Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Fwd: [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure

[Erik Moeller]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM, Quim Gil  wrote:
> There is a blog post & video circulating these days, about how GitHub Inc is
> organized as a company. They also manage a version control system promoting
> decentralized collaboration, plus other tools supporting this core goal and
> the big community around it. They are also hundred-something. They have also
> offices in San Francisco. They are also a young organization growing fast.
> Etc.

Yeah, I'm familiar with it. There's also a similarly interesting
description of the organizational culture at Valve (makers of
Half-Life, Portal, etc.) in the form of their employee handbook:

http://newcdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

I like a lot about the picture these presentations and documents
paint, and I think there's a ton we can learn from them. There are of
course also crucial differences between Wikimedia and a Git hosting
company or a game developer, and less obvious ways that power is
exercised in both organizations (e.g. the role of the founders).

> Well, at least your proposal doesn't go against this scenario. Perhaps is one 
> step in that direction.

[Fair warning, below is really starting to drift away from being
on-topic for wikitech-l and going into general OD stuff.]

I believe so. I do think we should have bigger conversations about
what kind of organization we want to be, and what tradeoffs we'd need
to accept if we wanted to move away from what's stilll in many ways a
fairly hierarchical model. Like I said, I don't think you can make
major structural changes in isolation, or you'll just end up with
mismatched expectations and broken hearts. ;-)

I do think flat structures are pretty enticing, though. I encourage
you (and anyone) to look a bit more into the way things currently work
if you want to help be part of continued evolutionary change. I've had
conversations with Sue about this and she's pretty open to supporting
well-justified structural changes (hence this discussion). The Board,
too, is generally open-minded and responsive.

An example where I think change is badly needed is the Annual Planning
process. There are few aspects of WMF that follow as conventional a
hierarchical model as this one. You see the output: a 71 page document
[1] describing the organization's planned financials, key activities
and targets, etc. To get to that point, we went through a multi-month
process driven primarily by managers, sending drafts and submissions
up and down and up the organizational ladder, with final review by Sue
and ultimate approval by the Board. This was followed by the Narrowing
Focus resolution, the Narrowing Focus process (with again lots of
leadership involvement), the Narrowing Focus document and its
approval, the Wikimedia Foundation FDC submission and its approval,
etc.

That's a lot of time spent on meta-level work. I'm not arguing it's
time and effort wasted, but I do think there's a lot of room for
streamlining and consolidating processes. I also think it's predicated
on the assumption that creating a more comprehensive plan will lead to
a better outcome, and I would challenge that belief -- there's a
threshold at which point the opposite is true, and I think in a lot of
our work that threshold is very low because the unknowns are pretty
large and new ideas and opportunities may emerge all the time.

Moreover, to get back to the point you were making, I think this is
the kind of thing that creates a lot of dependency on conventional
management approaches -- time that could be spent, by those same
people, on doing the actual work the plan talks about, while creating
a less rigid harness for the organization as a whole, in turn allowing
for structures to be simplified and enabling greater autonomy across
the board.

So, I'm not arguing against deeper structural changes -- just for
change that's harmoniously managed in concert with the various other
factors at play.

Cheers,
Erik

[1] 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/4/4f/2012-13_Wikimedia_Foundation_Plan_FINAL_FOR_WEBSITE.pdf

-- 
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Fwd: [Tech/Product] Engineering/Product org structure

[Quim Gil]

Thanks Erik for the extensive response.

Ultimately what counts is ongoing progress. If the model proposed is an 
improvement from the current, solving specific problems we currently 
have, then fine and I'm all or it.


I'm still stuck in one point:

On 11/19/2012 07:54 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:

3) Why not have an even flatter structure?

My prediction with a structure like the one you propose would be the following:

If you increase the number of direct engineering-related reports to
Sue from 1 to 5, her ability to meet and seriously interact with any
one of them will drop to close to zero, with no time for goal-setting
conversations, career pathing, or serious conflict resolution.


One could ask why so many things need to be reported to or pass through 
a single person? This is the factor defining the angle of verticality of 
an organization.


Why not having more decentralized reporting (broadcasting), 
goal-setting, career path, or serious conflict resolution?


Why not betting on a more brave contemporary model being a non-profit 
foundation, with hundred-something employees, an open source culture, an 
Internet culture, a wiki culture, a remote work culture, a contributors 
culture, an online community culture, a San Francisco Bay tech startup 
inspiration?


I understand what you are explaining about the board being the first 
body defining this kind of game. As for today the board is an entity too 
unilateral and abstract for me, but I'm willing to help bringing this 
type of message to them if these opinions are shared by others.


BUT

Well, at least your proposal doesn't go against this scenario. Perhaps 
is one step in that direction. Good enough here and now, I guess. Thank 
you for trying!  And for opening this discussion. Just please consider 
further steps flattening and decentralizing the WMF.


There is a blog post & video circulating these days, about how GitHub 
Inc is organized as a company. They also manage a version control system 
promoting decentralized collaboration, plus other tools supporting this 
core goal and the big community around it. They are also 
hundred-something. They have also offices in San Francisco. They are 
also a young organization growing fast. Etc.


The video is interesting and entertaining. The slides are simple and 
fun. I'm not a person for watching 40min YouTube videos, even less about 
HR & business management topics - but this one was very interesting to 
watch. Even if only as a documentary of how certain company running 
certain product I like happens to work:


Your team should work like an open source project
http://tomayko.com/writings/adopt-an-open-source-process-constraints
http://youtu.be/mrONxcyQo4E

--
Quim

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Help needed to complete and expand the Wikimedia glossary

[geni]

On 20 November 2012 18:55, Guillaume Paumier  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The use of jargon, acronyms and other abbreviations throughout the
> Wikimedia movement is a major source of communication issues, and
> barriers to comprehension and involvement.
>
> The recent thread on this list about "What is Product?" is an example
> of this, as are initialisms that have long been known to be a barrier
> for Wikipedia newcomers.
>
> A way to bridge people and communities with different vocabularies is
> to write and maintain a glossary that explains jargon in plain English
> terms. We've been lacking a good and up-to-date glossary for Wikimedia
> "stuff" (Foundation, chapter, movement, technology, etc.).
>
> Therefore, I've started to clean up and expand the outdated Glossary
> on meta, but it's a lot of work, and I don't have all the answers
> myself either. I'll continue to work on it, but I'd love to get some
> help on this and to make it a collaborative effort.
>
> If you have a few minutes to spare, please consider helping your
> (current and future) fellow Wikimedians by writing a few definitions
> if there are terms that you can explain in plain English. Additions of
> new terms are much welcome as well:
>
>
Been done:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiSpeak


-- 
geni

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikitech-l] Help needed to complete and expand the Wikimedia glossary

[Seb35]

I support this effort to create a common glossary/vocabulary.

And I add, since I tried to translate some of these words/expressions into
French some time ago, and since it’s quite hard to obtain great and
intuitive translations for many of these expressions, it would be great if
new expressions could be thought with an internationalisation spirit as
far as possible.

As an example, in the Wikimedia Highlights of September, it’s hard to
translate "Curation Toolbar" since "curation" don’t have a direct
equivalent in French for this exact meaning (of "tacking care" of
articles, "curation" is usually translated by "conservation" but quite
different of this meaning). This is just an example but it illustrates a
common difficulty for translators, probably for many languages.

Thanks,
Seb35

Le Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:55:04 +0100, Guillaume Paumier
 a écrit:

Hi,

The use of jargon, acronyms and other abbreviations throughout the
Wikimedia movement is a major source of communication issues, and
barriers to comprehension and involvement.

The recent thread on this list about "What is Product?" is an example
of this, as are initialisms that have long been known to be a barrier
for Wikipedia newcomers.

A way to bridge people and communities with different vocabularies is
to write and maintain a glossary that explains jargon in plain English
terms. We've been lacking a good and up-to-date glossary for Wikimedia
"stuff" (Foundation, chapter, movement, technology, etc.).

Therefore, I've started to clean up and expand the outdated Glossary
on meta, but it's a lot of work, and I don't have all the answers
myself either. I'll continue to work on it, but I'd love to get some
help on this and to make it a collaborative effort.

If you have a few minutes to spare, please consider helping your
(current and future) fellow Wikimedians by writing a few definitions
if there are terms that you can explain in plain English. Additions of
new terms are much welcome as well:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Glossary

Some caveats:
* As part of my work, I'm mostly interested in a glossary from a
technical perspective, so the list currently has a technical bias. I'm
hoping that by sending this message to a wider audience, people from
the whole movement will contribute to the glossary and balance it out.
* Also, I've started to clean up the glossary, but it still contains
dated terms and definitions from a few years ago (like the FundCom),
so boldly edit/remove obsolete content.

Thank you,


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Serbia office

[Nicole Ebber]

Congratulations, Wikimedia Serbia, this is great news! You really rocked at
the CEE meeting and it's nice to see your chapter stepping forward.

And congratulations, Mile, I am really happy for you and wish you all the
best. Should you need any help or support, you know where to find me. :)

Looking forward to doing great things together and sharing our ideas,
Nicole




On 20 November 2012 23:09, Filip Maljkovic  wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm writing to inform you that Wikimedia Serbia has opened an office in
> Belgrade starting November 1, thanks to the grant by WMF [1]. That means
> that we have our first employee, which is very exciting for us, but also
> brings a lot of responsibilities.
>
> So, the office is located in Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra (King Alexander
> Boulevard) 20, which is in the city center, on the fifth floor, with a view
> on the National Assembly building, the main post office building, church of
> Saint Mark and Trg Nikole Pašića, one of the two central squares. Anyone
> who's been to Belgrade can attest that this is one of the most central and
> most beautiful parts of the city. :)
>
> The office space is about 95 square meters and we're still in the process
> of buying furniture and equipment, but our conference room is pretty much
> set. We'll use the antechamber (which is quite large by itself) to display
> the 15 finalist photos from the WLM contest 2012 (we've just had a ceremony
> of announcing winners and exhibiting them in a local gallery).
>
> Our employee is Mile Kiš, our General Secretary. He's been a tremendous
> help for us in the past years and he's been doing more than full time work
> for us as a volunteer, so I'm especially glad that he's going to be able to
> help us as an employee, as well as be able to work on his personal
> professionalization.
>
> [1] 
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Annual_plan_**2012-2013
>
> Cheers,
> Filip Maljković
> Vice-president
> Wikimedia Serbia
>
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-- 
Nicole Ebber
Projektmanagerin

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 219158 26-0

http://wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Serbia office

[John Andersson]

How exciting! Let me know if I can be of any (remote) help somehow!

Cheers,

John

- - - -



John Andersson



Wikimedia Sweden



Event Manager Europeana Awareness 







Phone: +46(0)73-3965189





Email: john.anders...@wikimedia.se




Skype: johnandersson86  

  

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at @wikieuropeana

Visit http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Projekt:Europeana_Awareness/English for more 
information about our
project!

> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:09:37 +0100
> From: dungod...@gmail.com
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Serbia office
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I'm writing to inform you that Wikimedia Serbia has opened an office in 
> Belgrade starting November 1, thanks to the grant by WMF [1]. That means 
> that we have our first employee, which is very exciting for us, but also 
> brings a lot of responsibilities.
> 
> So, the office is located in Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra (King Alexander 
> Boulevard) 20, which is in the city center, on the fifth floor, with a 
> view on the National Assembly building, the main post office building, 
> church of Saint Mark and Trg Nikole Pašića, one of the two central 
> squares. Anyone who's been to Belgrade can attest that this is one of 
> the most central and most beautiful parts of the city. :)
> 
> The office space is about 95 square meters and we're still in the 
> process of buying furniture and equipment, but our conference room is 
> pretty much set. We'll use the antechamber (which is quite large by 
> itself) to display the 15 finalist photos from the WLM contest 2012 
> (we've just had a ceremony of announcing winners and exhibiting them in 
> a local gallery).
> 
> Our employee is Mile Kiš, our General Secretary. He's been a tremendous 
> help for us in the past years and he's been doing more than full time 
> work for us as a volunteer, so I'm especially glad that he's going to be 
> able to help us as an employee, as well as be able to work on his 
> personal professionalization.
> 
> [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_RS/Annual_plan_2012-2013
> 
> Cheers,
> Filip Maljković
> Vice-president
> Wikimedia Serbia
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Serbia office

[Tonmoy Khan]

Congratulations to Wikimedia Serbia:-)

Tonmoy
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