[Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Conference Summary

Thu Mar 31 07:16:18 UTC 2011

Very encouraging

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Limoke Oscar <oslimoke at gmail.com> wrote:

> Abbas,I have not compiled my own report too.i just shared Manuel;s point of
> view to keep the group looped in on the general happenings.i will be adding
> my Point of view in the sessions that i attended in the report soon too.
> thanks Sam,we learnt lots of things but most importantly is the fact that
> the world was so "PLEASED" with what and how we do our things....so lets
> keep it up.
>
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 8:58 AM, SAMSON MAOSA <coolsam726 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Now I know for real we had true representatives!!!! Congraturations guys,
>> and congrats too to our Brothers in South Africa. Definitely we are on the
>> line now, that means we gotta increase our activity to the optimum. I am
>> still digesting Oscar's report, and necessary links will be beautifull
>> incorporated in Wikimedia Kenya <http://www.wikimedia.or.ke> in case they
>> haven't yet been incorporated.
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 7:07 PM, Abbas Mahmood <abbasjnr at hotmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>>  Well, uhm, Oscar was attending different sessions from me, so I have a
>>> different point of view of what I digested from the Conference. I managed to
>>> write down some draft report in the airport and in the plane, and I am still
>>> compiling the notes. Pardon my laziness, but I hope that I'll have published
>>> it by tomorrow.
>>>
>>>     -------------------------------------
>>> Abbas Mahmood
>>> t | +254722215101
>>> f | www.facebook.com/abbasjnr
>>> s | abbasjnr
>>> Wikimedia Kenya Member
>>>
>>> "*Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given
>>> free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's our commitment."*
>>> **
>>> Please donate: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Now/en
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:08:11 +0300
>>> From: oslimoke at gmail.com
>>> To: wikimediake at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> Subject: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikimedia Conference Summary
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> last weekend the annual Chapters Meeting took place in Berlin. Each year
>>> two representatives of each Wikimedia chapter meet there. During the
>>> meeting South Africa was recognized as the first african chapter.
>>> Wikimedia CH and Austria have been represented by Manuel Schneider and
>>> Kurt Kulac. With this report we'd like to share our experiences with the
>>> Wikimedia community. Additionally all sessions have been logged and
>>> published on Meta:
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation
>>>
>>> A short TV report on the meeting for ARD Tagesschau (in german) can be
>>> viewed online:
>>> http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/sendungsbeitrag101886_res-.html
>>>
>>> == Current State of the Chapters ==
>>> Traditionally each chapter meeting starts with a three minute report of
>>> each chapter about their current state: Members, budget, past and future
>>> projects, good and bad experiences.
>>>
>>> Most of the "State of the Chapter" presentations have been linked on
>>> Meta:
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Schedule#State_of_the_Chapters_I
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Schedule#State_of_the_Chapters_II
>>>
>>> * WMCH: http://wikimedia.ch/State_of_the_Chapter_2011
>>> * WMAT:
>>> http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Archiv/2011-03-26_State_of_the_Chapter
>>>
>>> == Fundraising Summit ==
>>> There will be again a Fundraising Summit for all chapters participating
>>> in the Wikimedia Fundraiser by the end of the year. This year's summit
>>> will be organised in June by Wikimedia Österreich.
>>>
>>> * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Fundraising_Summit
>>>
>>> == Movement Roles ==
>>> There are the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Chapters as branches of
>>> the Foundation, but there are also other entities and organisations
>>> withing the Wikiverse. While the relationship between Foundation and
>>> chapters has been settled by the chapters agreement there are many open
>>> questions in how to handle other organisations which are not chapters.
>>>
>>> A "Movement Roles Working Group" has been set up a year ago that is
>>> researching this topic. Recently surveys have been sent out to chapter
>>> people (I have forwarded them to the respective boards) and a public
>>> survey is planned to be published soon.
>>>
>>> All members and inhabitants of the Wikiverse are urged to participate in
>>> this process, to shape the roles of chapters, foundation and their own.
>>>
>>> * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project
>>> * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/New_group_models
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/Sue_Gardner%27s_input_on_Movement_Roles_Project
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Movement_Roles
>>>
>>> == Collaborations with Galeries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs)
>>> ==
>>> The other chapters have presented their experiences with talking to
>>> GLAMs. In many countries discussions and talks happen and GLAMs are
>>> willing to cooperate, but a there is little visible output.
>>>
>>> The Wiki Loves Monuments project interacts here, aiming to be a
>>> pan-european project to define, list and illustrate all monuments
>>> throughout Europe. Ideas are currently being discussed, WMAT started
>>> talking to the administration bodies taking care of monuments, lists
>>> need to be digitized and unified. A photo competition and reimbursement
>>> of travel costs should foster the communities will to take good pictures
>>> of all monuments. WMNL has been able to get sitenotices up to attract
>>> more people for the project. Other ideas are to provide extensive
>>> amounts of swag, such as sticker, pins, T-Shirts etc.
>>>
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Working_Groups:_GLAM
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/GLAM_outreach
>>>
>>> == Hiring Employees ==
>>> Many chapters - as Wikimedia Austria and Switzerland - have been
>>> thinking about hiring employees or to outsource work to paid people.
>>> Many projects are time-intensive and participating at the Wikimedia
>>> Fundraiser is hard to be handled on a volunteer basis due to the high
>>> amount of donations which need to be booked correctly, thanked and
>>> reported.
>>>
>>> Several times statements like "Wikimedia chapters are no fan clubs" have
>>> been made. Conclusion: Wikimedia chapters are primarily administrative
>>> organisations which enable volunteers to do their work better and
>>> "enable others to be fan-clubs". With the needed professionalisation of
>>> the chapters their boards change from executive to overseeing
>>> committees. Along with this it is important to transfer (seed) the
>>> enthusiasm by the board members into the director / manager of the
>>> chapters office.
>>>
>>> A few chapters have already stepped forward by applying different
>>> strategies:
>>>
>>> * WMDE: "Management Approach" - They hired an employee that can manage
>>> himself and is looking for new tasks and implemented them on his own.
>>> This is important as management and monitoring of employees - which is
>>> also a big effort - can be minimised. A good manager can also fund
>>> himself by finding new opportunities and is able to find new employees
>>> to support him as the work load increases, a scalable solution.
>>>
>>> A manager writes proposals which the board will review and decide. By
>>> that the board actually gets more power as it can act strategically
>>> rather than ad-hoc under pressure of daily tasks.
>>>
>>> * WMPL: "Outsourcing" - legally neccessary tasks have been outsourced
>>> early. Problem: different people for different tasks which do not know
>>> each other and do not act strategically. WMPL: "...in the end we had an
>>> accountant, but nobody had time to bring her the receipts so she could
>>> do her work."
>>>
>>> New approach: Hire someone who can do different things on his own and
>>> have him sit in the WMPL office.
>>>
>>> * Office space: Rent offices teogether with other "lime-minded
>>> organisations", such as the parlamentarian group digital sustainability,
>>> Free Software Foundation Europe, Swiss Unix Usergroup, Creative
>>> Commons...
>>>
>>> * Job profiles: Look at what the other chapters have done, for instance
>>> the "office manager" of WMUK who has handled the fundraiser.
>>>
>>> * If you develop your organisation then get a "manager type" of employee.
>>> * If you only need a service center for your administrative tasks then
>>> outsource it.
>>>
>>> * Selection of emplyees: It is helpful if the employee is a Wikimedian
>>> but this is not the qualification you are looking for. If you have to
>>> choose between a manager which is not a Wikimedian and a Wikimedian
>>> which is not a manager, choose the manager (Pavel, WMDE).
>>>
>>> * Managing remotely is extremely hard. It takes longer to find out if
>>> something goes into the wrong direction (Thierry, WMFR). A manager will
>>> also manage itself.
>>>
>>> * An employee should have one or at max two bosses and not the board as
>>> a boss. Otherwise it takes too longe to make management decision.
>>>
>>> * At least a weekly Skype meeting is recommended, the verbal contact is
>>> very important rather than writing e-mails.
>>>
>>> * Application process (WMFR):
>>> ** received 40 applications, two filters: eight left. These eight
>>> applicants have been interviewed by eight people from the board and
>>> involved members.
>>> ** a Wikimedian has the advantage that you already know him and how he
>>> works. But be careful with "super members", there is the risk of leading
>>> into demotivation and problems. It is sometimes better to employ someone
>>> from the outside.
>>>
>>> Invitation by Pavel (WMDE): "We have gained a lot of experience. Just
>>> come a week to Berlin and look how I deal with it."
>>>
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Professionalization:_The_first_employee
>>>
>>> == openZIM (Wikipedia Offline) ==
>>> The ZIM libraries have been recently included into the book printing
>>> funtion - now everyone can easily create ZIM files from the Wikis.
>>>
>>> To make the code and the work on it more visible it should be
>>> transferred to svn.wikimedia.org. Each commit is sent to IRC and
>>> mailinglist, also many developers have a copy of that repository so the
>>> hurdle to look into the code and work with it is much lower.
>>>
>>> == Internal Organisation / Roles within the Chapters ==
>>> Several sessions dealt with the tasks withing the chapters or the
>>> motivation of members. We agreed on the following types of members:
>>> * proactive (they initiate things and do work on their own)
>>> * active (they are active when being asked)
>>> * inactive
>>> * counter-active (trolls)
>>>
>>> The goal is to convert inactive members to active members and active to
>>> proactive. Trolls are part of the ecosystem and sometimes have a
>>> corrective function. In doubt when there is to much hassle nobody should
>>> hesitate to exclude them from the chapter.
>>>
>>> * Each organisation needs to fill in four functions - of which a single
>>> person can at max. fill in three:
>>> ** Production (get things done)
>>> ** Administration (organisation)
>>> ** Innovation (new ideas, development)
>>> ** Integration (people person)
>>>
>>> * Convert members to active members:
>>> ** often it helps to contact people directly and personally - often
>>> nobody responds on mailinglists
>>> ** keep a list of tasks in your chapters wiki to give interested people
>>> a hint where they can start working on. Ask on your members on the
>>> mailinglist to sign up for these tasks.
>>>
>>> * Each board should consist of the following positions:
>>> ** people person, social integrator
>>> ** secretary / administrator
>>> ** contact person for the community - must have a good standing inside
>>> the Wikimedia projects before becoming a board member
>>>
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/Volunteer_management
>>>
>>> == Communication ==
>>> Different chapters communicate in different ways. The suggested monthly
>>> report is provided by a small number of chapters only (WMCH: No report
>>> since a long time). There has been a lot of discussion on the effort
>>> needed in writing those reports and the possibility to re-use them. Many
>>> chapters write blog posts, others communicate on Twitter or Facebook,
>>> usually in their own language. Other chapters have no benefit from that
>>> and can't learn from each other or simply know what is going on in the
>>> Wikiverse.
>>>
>>> The following solution was agreed on:
>>> * each chapter should have a blog and post there regularly
>>> ** messages for other chapters should be tagged with "chapter"
>>> ** all chapter blogs should be aggregate by two Wikimedia planets:
>>> *** there are already Wikimedia planets for different languages
>>> *** a new Wikimedia planet for chapters (all languages) should be created
>>> ** link your blogs with social networks to make your posts to appear
>>> there:
>>> *** Twitter
>>> *** Facebook
>>>
>>> * publish interesting news also on the Wikimedia SignPost
>>>
>>> * monthly newsletter to the members
>>> ** newsletter can be prepared publicly on the chapters wiki, so everyone
>>> can contribute his or her project
>>> ** one person writes a summary of what is going on at Wikimedia
>>>
>>> * print hand outs or even bulletings when you have conferences or
>>> assemblies
>>> ** handouts should always be available
>>> ** get an ISSN for bulletins to make your publications more visible
>>>
>>> * a template for the chapters report should hold the minimal information
>>> needed by the Wikimedia Foundation
>>> ** this template will be published on Meta
>>> ** the state of the chapter presentations will have the minimal
>>> information, they should go directly to the chapters pages on Meta so
>>> they are updated once a year
>>>
>>> * format for chapter reports:
>>> ** Revenues
>>> ** Expenses
>>> ** Activities
>>> ** Members
>>>
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2011/Documentation/International_communication_and_coordination
>>>
>>> == Group Photo ==
>>> *
>>>
>>> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Conference_2011_group_photo.jpg
>>>
>>> That's it with the summary of the chapters meeting. All members are
>>> invited to participate in the processes and discussions on Meta.
>>>
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> --
>>> Limoke Oscar,
>>>
>>> p/s:this report was prepared by Manuel.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list
>>> WikimediaKE at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
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>>> WikimediaKE at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________________________
>> Samson Arosi Maosa,
>> Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,
>> Bsc. Electronics and Computer Engineering
>> +254750-nine-one-seven-three-zero-five
>> *"In this world, everything has been done but suppose we try doing it in
>> a different (better) way?"*
>> Make someone know what you already know. Join us now at Wikimedia Kenya<http://www.wikimedia.or.ke>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> WikimediaKE mailing list
>> WikimediaKE at lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Limoke Oscar,
> Freelancer,
> GeoInformatics and GIScience Student
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikimediaKE mailing list
> WikimediaKE at lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
>
>

-- 
__________________________________________________________________________________
Samson Arosi Maosa,
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,
Bsc. Electronics and Computer Engineering
+254750-nine-one-seven-three-zero-five
*"In this world, everything has been done but suppose we try doing it in a
different (better) way?"*
Make someone know what you already know. Join us now at Wikimedia
Kenya<http://www.wikimedia.or.ke>
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