[EWW] Edit Wikipedia Week

headers Brian McNeil | 20 Nov 19:01

Damned by faint praise?

The initial posters are already done, and this is something that doesn't
involve serious amounts of time preparing for it. It would have been a
better mail to say, "This is the start. You just need a printer for this and
some time". Then you can outline more ambitious goals that there may be some
among the community can step up to. The more ambitious you are (eg TV
appearances) the less people are confident they can do it.

I would dearly love to see an EDIT week become a regular event, but we're on
a short timescale here. Only people who are lucky enough to be in the right
place right now will be able to get access to facilities like computer labs
to run workshops. Hence the cybercafé/Starbucks suggestion.

Yes, I expected more in the invitation to the project, but no I don't expect
people from the Foundation to be presenting things as a fait accompli. We
all have to strike some sort of balance in online communications, both in
the words we choose and in the way we interpret what others say. Be precise
in what you give, and forgiving in what you receive.

I've had a bad day anyway, probably shouldn't be writing on mailing lists.
Lost out on a nice contract today because the advertiser was not totally
honest... "We will accept people with DV clearance or people prepared to go
through the clearance process". Start date in <2 weeks, clearance process?
3-9 months. Technically an illegal advert.

Brian McNeil

-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces@...
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces@...] On Behalf Of Delphine
Ménard
Sent: 20 November 2007 18:15
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] [EWW] Edit Wikipedia Week

On Nov 20, 2007 5:01 PM, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil@...> wrote:

[snip]

> We don't need pleas for help would be my closing message, we need ideas
like
> postering your local area saying "Invade Starbucks on 42nd street on
> December 3rd through 8th and discover how you can contribute to
Wikipedia".
> If you and a couple of other wiki people can go along in shifts wearing
your
> cafepress WMF attire you can also try and persuade the management to put
up
> posters. Just don't drink too much coffee.

Leaving aside the intrinsic validity of the actuall EWW, I find your
intervention quite interesting to say the least.

What I understand from *your* plea is that unless the project is all
finished and ready to go, there is no point in asking the community on
this list about idas to further it and make it work. Interesting,
indeed.

I have heard so much of the contrary "the community has not been
consulted" whenever anyone tries to launch something that I have to
say... as a person who works for the Foundation and operates in the
organisational realm, I am damned if I know what the "community"
really ever wants. When we do something on our own, we haven't asked
for input and when we ask for help, we  should really have thought
this through.

Mildly frustrating, I would say. 

Delphine
--

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Re: [EWW] Edit Wikipedia Week