As a humanities person myself, I did read into Lila's post that the non-engineering aspects of Wikimedia would take a back seat... perhaps a far back seat to all the shiny new things happening in Silicon Valley. This may not be the case, but if it is, I can understand it as to an engineer, everything is a tech issue. I have been a college professor for 20 some-odd years and despite my linguistic and humanities background, don´t hate technology. I dont love it as much as others, but simply the fact that I will touch it has made me something of the technology "expert" in the various colleges and universities language departments I have taught. Brion touches on something very important here... especially with the words "user disconnection." Integration computer technology has been the buzzword for decades, but we are still in many ways no closer to effectively using technology in educational institutions than we were in the 1990s. Some of it is how fast technology changes, but most, IMHO, is a lack of understanding of how to best use the tools that we have and will be invented. Teachers and administrators, in my area at least, either swing toward "Technology is useless." to "If we buy stuff, it will solve all our problems." Heck, I had to laugh when MOOC's got introduced as a way to have large classes with only one lecturer. We have learned nothing from the first online classes in the 1990s, mostly because adminstrators still pray for 1000-student classes paying for only one professor. I exaggerate, but not by much. Perhaps the most difficult thing is matching technology with the needs of end users, often because computer people and the rest of us look at the technology so differently. Unlike a doctor, who can tell patients what is good for them (or rather their bodies), engineers often understand what we non-techie end users need about as much we understand how to code. This is one reason why schools waste so much money when it comes to technology. We have teachers who understand their classes but not the technology, and technology experts that do not know how to teach writing, history, philosophy, foreign language etc. Finding someone to bridge the gap, IMHO is crucial. It could be tempting for a Foundation in Silicon Valley to work solely on the technology end, but the end users (readers and editors) see Wikipedia/Wikimedia as a reference first. The technology serves the goal of informing and educating. Not all technologies do help this. For example, in the 1990s and part of the 2000s, early research seemed to indicate that the immediate feedback from foreign language practice software was a benefit for students, as they could do more practice in less time. More recent research seems to indicate this benefit is limited at best. Fast and superficial feedback seems to get ignored, especially after the novelty has worn off. My point is that it is necessary to monitor trends and make sure Wikipedia does not get so aniquitated that is it left behind. But on the other hand, blindly chasing new tech fads can tear the organization and the humans still very much needed to add to, improve and update a huge gathering of data. Any new technologies we want to explore must conform to the main purpose of Wikimedia, the free dissemination of information. I have no problem with, say, Wikipedia content be reused for other formats (it is already.) but that encyclopedic basis needs to remain intact and accessible to all, not just those who know all the new tech gizmos.
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 13:29:17 -0800 From: bvibber@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a high-tech organization
I think there are many different interpretations of what it means to "be a high-tech organization", which makes it a difficult label to base arguments around; readers will interpret it very differently depending on their personal experiences and biases.
One view might concentrate on notions of "innovation", "excellence", or "return on investment" achieved through super-smart people creating unique technology -- this view associates "high-tech" with success, competitive advantage, brand awareness/marketshare, and money (profit for traditional corporations, or investment in the mission for non-profits).
Another view might concentrate on other features considered common to "high-tech" companies such as toxic work environments, lack of diversity, overemphasis on engineering versus other disciplines, disconnection from users' needs, and a laser-focus on achieving profits at the expense of long-term thinking. This view associates "high-tech" with social and economic inequality and exploitation of employees and users for their labor & attention to the detriment of their physical and emotional health.
And there are many, much subtler connotations to be found in between.
I believe a high-tech organization should invest in smart people creating unique technology. But I also think it should invest in people, period. Staff and volunteers must be cultivated and supported -- that's how loyalty and passion are developed, and I believe they pay dividends in productivity and recruitment.
Absolutely Wikimedia Foundation needs to build better technologies -- technologies to serve the needs of our editors, our readers, our photographers, our citation reviewers, etc. This means Wikimedia Foundation needs a good relationship with those people to research, brainstorm, plan, develop, test, redevelop, retest, and roll out software successfully. The people who represent Wikimedia Foundation in those relationships are its staff, so it's important for management to support them in their work and help them succeed.
It is my sincere hope that when the current crises are resolved, that the Board of Trustees and the executive can agree on at least this much as a shared vision for the Foundation.
-- brion _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe