Hi Flo, I see your points but I disagree that a merit award like this is against our values and the spirit of collaboration as a community/movement.
First, there is nothing wrong to honor any member of our community for their standout contributions. Even at National level, individuals get honoured for their contributions. I am aware that you were honored with "Knight" in the French National Order of Merit as Chair of an international organization (WMF). That's an achievement I am proud of. I do not see anything wrong honoring anyone for the works they do. Secondly, I don't see how gender would be a problem. It's a merit award and not to celebrate anyone because they are male or female or because we want to encourage a particular gender. The two winners of the Wikipedian of the year award in 2016 for example were women and nobody said they emerged because they are women. In 2012, User:Demmy, a Nigerian and a major contributor to Yoruba Wikipedia was honored with the same award and nobody said he was honored because he is a Nigerian. In 2017, Felix Nartey was honored with the award, I didn't hear anymore saying he received the award because he is an African or a Ghananian. Lastly, the awardee may be nominated by someone who is familiar with their work and recommend them for the award. A panel of jury comprising of experience Wikipedian will review the nominees contributions, on-wiki and off-wiki and pick the person who merit the award. Flo, I apologize for citing your award. You are the only one I know who has received such award. Regards, Isaac. On Sep 26, 2017 3:33 PM, "Florence Devouard" <[email protected]> wrote: > I did not say I am opposed to it. I said I am not supportive of it. > > > There are several reasons > > > The first is that I consider that we should work in collaboration and > celebrate our diversity and the various pieces that each of us bring. I do > not think anything of what we do could have been done without the help of > others. Celebrating one person instead of celebrating the team work seems > odd/wrong to me. This is why I appreciate initiatives such as "the best > projects of the year", which focus on an outcome and the team that made it > happen rather than on an individual. Celebrating a "best team work" or "top > 3 most amazing projects of the year" would be awesome to me. > But celebrating one person... it seems to go against our commonly shared > values. > > The second reason I am not supportive of it is the complexity of the > voting process. Who would vote ? Which voting system would be used ? Would > voting be public or private ? How to limit the impact of the vested > interest ? > In short... lot's of troubles. > > The third reason is related to the nomination process. Who will be allowed > to nominate someone ? Which rules to be a nominee ? Would there be self > nomination ? Would that be public ? > Some cultures favor boosting (eg, american from USA) whilst in others, > self nomination (or even the prospect of asking someone privately for a > nomination) is just very hard to do. Beyond culture... even gender plays a > role. Women tend to be less bold than men on such issues. > Florence > > Le 26/09/2017 à 14:07, Isaac Olatunde a écrit : > > Thank you, Justice. > > @Flo, may I respectfully ask why you are opposing this? > > Regards, > > Isaac > > On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 1:02 PM, Justice Okai-Allotey < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Yeah precisely, let's all discuss if we want to go ahead I think it's a >> great initiative though . >> >> Regards, >> >> Justice. >> >> On Sep 26, 2017 11:58 AM, "Isaac Olatunde" <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Well, that shouldn't be a difficult thing like every other awards, but >>> the African Wikimedia community will decide how to best do it. >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Isaac >>> >>> On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 12:55 PM, Justice Okai-Allotey < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> This is actually a great idea but how are we going to measure who >>>> qualifies to be an African Wikimedian of the year. Are we going to use a >>>> popular vote process, I believe when we figure those things out we can move >>>> forward with that. >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Justice. >>>> >>>> On Sep 26, 2017 11:47 AM, "Isaac Olatunde" <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi all, >>>>> >>>>> Wiki Indaba 2018 in Tunisia is approaching, and I just thought of >>>>> something like *African Wikimedian of the Year Award *to honor >>>>> African Wikimedian who has contributed tremendously to Wikimedia projects >>>>> and its growth in Africa. We can have other award category too and this >>>>> would also makes the event more colorful. What do you think? >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> >>>>> Isaac Olatunde >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> African-Wikimedians mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians >>>>> >>>>> >>> > > > _______________________________________________ > African-Wikimedians mailing > [email protected]https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians > > >
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