like to make a
> suggestion: submit the proposal on the first day after the shutting
down
> > period to give a strong signal to WMF that shutting down is a bad
idea.
>
>
> It is time for a new strategic priority: closing the Community Gap.
That
> is
> > the gap between WMF and the local communities worldwide. It is not
new,
> > it
> > > exists for many years already. (It resulted also in the drama of
the
> >
situation around the Mediaviewer in 2014, the drama with the Visual
> Editor
> > in 2013, etc. in what WMF didn't sense well the community.) (Maybe
the
> gap
> > is less between WMF and the English speaking part of the world, but
the
> > > world is larger. We have many people around the world who are
speak
a
> >
different language. WMF is not sensing the worldwide community well
> > enough.)
> > Finally we should do more about this Community Gap.
> >
> > For those celebrating: I wish you a happy new year with great
projects
> that
> > make every single human being freely share in the sum of all human
> > knowledge!!
> >
> > Romaine
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> > Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org
?subject=unsubscribe>
> >
_______________________________________________
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
> >
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
> > Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>