On 31 March 2014 08:10, Jon Davies <jon.davies(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Apologies for delay in replying but I have been away.
>
> As previously stated our relationship as a chapter in this isntance is with
> Kwaku as a volunteer.
>
> We organised an editathon last year with BTWSC/BBM as you know. Not funding
> was involved.
It might be an idea to let one of your employees handle international
events and answer questions like these when you are on holiday rather
than leaving a silence. Questions were raised as far back as 20th
March, which is a long time in advance of the event for there to be no
answers on basic logistics or matters of governance and reputation.[1]
I am puzzled by your statement that WMUK ran an editathon last year in
partnership with BritishBlackMusic.com without offering to support
with any expenses. For the workshop on Saturday in Accra, the UK did
provide funding and official merchandizing though the amount paid or
promised has not been published.
I am concerned that your statement that there was no relationship with
BTWSC or BritishBlackMusic.com for Saturday's workshop in Ghana as you
are retrospectively contradicting the published advertizing:
* Wikimedia UK's events page listed the workshop with a link of
"BritishBlackMusic.com_in_assn_with_BTWSC/Wikimedia_UK" which is an
unambiguous claim that BritishBlackMusic.com were providing it in
association with Wikimedia UK.[2]
* The official Eventbrite listing states that the workshop in Accra
was organized by BritishBlackMusic.com and that this was officially
supported by Wikimedia UK.[3]
Wikimedia UK was alerted to these questions well in advance of the
workshop. Why did you take no corrective action before the wokshop if
the advertising by BritishBlackMusic.com falsely claimed a partnership
with Wikimedia UK?
Wikimedia UK did not contact the local Wikimedian community in Ghana,
a significant failure to use the opportunity to create positive
relationships with the proto-chapter there, or to ask them for help to
ensure that the money the UK chapter was spending was put to best use.
Luckily, the local community took the initiative to coordinate their
own attendance and response.[4] However there are serious questions
about the UK charity's management and support of this workshop:
* "I'm not being jealous or envious here for the Wikimedia UK
'empowering' Kwaku, but the question is, on what basis was he given
such a privilege? The less than 50 edits? Or because he's
black-skinned and says verbally he comes from Ghana?"
* "Even after your asking, [no] email has *officially* come in from
[Wikimedia UK]. We're just negligible in their eyes."
As you have a personal interest in inter-chapter relations, you may
wish to follow-up to ameliorate this damage to the reputation of the
charity. As you took time to remind me 11 days ago, it is up to you
what you wish to spend your time on.
[Adding wikimedia-gh as I have quoted statements on that public list
in this email.]
Links:
1. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Water_cooler&diff=54401&oldid=54…
2. https://wikimedia.org.uk/w/index.php?title=Events&oldid=54679
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20140327135842/http://www.eventbrite.com/e/talki…
4. http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-gh/2014-March/001510.html
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hi,
I hope I'm not treading on any toes, but as one of my emails about
this Saturday's talk in Accra was reposted, I thought it might help if
I dropped by. :-)
Saturday's event is posted at
<http://www.eventbrite.com/e/talking-wikipedia-in-ghana-tickets-10971368659?…>
and I do not know that much more than is posted on the Eventbrite
listing.
I encourage local Wikimedians to join in with the workshop and
discussion. I am sure it will be fun, and it is always interesting to
meet with members of the public who are not aware of the policies and
complexities involved with creating Wikipedia articles or how open
collaboration works on Wikimedia projects. The UK is paying for
refreshments and providing some freebies, so make use of it. :-)
I have raised questions about the event on the Wikimedia UK wiki and
email list as why the UK chapter has officially supported "British
Black Music" or the London based BTWSC group, has remained unclear to
me, and I have been unable to find independent information such as
company registration or published accounts for what they do. It does
seem that the organizer, Kwaku is an enthusiastic supporter of
Wikimedia, but has limited experience editing Wikipedia and may need
some help if he makes mistakes with Wikipedia policy or best practice;
please do contribute your experience.
I am sorry that coordination between the Wikimedia UK chapter and the
local group in Ghana was not better managed in advance of this event.
I suggest those that do go along take time to pen down some feedback
afterwards so that everyone involved can learn to do this better next
time.
I would be happy to answer any question on this list. For those that
are not aware, I am very active on Wikimedia Commons, but I'm also an
ex-trustee of the chapter so know everyone if you want to email me or
leave a note on my talk page (link below), or you can always email
volunteering(a)wikimedia.org.uk to independently contact the UK
volunteer coordinator, who is one of the full time chapter employees.
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hi all,
I want to use this opportunity to continue an uncomfortable but nonetheless
useful tradition.
I haven't been editing as much since I started school and I am also no
longer the Community Manager, so I stopped the practice of checking edits
to see who has the highest, who is editing actively and who is 'chewing'.
Felix will now use the list of members who have filled the Tell Us About
You form to compile another list of the members with the highest article
edits to the lowest. The most active to the least active (there's a
difference), those active on different wikis etc. We will publish this on
our blog or m.list, whichever seems fair and useful.
Who knows people are going to win prizes :)
Haven't been editing at all? Please advice yourself. Inspectors are coming
to get you.
Felix, you are leading this. Talk to me about how you want to do this.
Regards,
Sandister Tei
-----
Cardiff University
JOMEC -- International Journalism
www.sandistertei.com | +447448223686
Hi,
Aside the WMF blog, lots of websites around the world report on WMF and
Wikipedia issues, and people read from them as much if not more than the
WMF blog itself.
I have an old and almost empty blog I am trying to revive and one of my
beats will be Wikimedia with relevance and focus on Ghana. Usually, I
repackage the same content for our blog as well when I have time.
Those that just activated Hovercards, please contact me to show your
interest as I'd like to do a story on how important that new feature is for
you as *a user *not for editors who used the popup version (experienced
editors know what I mean).
Contact me personally if you are interested in being featured in my
article. Rex, I see you are an advocate so you are in by force.
Regards,
Sandister Tei
-----
Cardiff University
JOMEC -- International Journalism
www.sandistertei.com | +447448223686