Re: [Foundation-l] Communicating effectively: Wikimedia needs clear language now
We're a multi-lingual movement, and this makes clear English even more important. If something is unclear to a native speaker, it's even more difficult for someone who has English as a second or third language. I confirm. Its quite difficult for a non fluent english speaker to be involved in the international wikimedia movement even if I understand that we need a lingua franca and this lingua franca is english. But please do not complicate their life for example by using American or British locutions (or explain it if use). Thierry who still not have found a good translation in French for accountability :) 2012/2/19 Chris Keating chriskeatingw...@gmail.com I'd recommend George Orwell's essay on Politics and the English Language. It's one of the most persuasive arguments to use clear language I've read. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm We're a multi-lingual movement, and this makes clear English even more important. If something is unclear to a native speaker, it's even more difficult for someone who has English as a second or third language. Chris ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- Thierry Coudray Administrateur - Trésorier Wikimédia France http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Mob. 06.82.85.84.40 http://blog.wikimedia.fr/ ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Wikimedia Foundation monthly meeting video
Thanks for the video. One remark : for the futures ones, would it be possible to improve the soundtrack, the understanding would be easier for non english native speakers. Thierry 2012/2/6 Liam Wyatt liamwy...@gmail.com I've not yet had a chance to watch the video so I can't speak about the technical aspects (or the content), but I would like to say THANKS for doing this! I'm looking forward to videoing of presentations like this being a standard procedure in the future. This will enable more people to stay up-to-date with the activities of the WMF as well as demystify the organisation a little bit more. Aside from these official presentations, the WMF office also has a regular series of lunchtime presentations (delivered by staff or visiting guests). For example Brandon Harris gave this one aboutt the forthcoming mobile interface design (codename Athena) in November last year: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athena-brownbag-brandon-harris-2011-11-04.ogvHowever , AFAIK, that is the only one that was filmed. It would be great (once the technical aspects are sorted out), if all such presentations could be filmed and made available. While the content of every presentation won't be interesting to every person, I think that showing the *real human beings* that work at the WMF talking about what they do will go a great distance towards bridging a perceived transparency gap when people talk about The Foundation. Portrait photos on the staff page and IRC office hours are good, but nothing is quite like video for humanising an organisation. For example: I just found this video - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Wikipedia_Blackout_SOPA_January_18,_2012.theora.ogva recording of the office the moment en.wp began the SOPA blackout. Whatever everyone's personal opinion on the protest itself, it certainly is engaging and humanising! So - here's to more content being added to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_Foundation_videos ! -Liam Peace, love metadata On 6 February 2012 02:41, Erik Moeller e...@wikimedia.org wrote: Every month, there's a meeting at the Wikimedia Foundation offices (with remote call-in) where we review recent metrics and activities in the different departments for the previous month. Starting with the meeting covering January, which took place on February 2, we are now capturing these meetings on video. You can see the video capture for the most recent meeting here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monthly_Metrics_Meeting_February_2,_2012.theora.ogv Going forward, we will simply link to these videos from the monthly report and not announce it separately. Note that I've uploaded the highest resolution copy, which clocks in at 1.9G (this should allow you to see pretty well what's going on on the screen). This is inconvenient for streaming unless you have a very good connection, so I recommend downloading. In future, videos will be automatically transcoded to multiple resolutions, but if you'd like to make a lower resolution copy available for the interim, it's appreciated. Feel free to respond in this thread if you have any questions about the contents of the meeting. Generally the structure is as follows, interspersed with questions, discussion and lawyer jokes: * Erik, Garfield and Gayle walk through impact, finance and HR metrics, respectively * Department heads give updates about their respective areas * Sue closes with some final words, typically referring to recent events or organizational priorities All best, Erik -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- Thierry Coudray Administrateur - Trésorier Wikimédia France http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Mob. 06.82.85.84.40 http://blog.wikimedia.fr/ ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Vice President?
I have the same problem when I've translated Erik mail about the new Android app for WMFr members list. Because in France, a Vice President is member of board in most of foundations or charities, and almost always it's a volunteer position. So to avoid confusion, I have translated as Directeur exécutif adjoint, en charge de l'ingénierie et du développement des nouveaux produits, means Deputy Executive Director in charge of engineering and new products development Thierry 2012/2/1 Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com Really strange because the title of president and that of vice-president belong to the board. Do you know that the board should not have any conflict of interests and should do the benefit of the overall foundation? If the titles of President or Vice-President is in charge of an executive person, there is a conflict of interests. Ilario On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 5:20 AM, Stuart West stuw...@gmail.com wrote: That's kind of an American thing I think. Many organizations here have Vice Presidents, but instead of having a President have someone with the title CEO or Executive Director instead. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- Thierry Coudray Administrateur - Trésorier Wikimédia France http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Mob. 06.82.85.84.40 http://blog.wikimedia.fr/ ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Finnish MP FAIL!!!
We had the same case in France last December with a report on Intelligent Transportation Systems from a member of the French Parliement. The introduction of the report was almost a cut and paste from the Wikipedia article. Thierry 2011/11/19 Andre Engels andreeng...@gmail.com On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen cimonav...@gmail.com wrote: Not sure if this is appropriate for this list, but just for lulz. A finnish member of parliament just got caught for his speech being a word for word piece of snippets from a Finnish Wikipedia article. No intervening binding lines, just the Wikipedia text. Way to go!!! Puts the neutrality of the Wikipedia into severe doubt, though. Parliament speeches aren't particularly known for choosing a neutral point of view. -- André Engels, andreeng...@gmail.com ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- Thierry Coudray Administrateur - Trésorier Wikimédia France http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Mob. 06.82.85.84.40 http://blog.wikimedia.fr/ ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
[Foundation-l] Re : foundation-l Digest, Vol 89, Issue 76
. Release this certified understandable report in the 5 or 6 most used languages in the world will also show that WMF is not only an american or anglo-saxon foundation. Not obvious to everyone. I could also take the example of employeees salary and benefits transparancy . Lodjewick (believe it's him, sorry if wrong) in an another thread mentioned that he has had to answer in his chapter on the issue about Foundation high executives wages. We had a similar and quite hash debate on WMFr mail lists in the past, partly based on spooky ideas about foundation salaries. But this i nformation is not easy to find for a simple donator. As Wikimedia France has now 4 employees and hopes to be able to recruit new ones in the future, the WMFr board are thinking how to give a high level of transparancy so that our donators could see the fairness of our wages policy. France is culturally not comfortable to make public such salaries. And WMFr has no legal obligation as a charity to do so. Our commissaire aux comptes just checks that salaries granted to employees by the WMFr board are not a misuse of the organization assets. And we haven't reached the limits, especially as we have not yet states or local governements subsidies, forcing us to declare our main wages . It's just that if we can, we want to improve our transparancy for our donators. The WMfr board is curently discussing this issue. We are looking what other French associations best practices are, for example some give the 3 high salaries and group statistics for the other ones, all easely accessible directly from their web site. Personally, I would support a full transparency and that a donor could know the salary of all positions within the association. I guess the other chapters also have ideas for better governance and transparency (and I'm interesting in), because of the background of some of their members, history of the chapter, practices in their own countrie or others reasons. They will implement some, and the fundraising is a good school for that. They could share with the movement and that will allow the chapters and the foundation to improve their accomptability practices. Sorry for this long mail but we are speaking of accomptability, Not a lighly subject. Speaking for my own -- Thierry Coudray Administrateur - Trésorier Wikimédia France http://www.wikimedia.fr/ Mob. 06.82.85.84.40 http://blog.wikimedia.fr/ ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
