[Foundation-l] Wikimedia mouvement

Mon Jun 9 11:13:59 UTC 2008

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 2:06 AM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> WMF needs to control its editorial content as it is a corporate website.
> It can not accept personal essays from non wmf members if the personal
> essay conveys a message not consistent with wmf agreed public message.

Shouldn't personal essays from non-wmf members (*) be on their personal blogs?

(*) I'm going to interpret the phrase "wmf members" as meaning people
working officially on behalf of the foundation, since the wmf has no
members.

> Chapters are often much more politically involved than WMF, involved in
> lobbying, in such a way that might be unacceptable to WMF. Results might
> include
> 1) frustration from chapter who want to post something but get moderated
> by WMF staff;
> 2) loss of time for WMF staff who needs to understand (sometimes
> translate) a text from a chapter before validating its publication;
> 3) conflicting messaging
> 4) feeling of submission of chapters toward WMF
>
The chapters have their own websites for this, though.

> I am pretty sure it would not work. Two proofs being the following
> pages, opened by Jay for public participation from chapters
> * http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact_2008 (to
> post contacts made with the press generally)
> * http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Speaking_2008
>
> I can wait a couple of months and come back to you in september to show
> you how these pages evolve if you wish ;-)
> I am quite sure these pages will never be populated.

Are you suggesting it might work if you use www.wikimedia.org to host
it?  I'd say it's a flawed idea from the get-go, regardless of where
you try to host it.

> Either because the
> chapter do not track such information. Or because it will be a
> duplicated effort with a page already existing on the chapter website.
> Or because chapter people will fail to see what their interest is in
> providing this effort.
>
Probably all of the above.  What's this have to do with anything?

> Could this be hosted on meta ?
>
> Yes, certainly. At least for a while.
> But again, the role of that new site would be different from the role of
> meta and this might enter in conflict, in particular with regards to the
> main page.
>
> meta main page is meant to be super practical. Can you figure out a
> visitor coming to meta to understand better what wikimedia is, and
> finding this page ? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
> Please take a step back and try to figure out what all these funny
> little words mean for the layman ? CheckUser queries ? SUL ? 1.13alpha
> (r35980) ? Sandbox ? Babel templates ?
>
> Versus a main page stating in a few words, "what is wikimedia ?"
> With links to the following pages
> * pressbook and press releases
> * is there a wikimeet soon in your area ?
> * conferences were wikimedia people are present this month ?
> * do you want to buy a wikimedia tee-shirt ?
> * is jimmy wales coming to your city in the next 5 years ?
> * events organized by wikimedia people this year
> * Wikipedia on DVD. Which languages ? Where to get them ?
> * etc...
>
Sounds like all stuff that can and should be on
wikimediafoundation.org.  But it's not going to get there magically -
you can't just set up a wiki, tell people what you want, sprinkle a
little magic pixie dust, and expect it to appear - that plan worked
*exactly* once.

Who's going to organize this?  How many hours a week are you
volunteering to it?  How many others can you get to commit to helping
you?  Will the foundation throw any money or staff behind it?

> I may be too early in proposing this and you guys are not ready in your
> mind. That's okay. I'll let it sink nicely and will come back in a few
> months. There is no hurry.
>
In the mean time, please contribute this kind of information
(neutrally stated) to http://wiki.p2pedia.org/ .  It's all sprinkled
with magic wiki pixie dust and ready to go.  It's mostly geared toward
Wikipedia (it's "the free encyclopedia about Wikipedia that anyone can
edit"), but I'd be willing to expand it.