[Foundation-l] Show community consensus for Wikilove

Sat Oct 29 19:40:37 UTC 2011

Hoi,
I am happy to make a distinction of what I do officially and what I say
because I am personally of a particular opinion. This is very much my
personal opinion.

There have been LOADS of opportunities where the community is asked, begged
to be involved in what will be the way forward. The most obvious
opportunity has been the Strategy project. At this time the Wikimedia
Foundation is looking for all sorts of volunteers that are asked to help
determine what future functionality will be like. Specifically I want to
mention the need for "language support teams" and volunteers for our mobile
development.

The position of the WMF as I know it is that it wants very much an involved
community. To be effective, it is important for the community to be
involved early in the process. Sadly many people want to be only involved
at the end of the process. This does not help much and particularly not on
issues that are not the bread and butter of working on content by the
existing community.

I made points in my previous mail. They have not been addressed. We agree
on the need for community involvement. The WMF has a strong tradition on
involving its communities. My argument is that the programs that are
discussed are very much monitored for their effect, based on the results
the functionality will be tweaked. My argument is that these programs are
the result of community consultation and therefore community involvement is
the origin of the functionality we are discussing.
Thanks,
      GerardM

On 29 October 2011 16:56, Fae <fae at wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Hi Gerard,
>
> Your email appears to argue that the WMF should introduce any features
> they find expedient and then deal with (or ignore) complaints from the
> community afterwards. This seems to miss the opportunity for user
> testing, feedback or even asking the users what they want as part of
> requirements gathering and analysis. Does your email represent the
> position of the WMF or the outreach team?
>
> Personally, I find arguments that we should do away with community
> consensus because it is too hard disturbing and run counter to our
> agreed mission.
>
> Thanks,
> Fae
>
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